One exhibition, one artist, two cities. The exhibit of Rob Johannesma is organized by the Marino Marini Museum in Florence and  Ar/ge kunst Galerie Museum.

The artist’s first solo show in Italy will take place contemporaneously in both institutions.

In the last few years, Johannesma has focused on an exploration of the symbolic qualities of photographic reproductions. By means of a sophisticated comparative methodology of interpreting the images he attempts to establish a resonant relationship between the icons of the artistic-historic heritage of Western society and the materials offered by the globalized media universe.

The textual codes that have been used to construct the visual imagination in the Western world from the Renaissance until now are the object of his research, which aims to investigate the nature of contemporary photographic images and their form of historic evidence.

The photographic images that Johannesma selects within his research, are images that accompany the international daily press, as a resource of direct information of global events. The artist focuses and preserves these images, which by their nature serve as visual materials of hyper-accelerated consumerism, since they are meant for expiration within the span of a few short hours after their creation. This involves predominantly photo-reportage of wars, images of violence and scenes characterized by strong geopolitical content.

In this exhibit, the artist will show a completely new monumental photography work, World-Wielding (2011), produced by the two institutions, which reflects on the relation between contemporary photography and art history, beginning with the reproduction of a photograph that was published by a Dutch daily newspaper in May 2011. The photographic work depicts the skeleton of a human being lying on the ground in Srebrenica, the site of the mass murder of Bosnian Muslims in 1995, during the course of the Bosnian War.

A large table hosts Untitled (2012), a collage of photographs, taken from daily journals; three video works complete the exhibit.

Opening Friday, February 3, 2012, 6:30 pm

ROB JOHANNESMA
World-Wielding
Museo Marino Marini, piazza San Pancrazio Firenze

from February 4 to April 12

open 10 am - 5 pm closed Tuesday and Sunday

info: + 39 055 219432

web site of the museum