PRESS RELEASE

 

Presented by BCAF Bridging Culture and Arts Foundation, Kolkata

Contemporary Art Exhibition - Vibrations Between Italy and India

Project by Artist Simona Frillici

Co-Curated by Bruno Corà and Reena Dewan

Exhibition Dates: February 28 – March 9, 2025

 

&

 

Book Launch ‘The Atlas of the 21st Century’ by Paulo Barone

March 8, 2025 at 6.30 p.m.

 

Kolkata, India – BCAF Bridging Culture and Arts Foundation proudly presents Vibrations Between Italy and India – The Contemporary Scene, a groundbreaking exhibition by renowned Italian artist Simona Frillici. Co-curated by esteemed art critic Bruno Corà and celebrated curator Reena Dewan, this exhibition will be on view from February 28 to March 9, 2025, in Kolkata.

 

About the Project

 

Inspired by the poetic philosophy of Paulo Barone, this project bridges the cultural and artistic traditions of Italy and India. Simona Frillici’s latest series, Vibrations, is at the heart of the exhibition. These works, inspired by her travels across India from 2020 to 2024, explore human reflections captured on mirror-like surfaces. Through large-scale installations of semi-transparent fabric prints, the images appear to float, moving gently with the airflow created by fans. The exhibition embodies the concept that "everything is vibration, energy," echoing ancient philosophies from the Music of the Spheres to Tagore’s insights on the cosmos as a symphony of visual and acoustic waves. This project, featuring exhibitions in Kolkata and Varanasi, seeks to foster dialogue between art professionals and audiences, emphasizing the importance of engaging with distant cultures to view contemporary reality through a broader lens.

 

About the Artist: Simona Frillici

 

Simona Frillici, born in Umbria in 1966, is an Italian artist who explores themes related to human existence through painting, photography, video and installations. After graduating in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia in 1988, under the guidance of the artist Nuvolo and the critic and art historian Bruno Corà, she developed a research focused on “material” as a feminine principle in art. Her work focuses on the duality between image and reality, visible and invisible, appearance and essence, questioning what is real and true in the image-dominated contemporary era. She mainly uses photography, often reworking faces found on the web, printed and painted with acrylic paints, creating what she calls “the substance of images”. She has exhibited her works in numerous prestigious venues in Italy and abroad, including the Quadriennale in Rome in 2008 and international spaces such as the Wooster Arts Space in New York in 2006. In 2011, she presented her first video, “What is Art?”, at the Italian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, Umbria Region, stimulating a reflection on the meaning of artistic creation. In recent years, inspired by her travels in India, she has been working on a series of works entitled “Vibrations”, exploring the contrasts and harmonies between cultures through images and installations.

 

About the Co-Curators

 

Bruno Corà

 

Bruno Corà, is a prominent Italian art historian and critic. He began his career in the 1960s in Milan and Rome, collaborating with the Incontri Internazionali d'Arte in Rome and coordinating historical exhibitions such as “Vitalità del negativo nell'arte italiana 1960/70” and “Contemporanea” in 1973. From 1979 to 1999, Corà taught History of Art at the ‘Pietro Vannucci’ Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia. Subsequently, he held academic positions at the University of Cassino and the University of Florence. He has directed preominent institutions such as the Centre for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci of Prato, Palazzo Fabroni Contemporary Visual Arts of Pistoia, the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of La Spezia and the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of Lugano. Since 2013 he has been President of the Palazzo Albizzini Collection Burri Foundation of Città di Castello. Corà has curated numerous international exhibitions and written over three hundred critical essays, making a significant contribution to the dissemination and understanding of contemporary art.

 

Reena Dewan

Reena Dewan is a renowned art curator, educator and Director of the Bridging Culture and Arts Foundation(B-CAF) which she has transformed into a dynamic platform for artistic innovation where she organises art festivals, performances, talks and skills development programmes that empower artists, promote experimentation and engage diverse communities. As an educator, Reena is deeply committed to nurturing the next generation of creative thinkers. She teaches at eminent institutions such as the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Heritage Academy and Banaras Hindu University (BHU), where she shares her expertise in arts management and curating. At B-CAF, Reena works with artists curating programmes that address critical global issues such as environmental sustainability, gender equality and the preservation of intergenerational knowledge. For her contribution to the arts, she has won major fellowships at the Australian Council's International Leadership Program, Art Think South Asia, the International Society for Performing Arts and the Singapore International Foundation's Art for Good Fellowship.

 

About Paulo Barone

Paulo Barone: studied medicine and psychiatry in Rome and philosophy in Turin and currently resides in Milan. Psychiatrist, Jungian psychoanalyst, HDR (Habilitacion à Diriger des Recherches) in philosophy at Paris 8 (France), ordinary member of the Italian Association of Analytical Psychology and the International Association of Analytical Psychology, he is Honorary Professor at the Sanskriti Sanvardhan & Sanshodhan Pratishtan Institute in Mumbai (India). He has published several works, including “From fairy tale to psychosis: perspectives for a social ontology” (Bulzoni, Rome 1983); “The age of dust: Giacometti, Heidegger, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and the aesthetic space of transience” (Marsilio, Venice 1999); “Jungism: deformation and fragments of psychic life” (Cortina, Milan 2004); “Spensierarsi: Raimon Panikkar and the Chirping Machine” (Diabasis, Reggio Emilia 2007); “Mystical Survival: The Geography of the Infinitely Near” (Pilgrims Publishing, 2012); “Benares” (Nottetempo Editions 2019); “The Need for Introversion” (Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2023); “Banaras” (Motilal Banarsidass Editions 2024).

 

This exhibition is a testament to the transformative power of art as a bridge between cultures. It invites audiences to experience a dialogue between Italy and India through a lens of shared vibrations and resonances.

 

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