On Saturday December 16th at 6pm, Colli Independent Art Gallery presents Flava – Solo annacquato, a project “in two” made by the German artist Katinka Bock and the Swiss-Dutch Batia Suter. The exhibition is the result of research on the “fluvial area” of Tevere, and more generally on the relationship between the water and the city of Rome, which becomes liquid iconography inside the artist’s book edited by Roma Publication (Amsterdam). The show will present the intervention of the two artists who will co-habitate the gallery’ spaces.
The relationship between the water and the city is exhibited in multiples declinations. In Suter’s works the numerous images try to describe the water from a superficial only to go into depth later on. The associative method goes through the use of preexistent images to built a new narration, which allows the artist to describe the Tevere and its iconography by means of his different stratification. History and images are connected through a continuous rhythm, scanned by sensorial and conceptual references. For Suter a work never begins with a detail; instead through the use of various images her work is tries to define personal encyclopedia.
On the other hand, Bock’s work intervenes especially inside the space’s context. The use of water becomes a “physical passage.” Its course, through a series of plumbings, constitutes a programmed path in which the water would not able to flow without the support offered by the sculpture. Showing and hiding are predominant aspects. The plumbing’s structure – usually hidden – becomes the protagonist that reveals the exchange between the water and the solid matter. The pipes in iron and the floor in concrete are connected thanks to the hole in the centre of the flooring, that transforms the gallery’s basement in a fountain.
Water thus becomes a metaphor of time and the presence of the people moving inside the space, coming in and out.
The catalogue/artist's book is produced by Colli publishing platform in collaboration with Roma publications and Viaindustriae publishing.