biography
Francesco Arena was born in Messagne, Brindisi, in 1978. He lives and works in Cassano delle Murge, Bari.
If one tried to compress a large part of Francesco Arena's work into a formula, this could be as follow: numbers that take on form.
From a linguistic point of view his work can be read as a development, a personal “derivation” of sculptural processes that arise from the geometric shapes typical of Minimal art and from the more archetypal ones of Arte Povera. But from a thematic point of view his pieces are often the translation of formulae and numbers linked to private and personal facts.
The Arena’s research moves along two tracks: that of collective history, chiefly national, and that of personal history. These form a sort of two lines that touch, overlap, cross each other. In his performances, installations and sculptures, the narrative creates the objects. They can be everyday objects such as diaries, cigars, living room furniture, or made out off traditional sculptural materials, such as marble, slate, bronze.
Arena always imposes at the beginning a rule to be followed, a fact that remains a fixed point in the piece’s production process: the weight of a boat used by illegal immigrants reaching the coast of Lampedusa, the distance travelled by the anarchist Pinelli in his last day as a free man in Milan, the volume of a crater made by a bomb explosion. These are starting points that determine the form, the dimensions and at times even the materials of the piece: “Facts are a wilderness where different views confront and oppose each other; facts interest me as units of measurement around which to build a sculpture… a weight, a distance or a surface inform the work and determine its form or dimensions.” he said.
The facts chosen by Arena often come from the reservoir of personal history, but also from collective memory, which was initially focused above all on Italy, but which has now opened up to global situations and events.
Francesco Arena was born in Messagne, Brindisi, in 1978. He lives and works in Cassano delle Murge, Bari.
If one tried to compress a large part of Francesco Arena's work into a formula, this could be as follow: numbers that take on form.
From a linguistic point of view his work can be read as a development, a personal “derivation” of sculptural processes that arise from the geometric shapes typical of Minimal art and from the more archetypal ones of Arte Povera. But from a thematic point of view his pieces are often the translation of formulae and numbers linked to private and personal facts.
The Arena’s research moves along two tracks: that of collective history, chiefly national, and that of personal history. These form a sort of two lines that touch, overlap, cross each other. In his performances, installations and sculptures, the narrative creates the objects. They can be everyday objects such as diaries, cigars, living room furniture, or made out off traditional sculptural materials, such as marble, slate, bronze.
Arena always imposes at the beginning a rule to be followed, a fact that remains a fixed point in the piece’s production process: the weight of a boat used by illegal immigrants reaching the coast of Lampedusa, the distance travelled by the anarchist Pinelli in his last day as a free man in Milan, the volume of a crater made by a bomb explosion. These are starting points that determine the form, the dimensions and at times even the materials of the piece: “Facts are a wilderness where different views confront and oppose each other; facts interest me as units of measurement around which to build a sculpture… a weight, a distance or a surface inform the work and determine its form or dimensions.” he said.
The facts chosen by Arena often come from the reservoir of personal history, but also from collective memory, which was initially focused above all on Italy, but which has now opened up to global situations and events.
He has taken part in several solo exhibitions such as: Letto, The Open Box, Milan (2019); Orizzonte, Art Unlimited, Art Basel (2017); Francesco Arena. Perimetro con quattro opere in uno spazio, TRA Treviso ricerca arte, Treviso, Italy (2016); Jannis Kounellis – Francesco Arena, Palazzo Baronale, Novoli, Italy
(2015); Francesco Arena: Posatoi, Olnick Spanu Art Program, Garrison, USA (2014); Onze mille cent quatre- vingt sept jours, Frac Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France (2013); Trittico 57, Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2012); Com’è piccola Milano, Peep Hole, Milan (2011); Art Statement, Art Basel (2010); Teste, Fondazione Ermanno Casoli, Fabriano, Italy (2010); Cratere, De Vleeshal, Middelburg, Netherlands (2010).
