LA VIGNA
a project by Iacopo Seri

March 17, 2019

or
Energetic study of the present state of all the living, of the natural, political and moral worlds with new observations, and corrections, by ancient and contemporary travelers,
distilled from the privileged lookout point of the Vigna di San Martino;

or
A note to the bellboy of the Forza Napoli bar
understood as a spontaneous example of luminous grace;

or
Only when you lose your gold you can give accurate advice on time travel;
or
Thoughts on the balkanization of human fantasy and its redemption through the sacred use of dancing existence as art;
or
The way in which Tsang Chieh dressed up with oak leaves determined the shape of certain characters and their mutations through time.

The pieces chosen for Iacopo Seri’s exhibition at Salvator Rosa document the ongoing process in which the artist’s research about the reality of existence takes shape during – and thanks to – the ordinary activities of living in the Vigna di San Martino. This is a 7.5 hectares piece of land in the middle fo the city of Naples that has been preserved from being eaten by urban culture and has remained almost unchanged for at least four or five centuries. Here, Iacopo Seri analyzes in an intuitive and non-systematic process, the interrelations of language and things, particularly focusing on how words shape worlds. This distilling process is particularly fertile on this volcanic land, which is a perfect double to certain not necessarily tamed territories between writing and drawing.


Iacopo Seri (Arezzo, 1983) lives in Naples, Italy. He graduated in Visual Arts at the IUAV University in Venice and he has worked in both institutional and independent contexts migrating through Germany, Mexico and Canada. His practice revolves around signs, traces and revelations of the ‘living myths’ concealed within people’s commonplace habits. By making use of performative activities, disarticulations of language, non-ordinary states of consciousness, drunken conversations, exploration of tangible and subtle places, he seeks to transmute worldly actions into vehicles for an unconventional understanding of reality. Through persistent field research, constantly challenging the role of his own work – and thus also questioning the role of each actor either aware or oblivious of their involvement – Seri questions the function of the artist in relation to their own communities of reference, recalibrating their responsibilities, both immanent and metaphysical.
A few of the contexts in which he has showcased his work: Liverpool Biennial (Liverpool); SOMA, Biquini Wax, Ex Teresa (Mexico City); Viafarini/DOCVA, Carrozzeria Margot (Milan); Fondazione Morra (Naples); Lac O Le Mon (Lecce); MIAMI (Bogotà); dOCUMENTA (13) (Kassel); Biennale di Venezia, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa (Venice); Fondazione Ratti (Como); Castello di Rivoli, Cripta747, PAV (Turin).


salvator rosa

Italiano