Coinciding with the Lake Como Design Festival, the exhibition marks Sachs' first solo show in Italy, exploring the depths of human experience through photography, where movement and stillness coexist.
On view: September 16 – October 21, 2023
Press Preview: September 15, by appointment only
July 20, 2023 (Como, Italy) – For his inaugural exhibition in Italy, artist Rolf Sachs presents ‘Tenderly,’ unveiling new large-scale photographs from his Moving Stills series presented by Grieder Contemporary, Zürich. On view from September 16 – October 21, 2023, the exhibition marks the gallery’s opening show at Borgovico33, a historic 17th century church in Como, Italy as part of its Autumn satellite program.
The exhibition encapsulates much of Sachs’ enduring artistic interests in materiality and recontextualizing domestic objects, all the while announcing a new departure in his photographic work. Within the Moving Stills series, Tenderly, Threads and Triangle are all examples of the way the artist transforms everyday objects such as pieces of string, a percussion instrument, and a roll of toilet paper, into lively and ambiguous beings, revealing their mysterious alter ego. The resulting works are at times eery and uncanny, verging on the surreal.
The exhibition features 16 works and is conceived in two parts. Five full-scale photographs from the artist’s Tenderly series are shown inside the frescoed nave of the historic deconsecrated church of the Convent of Santa Caterina. This feels particularly apt as these abstract photographs, ripe with cross-like motifs, can be interpreted as secular altarpieces. A selection of more intimately scaled works from his Triangle and Threads series will be shown in the adjoining vaulted, minimalist space. Now a cultural association dedicated to the presentation of contemporary art events, the exhibition is housed in a space with a diverse history. From being a diocesan seminary, deconsecrated and converted into a military barracks to becoming a cotton mill, a grocer’s warehouse and ultimately abandoned, Borgovico33 celebrates its past after a fruitful renovation in 2002 with contemporary art exhibitions.
As often in the artist’s work, the exhibition’s title, ‘Tenderly’ has a double entendre. It expresses Sachs’ overarching artistic interest in making ‘arts emotionnels instead of arts decoratifs’ which invite an empathetic and sensual approach to art and our rapport with one another, while also being the name of a toilet paper brand. The title, therefore, relates to the artist’s desire to experiment with the archetype of the natura morta in this series. ‘Moving’ on the other hand refers to the gesture that the artist makes with his camera, wielding it like a paintbrush and freezing the movement with a single flash. The result blurs the distinction between abstract painting and photography. Injecting movement in the photographic process is one of Rolf’s distinctive gestures which he first experimented with in his Camera in Motion series (2013), where the Engadin landscape was captured from a moving train.
The works in this exhibition are a crystallization of much of Rolf Sachs’ artistic curiosities and illustrate his interest in injecting a soul into lifeless objects that are traditionally disregarded or imperceptible. Keen on incorporating chance and haphazardness in the way he uses his light sources and moves his camera, resulting in unusual visual effects, Sachs finds a certain freedom in letting things fall under the agency of chance, finding the perfect balance between ‘faire et laisser faire’. The artist often plays with antithetical notions in his titles, and in this series, the friction between movement and stillness harks back to his enduring interest in creating a compelling tension between different concepts or materials. Throughout his oeuvre, Sachs has been drawn to the harmony that can be created when two materials or ideas that do not traditionally go together are coupled in a way that creates a sort of alchemy.
‘Tenderly is a poetic and personal show. It’s a pure expression of the fact that I genuinely believe that our personal perception and attitude completely govern how we end up seeing the world. If you channel your creative soul, you can add spirit to situations, positively influence people’s attitudes, or even add unexpected poetry and emotions to banal everyday objects. I made these works at a time when connection and proximity were scarce. With Moving Stills, I hope to move people,’ explains Rolf Sachs.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
‘Tenderly,’ by Rolf Sachs will be on view at Borgovico33 from September 16 – October 21, 2023.
Address:
Borgovico33
Via Borgo Vico, 33, 22100 Como CO, Italy
About the Artist
Rolf Sachs is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer currently based in Rome. He applies a distinctive humane and conceptual approach across a multitude of mediums, ranging from sculpture, photography, and design and through to architectural projects and set designs for opera and ballet. His move to Rome has inspired Sachs to finally dedicate himself seriously to painting. Since the 1990s, Sachs has challenged preconceived applications of materials, processes, and everyday objects, imbuing them with novel meaning. Deftly employing humour and wit, his work seeks to elicit emotional, sensory reactions. However, his work has nothing of the dryness that is often associated with conceptual art. Rather, it is full of humanity, sensibility, and respect towards the materials he uses. It is poetic, humorous, tongue and cheek, but never irreverent. Currently, his work is particularly focused on exploring the human psyche, people’s character, relationships, soul and spirit.
His work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Museum for Applied Art, Cologne, the MAK, Vienna, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Hauser and Wirth, Gstaad and Monika Sprüth, Cologne.
https://rolfsachs.com/
About Grieder Contemporary
Grieder Contemporary was established in 2006 and at first located in Modernist Villa of Damian and Melanie Grieder in Küsnacht/Zurich. After five successful years in its salon venue in Küsnacht, Grieder Contemporary relocated to a new space in Zurich's Seefeld until the end of 2013.
From November 2013 to October 2017, the gallery was located at the heart of Zurich's art scene, at the Löwenbräu art complex. Since its beginning in 2006, Grieder Contemporary carefully broadened its programme and works with international concept-oriented emerging and established artists who redefine and expand definitions of painting and sculpture, film and video, photography and performances.
In Autumn 2017, after extensive renovation and extension by Fuhrimann & Hächler architects, the gallery relocated back to its place of origin. The new monumental annex of the Modernist villa offers extraordinary possibilities for exciting new projects and exhibitions.
https://www.grieder-contemporary.com/
About Borgovico33
Borgovico33 takes its origin from the reconversion of the former church of the Santa Caterina Convent in Como. Built in 1634 on foundations dating from 1200, the church has a varied history: in 1740 a diocesan seminary; deconsecrated in 1800, it is then transformed into a military barracks to subsequently pass on to private hands becoming a cotton mill, a grocer’s warehouse and then totally abandoned. In 1995 Philip and Rosella Rolla purchased a structure in Como built in 1634 upon existing foundations dating from 1200 that had formerly been a church dedicated to Saint Catherine. During the initial cleaning, traces of frescoes were discovered, thus providing a clear direction for the restoration project. In the reconstruction, entrusted to Studio Brambilla Orsoni in Como, the hardest part was minimising the intervention and required work by subtraction. Upon the conversion of the space, completed in 2002, Borgovico 33 was created. Borgovico 33, a non-profit cultural association dedicated to the presentation of contemporary art events was housed in the ex-church. The association was committed to promoting new projects, starting with the photographic exhibition Pino Musi, Giuseppe Terragni, followed by solo exhibitions of works by Elisabeth Scherffig, Daniela De Lorenzo, by architects Giraudi & Wettstein, and by young artists Andrea Crociani, Laura Santamaria and Davide Cascio. The activity of the association concluded with the exhibition dedicated to Franco Vimercati, in collaboration with the Panza Collection.
http://www.bv33.org/
Image credits:
Image 1. Tenderly 5 from Moving Still Series by Rolf Sachs.
Image 2. Interior view of Borgovico33. Photography by Pino Musi.
Image 3. Triangle 3 from Moving Still Series by Rolf Sachs.