Giannetto Bravi Il Vesuvio in valigia

cm 25 x 19 x 10

Giannetto Bravi (Tripoli, 1938 - Cislago, 2013) trained in Naples, where he lived from 1940 to 1974. He graduated in Geology and started his experimental research in the neo-avant-garde artistic movement. His first experiments are paintings made with luminescent colors, in which the perceptive experience of Op movement in Central Europe and Latin America merges with the experience and the simplified use of colors of Anglo-Saxon and American Pop Art. His debut was in 1967 with his first solo exhibition at the Galleria Fiamma Vigo in Rome, where he exhibited his Verifiche (Tests) (1964-1966): canvases of strong optical ascendancy that present a geometric scanning of the surface through horizontal lines and concentric circles. After having participated, in the seventies, to the foundation of the Galleria Inesistente (Nonexisting Gallery), with Bruno Barbati, Vincent D'Arista, Maria Palliggiano, Gianni Pisani and Errico Ruotolo, the artist began to realize his “briefcases” produced in series, that will become a recognizable element of his Neapolitan production. The artist’s research and creative process of the time develops on one hand out of a deep knowledge of the local culture, and on the other hand a scientific attitude to the detection, the verification and the collection of evidence. Il Vesuvio in valigia (Vesuvius in a briefcase) is a work from the 1970s made for the project Operazione Vesuvio - Parco Culturale Internazionale I - Mostra progetti Europa (Operation Vesuvio - International Cultural Park I - Europe exhibition project) curated by Pierre Restany, at Dina Caròla’s Gallery Il Centro, in Naples. It was showcased at exhibition project Per_formare una collezione #4 (Per_forming a collection #4) curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Eugenio Viola at Museo Madre in 2015. The work is a ready-made case made of cardboard pressed and silk-screened by the artist containing lava material. In the concept of the project, the work consisted in the metaphorical invalidation of the volcanic cone, in order to preserve Vesuvius from the building speculation prevailing at the time. The second phase of the project's development involved the sending of a series of postcards, indicating the precise place where the recipient was to take “a piece of Vesuvius” to be brought in situ at a later date. Hence the production of a series of cases in pressed and silkscreened cardboard.

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