EROSIONS

Quayola

Ancient civilizations themselves used stones fallen from space to erect sacred monuments. Not far from Thun’s “enclosure”, one comes across other strange stones, half-hidden by the vegetation: black rocks resembling meteorites, arranged randomly at the edge of the forest. “Erosions”, the work by Italian artist Quayola, intervenes on lava stones with erosions generated by an algorithm and carved by a special machine.

The work is inspired by the millennia-old Eastern tradition of scholar’s rocks: natural stones chiselled by human hand and transformed into objects of contemplation and aesthetic veneration. Ancient knowledge, Eastern wisdom, self-discovery and spirituality thus form a dense narrative weave of references, recurring among the various works.

Artist biography

Quayola, a Rome-born artist born in 1982, uses technology as a lens through which to explore the tensions and balances between apparently opposing forces: the real and the artificial, the figurative and the abstract, the old and the new. Through immersive installations, he engages with canonical imagery and reinterprets it through contemporary technology. Landscape painting, classical sculpture and iconography are among the historical aesthetics that serve as starting points for Quayola’s hybrid compositions. His wide-ranging practice, derived entirely from custom software, also includes audiovisual performances, immersive video installations, sculptures and works on paper.

His work has been presented and exhibited in many prestigious institutions around the world, including the V&A Museum in London, the Park Avenue Armory in New York, the National Art Center in Tokyo, UCCA in Beijing, the How Art Museum in Shanghai, SeMA in Seoul, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Ars Electronica in Linz, Sónar Festival in Barcelona and the Sundance Film Festival.

A frequent collaborator on musical projects, Quayola has worked with composers, orchestras and musicians including the London Contemporary Orchestra, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Vanessa Wagner, Jamie xx, Mira Calix, Plaid and Tale Of Us.

Come raggiungerci

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