Painting versus video by Valentina Loi, has been intentionally planned for this particular gallery space. The gallery space is partly furnished, with minimal essential living structures that are often used by the artists as part of their exhibitions. The exhibition will be composed of two videos and a series of paintings. The work is laid out methodically around the gallery space to create a visual and conceptual flow to the exhibition. The viewer will be able to relate to the tension of the artist created during the production of her work and show. Painting versus Video is not presuming to redefine these two mediums, it is including these mediums in and around the exhibition space. Valentina Loi has been working with these two mediums for several years, and through this new body of work defines the lines between these mediums conceptually and aesthetically. The reality that is seen in these videos reflects the personal experience of the artist, through her daily occurrences, but it also reflects a more common notion of familiarity that the viewer can clearly relate to. “Les Amants” is the first video in the entrance of the exhibit, showing two covered faces kissing each other. Silently a tension rises while the viewer is caught in the tension of a long kiss between two people that are constantly veiled to one another. “What do you want to do?” Is the second video in the exhibition, it is deliberately placed in the more furnished part of the gallery. A man and a woman are talking to each other, while the spectator is caught between their conversation. A tension rises between the questions they are asking each other. “What do you want to do?” Asks one, while the other replys, “I don’t know what do you want to do?” in a continous loop. “Painting versus Video” and “Trust” are the two pictorial elements in the exhibition; conceived as contrasting and complementary with the other works in the gallery. The paintings are a visual static break that makes us alternate from the moving images of the video. This aesthetic choice puts into play the conceptual battle of the work through content and context. Thus Artopia’s gallery space will witness passively and actively, as viewers and contributors to a complex installation where thoughts and feelings alternate along with painting and video.
Hold me down – cause I don’t want to wait
Shut it up – cause I don’t want to hear
Set it off – cause I’ve had enough
by Fabiola Naldi