Cassata Drone Expanded Archive is delighted to present its final chapter in Palermo before taking a new nomadic course. From 25th September to 30th October 2019, the prestigious spaces of the Fondazione Sant'Elia's Loggiato di San Bartolomeo and the apartment in via Malta 21, now known as the headquarters of Cassata Drone, will host the exhibition Preferire l'Ombra (Favour the Shadows), curated by Giacomo Pigliapoco and Luca Gennati.
According to the title, the exhibition refers to a constant balance between visibility and invisibility in the relationship between the observer and the observed. The theme of the investigation will in fact be surveillance in its civil, military, visual and primitive aspects: modern drones are taken as a starting point for a study that points to highlighting the necessity of a personal strategy of obscuration. Not only does the observer remain invisible, favouring the shadows, but also the observed should act consciously to remove themselves from the spotlight.
It is impossible not to quote the words of the French philosopher Grégoire Chamayou in Drone Theory (Penguin Special, 2015) and of the English artist James Bridle in the New Dark Age (Nero Editions, 2019). James Bridle himself will be part of the exhibition with his public artwork Drone Shadow, which will be built in the famous Piazza Cassa di Risparmio (in the centre of Palermo within the Kalsa district). The Via Malta 21 venue will host archive photos by the German chemist Julius Neubronner, the inventor of aerial photography by carrier pigeon, and the audiovisual installation Frutto del Sorbo by Valentina Furian. Finally, the Loggiato di San Bartolomeo–Fondazione Sant'Elia will host Marco Strappato's Flying Over the White Threshold, the work Sociality by Paolo Cirio and a new production by the collective Il Pavone.
G. Olmo Stuppia, founder of Cassata Drone Expanded Archive (which is also a long-term solo performance), proposes with this last project in Palermo to continue his study on Sicilian cultural stratification, in particular relating to the important techno-military presence in the region which day by day coexists with a culinary tradition. Contradictions and cohabitations which are ultimately part of everyone and become Favour the Shadows's main themes once again.
Official Patronage:
Fondazione Sant'Elia, Loggiato di San Bartolomeo, Comune di Palermo, Goethe-Institut Palermo
Thanks to:
Comune di Palermo, Goethe-Institut Palermo, Settimana delle Culture, Nome gallery Berlino, The Gallery Apart Roma, Rorhof, Ponte di Archimede Produzioni, Sinergie Group, Garden Fruit, Joyrent SRL, Vito Planeta Junior, Cantine Planeta, Ruvolo Via Maqueda, The Garden Fruit
Spaces:
Loggiato San Bartolomeo - Via Vittorio Emanuele, 25 Palermo
Cassata Drone Expanded Archive - Via Malta, 21 Palermo
Press:
Ph: Antonio Gambino