Selected group shows include: Utopia Distopia: il mito del progresso partendo dal Sud, MADRE Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples (2021); Camera Picta, Galleria Civica di Trento, Trento (2021); The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2021); There will never be a door. You are inside. Works from the Coleção Teixeira de Freitas, Santander Art Gallery, Madrid (2019); The Humans, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2018); Sculpture Projects Ping Yao, Pingyao, Cina (2018); Re-Evolution, MAXXI, Rome (2017); Mario Merz Prize, 2nd Edition, Fondazione Merz, Turin (2017); Par tibi, Roma, nihil, Area archeologica del Palatino, Rome (2016); The 3rd Nanjing International Art Festival, Baijia Lake Museum, Nanjing, Cina (2016); Ennesima, Triennale di Milano, Milan (2015); Ritratto dell’artista da giovane, Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2014); La storia che non ho vissuto. Testimone indiretto, Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2012); Sotto la Strada la Spiaggia, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino (2012); Il bel paese dell’arte, GAMEC, Bergamo, Italy (2011); Les sculptures meurent aussi, Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Mulhouse, France (2010); Annisettanta. Il decennio lungo del secolo breve, Triennale di Milano, Milan (2007).
In 2013 he has shown in Vice Versa, Italian Pavilion of 55th Venice Biennale.
gallery exhibitions
images
Foro con anno, 2020
Stone, diary, aluminium wire
29 × 22 × 23 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Stone Head, 2020
Stone
15 × 15 × 27 cm
Photo: Leonardo Morfini
Cube (La giornata di uno scrutatore) – Italo Calvino, 2020
Book, pink marble
19,5 × 19,5 × 19,5 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Cube (La Storia) – Elsa Morante, 2020
Book, black Morocco stone
21,1 × 21,1 × 21,1 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Letto, 2019
Copper and ash
80 × 190 × 50 cm
Photo: Roberto Marossi
Installation view at The Open Box, Milan, 2019
Letto, 2019
Copper and ash
80 × 190 × 50 cm
Photo: Roberto Marossi
Installation view at The Open Box, Milan, 2019
Letto, 2019
Copper and ash
80 × 190 × 50 cm
Photo: Roberto Marossi
Installation view at The Open Box, Milan, 2019
Angolo quinto, 2019
Bronze
20 × 20 × 20 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Ardesia con minuto (rettangolo), 2019
Slate, magnetic tape
81 × 61 cm
Photo: Nicola Morittu
Ardesia con minuto (rettangolo), 2019
Slate, magnetic tape
81 × 61 cm
Ardesia con minuto (rettangolo), 2019 (detail)
Slate, magnetic tape
81 × 61 cm
Ardesia con minuto (quadrato), 2019
Slate, magnetic tape
71 × 71 × 2 cm
Argilla con giorno, 2019
Clay, charcoal
approx. 50 × 20 × 20 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Senza titolo (un metro di libri letti), 2018-2019
Nero Marocco marble, books and nylon
26,5 × 100 × 19 cm
Senza titolo (un metro di libri letti), 2018-2019
Nero Marocco marble, books and nylon
26,5 × 100 × 19 cm
Blow Stone, 2018
Fior di pesco marble
152 × 69 × 27 cm
Photo: Nicola Morittu
Blow Stone, 2018
Fior di pesco marble
152 × 69 × 27 cm
Photo: Nicola Morittu
Blow Stone, 2018
Fior di pesco marble
152 × 69 × 27 cm
Photo: Nicola Morittu
Blow Stone, 2018
Fior di pesco marble
152 × 69 × 27 cm
Photo: Nicola Morittu
Marble between 20 years, 2018
White marble, diaries
16,5 × 16,5 × 21 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Eisenhower between cubes, 2016
Stone, ground, steel wire
204 × 11 × 13 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Cumulo (scarpe e macerie), 2016
Artist's used shoes, debris from the artist's studio floor
Dimensions variable
Orizzonte, 2012
Steel beam, soil
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Orizzonte, 2012
Steel beam, soil
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Novantatremiliardi di albe, 2016
Sardinian granite, white bronze, cement, steel
170 x 250 x 350 cm
Novantatremiliardi di albe, 2016 (detail)
