L[U]OGO
16 - 26 Jan 2025
The collective exhibition L[U]OGO – for a physical-cultural reconnection by Spazio LAMPO and organized by ReA! Arte, presents itself as a sensory and reflective journey aimed at rediscovering and revitalizing the concept of the "Imaginary Place." This exploration is proposed through artistic works that challenge the boundary between contemporary aesthetics and current events, engaging in a dialogue that addresses the growing virtualisation of our daily lives and its potential disconnection from the more intimate and human dimensions of existence.
The logo L[U]OGO becomes a symbol and visual guide for this journey, an icon that encapsulates the concept of an "imaginary place," where the letter "U" is protected within parentheses, a metaphor for the hyperconnected reality in which we are immersed. A place that, unfortunately, risks being reduced to mere memory, forgotten in the digital noise that characterizes our era.
The works on display explore various themes related to human relationships and nature, offering reflections on solitude, the loss of cultural content, and the fleeting nature of modern connections. The participating artists, with different but complementary languages, invite us to rediscover those fundamental bonds and values that still persist but might risk being lost in the whirlpool of digitalization.
The paintings by Giuseppe Amorin Esposito, with a strong visual impact, reflect a deep connection to nature and the intimacy of the human soul, while Sergio Gimelli, with his "photographic paintings," offers a reflection on reclaiming human subjectivity, often sidelined by contemporary society. The sculptural works of Rosa Frazzica engage with matter, creating a balance between the mystical and the tangible, bringing to light the importance of physical and spiritual connection. Luisa Eugeni, with her installation of textiles, evokes family and cultural moments, recalling the interdependence between tradition and the intimacy of human relationships connected to her homeland. Franca Franchi, who chose ancient materials like iron for her sculptures, recalls the concreteness of life, offering a tangible response to the ephemeral frenzy of the contemporary world.
The exhibition is not only a visual experience but also an emotional journey that invites visitors to reflect on the physical and cultural dimension at risk of disappearing in the era of the immaterial. L[U]OGO is, therefore, an invitation to rediscover our "imaginary place," a space where human connections, nature, and introspection remain at the center of our existence, beyond the virtual network that governs us.
Additionally, the collective exhibition is the final result of a training course for curators, CREA!, organized by the association ReA! Arte at La Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan, which involved emerging curators. The exhibition thus becomes an experience that combines art and education, proposing a reflection on the evolution of our relationship with art and the world around us.
Participating Artists
Sergio Gimelli
The works displayed in the exhibition, created using different techniques such as applied paper, glues, plaster, and painting, are characterized by an evanescent, faded effect, where the forms and their details remain indistinct and the contours undefined.
This process, whose final effect seems suspended between the photographic and the distorted, suggests compromised, worn-out images that appear to evoke memories. The moment, extracted from the everyday, is captured in the instant of a photograph to be revoked and presented again as a narrative that tells of the present, of moments lived, but also of nostalgia and memories.
Rosa Frazzica
Waiting for 36.5° introduces us to a world suspended between alchemy and scientific experimentation, a limbo where mystery intertwines with the precision of measurement. From the heart of a sand basin rises an iron structure that holds an organic ampoule, pulsating with an enigmatic liquid with presumed healing properties. Among the grains of tuffaceous sand lies a formless, fragile, and evolving creature, immersed in a ritual that borders on the sacred. This being seems to receive a care, a treatment that makes us devoted spectators, faithful to an artificial miracle: a sand incubator that not only protects but cradles and preserves, as if time itself had stopped to allow its gestation. A thermostat, vigilant sentinel, records the smallest variations in temperature, revealing a perpetual instability. The oscillations between heat and cold become metaphors of life and death, in a continuous and inexorable dance. Yet, the incubator betrays its essence: what should preserve the fragile balance proves inadequate, unable to maintain that ideal temperature, that 36.5° that embodies the hope of formation and life. Waiting for 36.5° is a wait: it is the dream of a destination that always seems to slip away. The creature, immersed in this healing rite, remains suspended in its formless state, between the potential of life and the abyss of the unfinished.
Luisa Eugeni
In the 2021 project SOMA, I used weaving to express the landscapes transformed by the 2016 earthquake. Looking at the Umbrian countryside, the fabrics became metaphorical translations of the landscape, intertwining somatic and three-dimensional narratives. Together with my family, I experimented with traditional techniques: my father built a handcrafted loom, my mother created braided threads, and vintage yarns—silk, Lurex, cotton, and linen—were donated by former colleagues. Friends and family contributed, bringing old looms to life and weaving stories. Weaving thus became a space for memory, craftsmanship, and community.
Luisa Eugeni
My works originate from photographic sources that i personally take or from family photos of my birthplace, Brazil. In relation to the starting image, I work by saturating the color and then modifying spaces and placements rethought on the canvas. It is important that within the work a new chromatic harmony is formed, different from the photograph, less tied to chiaroscuro and more to a harmony between the chosen tones.
Franca Franchini
The works in the exhibition reveal a relationship with matter that does not end with its first use by humans or the productive practices of their civilization, but continues with new projections according to an alternative poetic imagination, based both on reuse and new aesthetics, such as Zen, which finds its foundational element in chance, and not only. In light of this, it is possible to trace, in the remnants of industrial processes carried out with lasers, starting from a state of inner calm, the possibility of creating also through intuition or an impulse, achieving the aesthetic result with immediacy and spontaneity, without elaboration. If the relationship between filled and empty spaces invites new visions, industrial waste, in which form and material are isolated, can also constitute the basic elements of an alphabet for regeneration, a new language; as if one were facing the dawn of a civilization set to lay the foundations for a new language, as in the case of the small "alphabetic" sculptures.
Exhibition Partners
