Exhibitions, Italy, Milano, 15 April 2009
DOWN BY THE SEA | MythMaking Landscapes
Mirko Smerdel
Curated by Paolo Caffoni and Aria Spinelli
The specific project presented by Mirko Smerdel for his first solo show at CHAN builds itself around the city of
Genoa. The requalification of the city’s economical image becomes a process investigated here starting from
the overlapping narratives particularly in regard to the city’s port. The relationship between Genoa and its
“waterfront” is symbolic and reveals itself through the artists’ readings and construction of archives of original
material.
CONTEMPORARY
ARTASSOCIATION
Via Sant’Agnese 19r, 16124 Genova | T 010 9910481 | info@chanarte.com | www.chanarte.com
In the show Genoa becomes an area of investigation and a case study. In a lapse of time that goes from the seventies
till now, the city has seen local and International political events that have determined its image, as we know it
today. The center point of Mirko Smerdel’s research involves the map itself, or better, the city-plan, used here
not as a functional representation of space, but as a conceptual device, a “historical legend” of urban and social
transformation.
Using the original city-plan from 1976, the artist intervenes by symbolically removing the port, an area that in the
years has been the center of industry, political arousals, and ultimately spectacular tourism. In opposition, he
presents virtual images of renderings, that look upon the contemporary territorial and architectonical shifting, a
“Genoa that will be”.
Collages of postcards, that disassemble and recompose the city’s popular image, reveal those processes that lead
to a common imagery grounded in our collective consciousness. By creating utopian landscapes, spaces that are
possible and not real, the collages are a subsequent interpretation of the characteristic possibilities of this type of
imagination.
Born in Florence in 1978, Mirko Smerdel works between memory’s ambiguity and the archives’ exactness. In his
videos and his collages he creates surreal narratives, by assembling postcards and old photographs. Like an
archeologist, he is in a continuous search for signs and traces of life. His investigatory art goes by approximations
and attempts and aims to reveal what gets lost between the documents of human existence. He lives and works in
Milan.
www.mrksmrdl.com
Mirko Smerdel
Curated by Paolo Caffoni and Aria Spinelli
The specific project presented by Mirko Smerdel for his first solo show at CHAN builds itself around the city of
Genoa. The requalification of the city’s economical image becomes a process investigated here starting from
the overlapping narratives particularly in regard to the city’s port. The relationship between Genoa and its
“waterfront” is symbolic and reveals itself through the artists’ readings and construction of archives of original
material.
CONTEMPORARY
ARTASSOCIATION
Via Sant’Agnese 19r, 16124 Genova | T 010 9910481 | info@chanarte.com | www.chanarte.com
In the show Genoa becomes an area of investigation and a case study. In a lapse of time that goes from the seventies
till now, the city has seen local and International political events that have determined its image, as we know it
today. The center point of Mirko Smerdel’s research involves the map itself, or better, the city-plan, used here
not as a functional representation of space, but as a conceptual device, a “historical legend” of urban and social
transformation.
Using the original city-plan from 1976, the artist intervenes by symbolically removing the port, an area that in the
years has been the center of industry, political arousals, and ultimately spectacular tourism. In opposition, he
presents virtual images of renderings, that look upon the contemporary territorial and architectonical shifting, a
“Genoa that will be”.
Collages of postcards, that disassemble and recompose the city’s popular image, reveal those processes that lead
to a common imagery grounded in our collective consciousness. By creating utopian landscapes, spaces that are
possible and not real, the collages are a subsequent interpretation of the characteristic possibilities of this type of
imagination.
Born in Florence in 1978, Mirko Smerdel works between memory’s ambiguity and the archives’ exactness. In his
videos and his collages he creates surreal narratives, by assembling postcards and old photographs. Like an
archeologist, he is in a continuous search for signs and traces of life. His investigatory art goes by approximations
and attempts and aims to reveal what gets lost between the documents of human existence. He lives and works in
Milan.
www.mrksmrdl.com
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