Sardinian granite, white bronze, cement, steel
170 x 250 x 350 cm
I giorni (57), 2015
bronze
166,5 x 10 x 10 cm
Photo: Roberto Marossi
I giorni (110), 2015
bronze
166,5 x 10 x 10 cm
Photo: Roberto Marossi
I giorni (210), 2015
bronze
166,5 × 10 × 10 cm
Photo: Roberto Marossi
Extrême Orient, 2017
Book
166 × 15 × 2,5 cm
Photo: Roberto Marossi
Extrême Orient, 2017
Book
166 × 15 × 2,5 cm
Photo: Roberto Marossi
Extrême Occident, 2013
Book
166 × 15 × 2,5 cm
Photo: Martin Argyroglo
Extrême Occident, 2013
Book
166 × 15 × 2,5 cm
Photo: Martin Argyroglo
In my beginning is my end, 2013
Pierre bleu
30 × 30 × 2 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
In my beginning is my end, 2013
Pierre bleu
30 × 30 × 2 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Ungaretti, 2009
Found objects
100 × 60 × 30 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Pasolini, 2009
Found objects
170 × 16 × 24 cm
Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri
Divisa mimetica nel vuoto di un'aureola, 2008
Divisa mimetica dell’esercito italiano, aureola in metallo zincato, luci, impianto elettrico
35 × 20 × 35 cm
public exhibitions
BASE / Progetti per l’arte
Florence
Una cartolina, un passo, una linea e una pietra
19.9 – 19.10.2020
Photo: Leonardo Morfini
BASE / Progetti per l’arte
Florence
Una cartolina, un passo, una linea e una pietra
19.9 – 19.10.2020
Photo: Leonardo Morfini
Art Today Association Center for Contemporary Art
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
After Pasolini - Visions of Today
4.9 – 4.10.2020
Photo: Asen Krastenov
Parco Archeologico del Colosseo
Rome
Anello
Photo: Francesco Arena
Kunstmuseum St. Gallen
St. Gallen
The Humans
15.9.2018 – 17.3.2019
Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Art Unlimited, Art Basel
Basel
Orizzonte, 2012-2017. IPE iron beam, earth
15.6 – 18.6.2017
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Art Unlimited, Art Basel
Basel
Orizzonte, 2012-2017. IPE iron beam, earth
15.6 – 18.6.2017
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Art Unlimited, Art Basel
Basel
Orizzonte, 2012-2017. IPE iron beam, earth
15.6 – 18.6.2017
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Fondazione Merz
Turin
Mario Merz Prize. Finalists exhibition | 2nd Edition
8.3 – 21.5.2017
Photo: Renato Ghiazza
Fondazione Merz
Turin
Mario Merz Prize. Finalists exhibition | 2nd Edition
8.3 – 21.5.2017
Photo: Renato Ghiazza
La Triennale di Milano
Milan
Ennesima. An Exhibition of Seven Exhibitions on Italian Art
28.11.2015 – 6.3.2016
55th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia
Arsenale di Venezia
Venice
Massa sepolta (Burgos, Benedicta, Batajnica 02, Ivan Polije), 2013, Soil, wood, concrete, iron
1.6 – 24.11.2013
Photo: Roberto Marossi
55th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia
Arsenale di Venezia
Venice
Massa sepolta (Burgos, Benedicta, Batajnica 02, Ivan Polije), 2013, Soil, wood, concrete, iron
1.6 – 24.11.2013
Photo: Roberto Marossi
FRAC Champagne-Ardenne
Reims, France
Onze mille cent quatre-vingt sept jours
1.2 – 21.4.2013
Photo: Martin Argyroglo
FRAC Champagne-Ardenne
Reims, France
Onze mille cent quatre-vingt sept jours
1.2 – 21.4.2013
Photo: Martin Argyroglo
press
Atrocity Exhibition: Francesco Arena’s Politics of Imperceptibility
Frieze
March 8, 2019
publications
Francesco Arena, 5468 days
Skira
Milan
2019
Francesco Arena, Six Horizons, Six Roads, Ten Landscapes
Cura Books
Rome
2017
Francesco Arena - Perimetro con quattro opere in uno spazio
Pixartprinting
Venice
2016
Francesco Arena – Works 2004/2014
Cura Books
Rome
2014
Francesco Arena - Posatoi
MIA-Magazzino of Italian Art
New York
2014
Masse Sepolte
Cura Books
2013
Francesco Arena
Edizioni Èxòrma
Rome
2011
video
Francesco Arena, Masse Sepolte
2013
Construction of Massa Sepolta, a work of Francesco Arena. Created for vice versa, Italian Pavilion at the 55. International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. A video of Domenico Palma
