Bologna: Palazzo
Bevilacqua Ariosti – Navid Azimi Sajadi – XX Crossing Over exhibition party. The
palazzo Bevilacqua Ariosti is one of Bologna's most remarkable buildings, built in the
fifteenth century by jurist Niccolò Sanuti, it was the venue for the exhibition,
XX Crossing Over by young Iranian artist Navid Azimi Sajadi. The exhibition was curated by Eli Sassoli de’
Bianchi and Olivia Spatola and the works were placed in the internal courtyard and
in the grandiose rooms of the Renaissance palazzo.
Above:
Around the well, which is topped by a lion, a site-specific eight point star
brick structure (which represent Mother Earth) is placed in the internal
courtyard. The courtyard with its two
loggias, one over the other, is ornately decorated with sculptures and terra
cotta relief works.
photograph
and copyright manfredi bellati
Palazzo
Bevilacqua Ariosti – Navid Azimi Sajadi – XX Crossing Over exhibition party. The hall of Great Council in
the Palazzo Bevilacqua Ariosti, venue for the XX Crossing Over exhibition party.
Host Ippolito
Bevilacqua Ariosti.
XX Crossing
Over - Navid Azimi Sajadi. In the
interior of the hall of Great Council, where the preparatory sessions of the
Council of Trento was held, two giant XX’s which represent the female
chromosome, were based on a wall of bricks (Mother Earth), in front of which on
a five point Iranian carpet, a metaphor of Garden of Eden, a golden egg,
majestic in its perfection, a “cosmic egg”, symbol of the creation of the
universe and a message of hope for all peoples. The calligraphic marks on its
surface formally refer to Persian writing. The image of barbed wire, in
addition to that of tangle thoughts, are the implication of violence and blood
that barbed wire evokes and persists even conceptually, for those who have eyes
to see and whose heart continues to bleed.
XX Crossing Over - Navid Azimi Sajadi. Navid
Azimi Sajadi processes the experiences of man (Iranian-born but Western by
adoption) before that of an artist, in order to create an artistic language
unique to himself, capable of finding a solution to the stylistically
harmonious dichotomy: "East-West" through the creation of works and
installations where references to Islamic tradition lay deep roots from which
vines flourish to re-connect conceptually to a "West"
indicated through the development of a set of symbols that look primarily to
the Greek-Roman world as a model of aesthetic and a formal excellence to which
to refer to.
Co-curator
of the exhibition Eli Sassoli de’ Bianchi chats to Luisa Davoli.
photograph and copyright manfredi
bellati
The drinks
table was set up in the impressive hall of Great Council.
Artist
Patrizia Medail and entrepreneur Achille Sassoli de’ Bianchi.
Nicoletta
Madrigali Calzolari
photograph and copyright manfredi
bellati
One of the
sitting rooms off the hall of Great Council.
Entrepreneur
Stefano Pulsoni and Christie’s Paola Gradi.
XX Crossing Over - Navid Azimi Sajadi. A classical statue of Venus is
surmounted by an eagle (symbol of the male). The eagle’s head is turned upside
down and therefore its presence, first conceptually rather than stylistically,
is fitting to the central figure of Venus, symbol at the same time of the
strength, beauty and harmony of the female form. A network of
barbed wire encloses and restricts the installation and rises to note,
denouncing the reality of violence and abuse on the female condition that Navid
Azimi Sajadi perceived as crucial in the construction of all his thought and,
therefore, in the drawing of his artistic career.
The Pool
NYC’s young Dealer Viola Romoli and author and curator Sofia Caputo.
Manager
Paola Lanzarini and blogger Samina Seyed.
A corner of
one of the rooms of the palazzo.
Textile and
wallpaper designer Idarica Gazzoni.
XX Crossing Over - Navid Azimi Sajadi. On the main staircase the sculptural
work depicting a lying Mary Magdalene, recently attributed to the Master
Venetian sculpture Antonio Canova. It is admirably placed in a structure
reminiscent to that of the so-called Islamic "muqarnas".