Claudio Cassano Soccer Heroes on Show De Bola
Show de bola (Football Show) in Brasil is an informal exclamation to define something very beautiful, spectacular, that feels good and it’s loved by everybody. After its initial use for excellent football performances, the term is now used for every positive and beautiful thing.
The eclectic art of Claudio Cassano is the conjunction between the traditions of neoclassical technics, builded over Academical studies, and contemporary neo Pop languages, developed in time with a long list of collaborations and clients: from his creations for Nike, Fiat, Yamaha and Casio, to pubblications on Vogue, Dazed and Confused, Nylon, Bon, Ryuko Tsushin; until exhibitions at Colette in Paris, BBS in Tokyo and Diesel Gallery in New York.
This new exhibition project by Claudio Cassano and sponsored by 2DM presents a series of brand new artworks linked to soccer world imaginary and its surroundings.
By choosing as protagonists few football players and sport events, Cassano blended together his pictorial arts with photography and video under a Neo Pop imaginary, usually perceived as low profile such as the web: amatorial clips in Youtube style, still life pictures that remind Ebay’s selling articles aesthetics, searched pictures from Google that are re-edited, used and re-interpreted.
A visual logic that jokes around football players homonymies, following their crossings through different teams, around their quite Kabalistic numbers worn on the t-shirts. This create a new universe adding to the artist’s classic artworks characterizing his previous production of large scale’s paintings.
An important part of the exhibition is linked to a particular iconographic vision of the player’s jerseys, and a lot of attention is driven on homonymies between Antonio Cassano and the artist, between the two Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, in add to David Beckham, who take part in the group called “The Ronaldos”.
Based on logics about players and numbers, the jerseys are reproduced in big size photography compositions: “Mosaico Soccer Kabala” that recreates huge contemporary mosaics, shown in modular way like you can find on supporters memorabilia stands that sells soccer items outside the stadium.
In the sculpture installation called “Walz Disnee Superstar” few football players are transformed as big peluche monsters in human size, caught as in still frame in the middle of a spectacular action.
A female character, the Muse of the artist, finally joins and makes his comparison in these atmospheres: she’s the subject of some paintings but she’s also the meaning role of the video “Saint Jordi & the Dragon”, in which she faces from the border of the football field the moves of Cristiano Ronaldo during the semi-final of Champions League Barcellona – Manchester United (this match has been disputed also this year in the final).
Through clear references on mass products from Andy Warhol and on Marcel Duchamp’s Ready Made, Cassano use Duchamp’s voice for his sound installation, generating a radio-cronicle on art lessons, edited together with digital recording sounds kept from stadiums, like supporters chorus. Monday 22nd June don’t miss the vernissage at P4, Via Pestalozzi 4, Milano from 8.30 pm! C.C.&E.Lusso
