Claudia Losi

The fated human desire for sensemaking

A project curated by Valentina Rossi
 
 
Every story of a there and then is also a story of a here and now. 
Matteo Meschiari, Geoanarchy, 2017
 

On the occasion of the 2017 editions of Frieze Masters and Frieze London, MADEINBRITALY art gallery and Raccanello Leprince present a project by Claudia Losi, curated by Valentina Rossi.
 
Losi’s intervention aims to offer its own perspective to the formal and conceptual relationships that can be read in the juxtaposition of chronologically far away objects by creating a dialogue with few period ceramic pieces. The result is a heteroclite collection where contemporary grammar tries to interweave with the precious past of the applied arts. The fil rouge of the overall display is the representation of animals investigated in Lois’s textile works as a counterpoint to a selection of fin de siècle ceramic vase and plates.
 
Losi's work starts with collages of animal images taken from various scientific studies, more or less contemporary with the ceramics on display. These images are line drawings, often isolated by diorama landscapes aimed at recreating the animals’ original ecosystems. Many of the consulted texts used to narratively position the animal figures they were describing with the result of isolating them and making them become mere graphic signs and tameable images. In the same way in the decoration of objects of use and specifically in handcrafted ceramic tradition, known as well as fantastic animals are portrayed with aim of making them manageable and familiar, turning them in a mere sign contributing to an understandable and aesthetically pleasing narrative. 
One shape calls another, as it happens in these collages printed on fabric, where the thread retains the profiles; in the same way as the shapes of the ceramic objects become the surfaces containing a concluded speech. This contained exhibition wants to be an opportunity to deepen the topic of animality, as well as the relationship between man and nature and nature and culture.
The whole exhibition display relies on the relationship between the formal aspects of the exposed objects and their anti-chronological juxtaposition: as the historical axis between the different works is extremely stretched, the synchronous sound becomes more resonant. 
The equilibrium between the different time periods can be ideally traced back to the several attempts of world exploration through the reconstructions of images and iconographies that see in Aby Warburg and André Malraux the main references. 
The exhibition can be considered as a small first exploration of the artist in a new territory as such fin de siècle applied art.
 
 

Claudia Losi (Piacenza, Italy, 1971) studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna and has graduated in Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Bologna.

Among her numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad, the most recent include: Monica De Cardenas Gallery, Milan (2017); Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia; Weaving & We, Second Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, Hangzhou, China; (2016); Triennale Design Museum, Milan (2016); Livorno In Contemporanea; Tenuta dello Scompiglio, Vorno-Lucca (2015); La Maréchalerie_énsa V, Versailles; Studio Orta Les Moulins, Boissy-le-Châtel; MAMbo, Bologna; Monica De Cardenas Gallery, Zuoz (2013); MAXXI, Rome (2012 e 2010); Via Farini-DOCVA, Milan (2011); MAGASIN, Grenoble (2010); Royal Academy, London (2010); Stenersen Museum, Oslo (2009); Museo Marino Marini, Florence (2008); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2008).