Veronique Pozzi & Attilio Tono

ㅇ E-mail    ㅣ  veroniquepozzi@hotmail.it (Veronique Pozzi)

　　　　 　　　attiliotono@hotmail.com (Attilio Tono)

ㅇ skype ㅣ  pozziv, attiliotono

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B.A. in Visual Arts (with full marks and honours), "Brera" Academy of Fine Arts, Milano, Italy

Selected Solo Exhibition2011   MARRONNEIR S. F., Daehangno Arts Theater, Seoul, Korea
         ADAGIO, Workroom Wondow Gallery, Seoul, Korea
         FAREWELL-PRIMO, Behive Gallery, Seoul, Korea
         ETIMOLOGIE-GRUGNOTORTO, Ecomuseum Grugnotorto Villoresi, Nova M.se, Milano, Italy
         APERTE, La Bottaia Space, Soave, Verona, Italy
2010   UNCONVENTIONAL CHANDELIERS- Luci d’artista, Vicolungo, Novara, Italy
         LIVE IN MUSEUM, Centanin Museum Macchine termiche, Monselice, Padova, Italy

Selected Group Exhibition2011   ART Fresh, Seoul Art Space GEUMCHEON, Seoul, Korea
         USE A BOOK – LIBRI D’ARTISTA, Ilde Association, Barcellona, Spain
         VENTIPERVENTI, Delle Arti Association, Piacenza, Italy
2010   DISCOTEQUE? GIPSOTEQUE!, La Triennale, Milano, Italy
         CONTEMPORARY ART- SOPRA  IL SOTTO, Superstudio Group and Clerici Palace,

         Milano, Italy
         THE FLOWER’S CHOICE, Space Angelique Devil, Milano, Italy
         GENERACTION, Melo University, Gallarate, Milano, Italy
         LA CHIENA- The Doors Art - The Water Gate, Space Utopia Contemporary Art,

         Salerno, Italy
         NATURARTE- Percorsi artistici nel Lodigiano, Bertonico Arsenal, Lodi, Italy
         GUARDARE, OSARE, SOGNARE, 2’ Art Simposium, Casarcobaleno di Scampia, Napoli,

         Italy
         INTER CULTUR ART AND THE SUSTAINABLE LIVING, Public Park, Liegi, Belgio
         “Artist in residence” c/o Association Saint Henri, Payra sur l’Herse -Toulouse, Francia

Residency
2011   Seoul Art Space GEUMCHEON 2nd-term residency artist, Seoul, Korea
2010   Association Saint Henri, Payra sur l’Herse-Toulouse, Francia(August)
2009   Fachschule für Blumenkunst Weihenstephan Freising-Monaco, Germany(May)
2003   Kea Hellas, Rethymno, Greece(September- December)
2002   HOTEL PUPIK 04, St. Lorenzen, Scheifling, Austria(July-August)

“Schrattenberg”, bee wax, nylon (site specific installation)

“Thankful”, books, bee wax, wood (site specific installation)

“Nemnia flowers”, plaster, red vine, glass, iron

Action Not the Object,

Progress Not the Result

That  Stands Out...

Choi Tae-man(Professor of Kookmin University / Art Critic)

The works that Veronique Pozzi and Attillio Tono have been working together for 7 years are characterized by the divergence from painting and sculpture of the traditional genre. If you look at the works they have published, they have either made object and are not confined to the generally accepted idea of ‘Piece of work is a superior object made through expert skills’, and that they have interest in ‘condition’ which is a variable and transforms with flow of time. For example, when we look at the work We Can't Build, it simply reproduced the shape of a house which in time decays, breaks down and finally dismantled. Is this an ironic overthrow of the common belief of ‘Art is forever’ or is this a kind of a warning about the truth that ‘Everything alive is destined to die and disappear’ In contemporary art, in fact, there are many examples going against the bourgeois notion that art is honorable and that it should be permanently preserved. Joseph Beuys’(1921-1986) Lump of Oil represents the personal experience of World War II when he was a German pilot. But crashed into the region of Crimea and survived through the help of the native Tatars. But it also can be said something about the non-decaying art through the lump of oil that had to melt from the changes in the environment such as the temperature. Jannis Kounellis, who was part of ‘Arte Povera’ formed in Italy in the late 1960’s, also created a flower with coal. Like the lump of oil that Beuys put on a chair, the

