One of the first events of the Italian festival in Slovakia “Dolce Vitaj”, now in its 16th edition, presents the exhibition of Paolo Masi, an artist from the alternative scene of the 1960s whose works were on show at the Venice Biennale (1978) and the Quadriennale in Rome (1986).
The exhibition was inaugurated on 18 May 2023 in the presence of Alessandra Sanniti, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, and Zilina Miroslava Sikorová, Director of the Civic Gallery.
Paolo Masi (Florence, 1933) studied painting at the Academy of Art in Zurich, and since the 1960s, he has been active on the art scene, with a path marked by uninterrupted experimentation. He collaborated in those years with Lanfranco Baldi, Auro Lecci, and Maurizio Nannucci in the Centro F/Uno aesthetic research group (1967-70). During a period spent in New York, he turned his research and attention to the simplest urban elements (manhole covers, walls, pavements), reproducing them in polaroids or through frottage.
The installation Senza titolo (Trasparenza) of 2003, consisting of dozens of painted Plexiglas plates, became part of the Permanent Collection of the Pecci Museum in Prato and was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai. The collections of the Mart in Rovereto, the Palazzo Pitti Gallery of Modern Art in Florence and the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Turin also feature historical works by the artist.
The exhibition in Zilina is being held on the 90th anniversary of the artist’s birth.
The “Dolce Vitaj” festival is organised by the Italian Cultural Institute of Bratislava and the collaboration of the Italian Embassy in Slovakia and the Italian-Slovak Chamber of Commerce, sponsored by the Mayor of Bratislava.
