Fabrizio Plessi

FABRIZIO PLESSI (Reggio Emilia, 1940).
"C'as Concos", 1989.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
With label on the back of Estudio de Arte Contemporaneo Joan Guaita.
Bibliography:
- "Fabrizio Plessi. Bombai-Bombai. Una videoinstal-lació i cent dibuixos (1976-1992). Joan Miró Foundation. 1994.
-BONITO OLIVA, A.; CALABRESE, O. "Plessi". Edizione Canova, Comune di Reggio Emilia. 1990.
Measurements: 190 x 152 cm.

The series "C'as Concos" consists of works on paper and canvas created by Plessi in that Majorcan town. Although most of them are directly linked to the video sculptures "Armadi della memoria" (1990) and function as sketches, studies and variations of these, they also have an artistic value of their own. Unlike the "Armadi", which always maintain a quadripartite structure, in "C'as Concos" the artist experiments freely with the number of compartments, reducing or enlarging them to study compositions, light and chromatic effects from a totally pictorial approach. For this reason, this series should not be seen only as preparatory material, but as an autonomous set within his production.

The "Armadi della memoria" can be understood both individually and collectively. Each piece acts as a memory box where Plessi summarizes ideas and works from previous stages, almost like a visual diary or a personal system of mnemonic notes. As a whole, the series provides access to the artist's symbolic universe and functions as a way of preserving and classifying his own creative memory. Its structure is repeated: metal boxes with doors that change according to the position of the viewer, four video screens above and four niches below. This duality symbolizes the two constant elements in his work: video as simulation and real materials in dialogue with it. In each cabinet Plessi's essential themes reappear: the boundaries between public/private, singular/multiple, the codification of memory, and the conflict between the technological and the material.

Fabrizio Plessi, a pioneer of video art in Italy, explores the relationship between natural reality and technological visuality, creating works that question perception, identity and illusion. Trained and later taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, he developed since the late sixties an international career with recurrent participation in the Venice Biennale, performances, video installations and video sculptures. In the eighties and nineties he consolidated his prestige with exhibitions in institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, the Kassel documenta, the Miró Foundation and the Guggenheim in New York. His work is present in numerous museums and international collections.