lump of coal Kounellis had can be an aporia about the destiny of art. One step further, Giovanni Anselmo, who was a member of La Arte Forbay, presented a work which was a fresh lettuce leaf placed between two slabs of marble and tied with a copper wire. Time dries the fresh vegetable rapidly and eventually it decays and disappears. Since the vegetable along with the sawdust on the floor is most unsuited material for art, people looking at this art can only infer the meaning beyond its form. Come to think of it, Veronique and Attilio were born in Italy in the early 20th century where future ideologists and the initiators of avant-garde along with Piero Manzoni (1933-1963), who was an impudent, odd artist selling his own excrement in a can. They new well about the predecessors who were iconoclasts and rebels. I heard that they were Italian-born, and I did not want to find any ‘common national feature’. In this recent advanced information society, when a nomadic life is a virtue, to look for characteristics of ‘Latin race’ from these two young artists is meaningless and reckless. However, whether conscious or not, worries and the ways of expressing them may have been inherited from the previous generation artists, that is, if there is a cultural root, it is not a completely deviated imagination to assume it had some influence on them.

Prominent feature in the work of these two artists is to emphasize on the process, not a special object, nor a result of an action. Hence, the many different types of food as materials like wine, curry, chocolate, soy sauce, etc. A replicated classic head piece with plaster is placed upside down and attached to a wall. On top of it is a funnel with red wine and the wine

drips down through a eye drop like piece. It is interesting how the drops of wine evaporate and utilizing it as element for the artwork, but also the wine which penetrates through the plaster and overtime this organic material creating mold is also an important part. The stain created through time is also a part of the work. Since the transforming process through the natural phenomenon is taken in as an element of the work, their work can be considered progressive, participatory, and location specific, but not a completion by itself. In addition, their attitude of observing and tracking microscopic progress changes at the exhibition in itself has the charm of creating ‘cabinet of curiosity’.

Let’s take a look at an another example. When you look at the installation work of Beogone_one/Beograd_two_, you will notice the importance of the process of the guests, who were invited by the artists, whether they eat a piece of paper, which has either a positive or a negative word written on it, or throw it on the ground. The paper with the positive word can be eaten, but the paper with the negative word is black and inconvenient to eat. People can participate in this process by removing a sticker, which has words that may inspire themselves, attached to the wall of the exhibition and eating it. Through the black paper with negative words on the opposite wall, they may think about once again what they detest. The youthful imagination that does not depend on formalities, and their even spiteful and yet serious work may have began through modest interest, curiosity, or passion, but it has an evident value that makes you rethink about art. What the hell is art? What we cannot fill with only a well-drawn picture or a well-crafted piece is as expected imagination. Imagination is the driving force that keeps art alive and the source of emotion. Imagination is different from delusion or illusion, it is not the rope and the medium for communication that connects people to art. So we can still believe that art is valuable.

The hypnosis that these two pranksters put on, that is, having the audience pick a dull and boring book and binding it with wax is the process to instigate liberation of the imagination, is it not a smooth seductive temptation. Instead of publishing forbidden book confined in a baroque-style case, even though it is read, it can be considered a couple to a knowledge if it does not help after reading it. Therefore, I expect them to be more insistent and overturn the many logic of the world, not only letting us participate in their work and rethink about it, but also cross the border of art and daily routine and finally disassemble the boundaries and broaden the horizon of expression through practice of ‘provocation’ without hesitation.