The April Theses, In The Russian East, Ritual
The Galleria del Cembalo, on the occasion of the centenary of the revolution
in October, it proposes three separate exhibitions, two by Davide Monteleone and one by
Danila Tkachenko, dedicated to the anniversary
From 22 September to 11 November, at the Galleria del Cembalo (Palazzo Borghese) in Rome, the
exhibitions The April Theses and The Russian East by Davide Monteleone, Ritual by Danila Tkachenko - Ritual by Danila Tkachenko
in an apparently documentary way the first two, visionary-metaphoric the third - will be
dedicated to the memory of the "October Revolution".
Davide Monteleone - The April Theses
In March 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), leader of the Bolshevik revolutionary party
he left Switzerland, where he had been exiled. Eight months later he assumed the leadership of 160 million euro
occupying 1/6 of the inhabited surface of the globe. On 9 April 1917, with the support of the
German authorities, at the time at war with Russia, returned to their native country on a train, through
Germany, Sweden and Finland to St Petersburg railway station in Finland on 16 June
April, where, after a decade in exile, he took over the reins of the Russian Revolution.
A month earlier, Tsar Nicholas II had been ousted from power when the Russian Army had taken power.
together with the workers' uprising in Pietrograde, the Russian capital. In a dotted document, known as
as "The thesis of April", Lenin calls for the overthrow of the provisional government and outlines the
strategy that, in the following seven months, will lead to the October Revolution and give power to
Bolsheviks. 100 years later, Davide Monteleone recreates the two weeks of life history of
Lenin before the events that have changed forever Russia and the rest of the world.
Looking for the original document of "Le Tesi di Aprile", Monteleone reconstructs and sometimes recreates
in a physically real journey, the epic journey of Lenin, inspired by the archival documents found at the
R. G. G. A. S. S. P. I. (Russian State State Archive of Soviet Political History) and historical books including "To
Finland Station "by Edmund Wilson and" The Sealed Train "by Michael Pearson. The final result is a
collection of contemporary landscapes, archive forensic photography and self-portraits poses that
retrace a journey through time and space. The exhibition consists of a selection of
prints from the book "The April Theses" (Postcart 2017) presented in the form of an installation.
Davide Monteleone - In the Russian East
Inspired by Richard Avedon's masterpiece "In the American West" (1985) and the continuous fascination of the
Monteleone, a Trans-Siberian man, looks to Russia to ask himself about the future of the country. Emulating
Avedon in technology and content, Monteleone creates a geographical and temporal parallelism between
The United States and Russia at a time when relations between the two countries are at an uncertain historical moment. Like Avedon, yes
focus on simple people, far from the centers of power and, as modern Oblomov, far from the centers of power
disinterested in it. The protagonists of the portraits (descendants of gold and fur hunters, children of
survivors of the Gulags, Jews of Siberian Israel and even heirs of ancient empires such as the Buriates
or the Mongols of Gengis Khan) become icons of contemporary Russia.
The April Theses and In the Russian East exhibitions are held in collaboration with
Heillandi gallery in Lugano.
Danila Tkachenko - Ritual
DanilaTkachenko's new project stems from a reflection on the centenary of the Revolution
Russian (1917-2017). The author makes tangible and concrete the metaphor of "burning everything that
dear "and literally burns the symbols of the era you leave behind, creating free space for a
promising future.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, avant-garde artists were already highlighting and anticipating the
dramatic changes that were created in the social structure. Hence, the need to
to build the future on the basis of new ideals: to achieve this utopia, it seems to suggest
Tkachenko, it is essential to burn, clear, everything that is static, connected to the world
which hinders the new way of thinking.
The structures in flames are photographed in rural areas, in an iconic "free field", and the light of the
twilight leaves the question unresolved to the observer whether it is the sunset of the old world or
the dawn of the new era. Eight images are presented in absolute preview.