REVERSIBLE
a project by Federico Cavallini

“Federico Cavallini is a silly man. The origin of the word ‘silly’ is that which is useless.” Jimmie Durham

Reversible is an installation realized by Federico Cavallini (Livorno, 1974). All the showcased works can be inverted, flipped like a dress to reveal the two sides of the object.
An aluminum and transparent polycarbonate greenhouse has been partially obscured attaching to its surface diverse materials in a failed intent to hide something that could have happened in its inner side. It’s the habitat of a voyeur, of a repented exhibitionist that tries to hide and communicate at the same time through images and objects.
For this first project in Salvator Rosa, the green house was scrunched to fit through the small door of the gallery’ space. The prefabricated greenhouse, assembled correctly and still new, immediately became carcass, scrappage.
The instruction manual of the greenhouse is used to make a wall piece. The manual has been stapled to a polycarbonate sheet on both sides following the diagram design of the greenhouse. The staples go through the plastic material leaving traces on its both sides, consecutively framing it inside a plastic bag.
On another wall, there is a work made out of two paired magazines. On one side an old issue of Italian magazine Internazionale with a front cover image of Trump and Kim jong-un facing each other. On the other side a porno-gay magazine that pictures a beautiful naked man showing his buttocks. Trump’s and Kim’s face have been partially covered with a fossilized marine plant immediately becoming archaeology. The porno-gay magazine has been used to press leaves inside its pages leaving the stems extend beyond the paper. In this case as well, the staples have been used to assemble the work.
The project is completed with a small work realized with the left-overs of works from other artists. A small piece of Plexiglas has been overspread with a thick layer of Vaseline with the intention of putting into trouble an antipathetic frame-maker. Some cheap plastic jewelry was immersed inside the Vaseline. The frame-maker did a beautiful work but he is still antipathetic.

Federico Cavallini Born in 1974 works and lives in Livorno (IT). He graduated in history of medieval art at the Department of Literature and Philosophy in Pisa University. In 2004 he worked in Fabio Mauri’s studio in Rome. In 2012 he co-founded the art space Carico Massimo in Livorno.
Selected main exhibitions: Centro d’Arte Contemporanea La Nuova Pesa (Rome), Chiesa di Santo Stefano Rotondo in collaboration with Fondazione Volume! (Rome), Thessaloniki Biennal, La Venaria Reale (Torino), Villa Romana (Florence). The Italian embassy (Berlin). Kunstraum Munchen (Munich).