News: Marco Mazzi - Voyager, a Journey through Time and Water

18 January - 10 February 2008

Designed by architect Mario Botta in 1990, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art of Tokyo stands together with the Mori Arts Center and the Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Art as one of the major institutions in Japan and in Asia in the field of contemporary visual arts. Large retrospectives of Joseph Beuys, Larry Clark, Henry Darger, Jean Fabre, Federico Herrero, Mike Kelly, Barry Mc Gee, Nam June Paik, Gerda Steiner& Jorg Lenzlinger, were held at the museum during the past years.  

Together with the exhibitions, the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art organized lectures, workshops for children and project rooms, showing equal interest in and attention to both enstabilished and emerging artists.

Daniele Ugolini Contemporary is delighted to announce the premiere of its artist, Marco Mazzi, at the Watari Museum.  Mazzi is the first contemporary Italian artist to be invited to the Watari's project room, where he will premiere his film, Voyager - A Journey through Time and Water (2005-2008). The exhibition will be introduced by curator Koichi Watari (Documenta IX assistant curator, and curator of the Japanese pavilion of the Johannesburg Biennale in 1995) and by Japanese renewed contemporary poet and performer Gozo Yoshimasu. Mazzi's exhibition marks the first solo exhibition of an Italian contemporary artist to be held at the Watari Museum since its opening.

Mazzi's filmVoyager is a sensory journey with images that show two parallel and diverse stories, bound to each other on many levels. Voyager deals with moods that have no name, abstract and indefinable situations for which there are no enunciations, but can only be alluded to with the typology of a different kind of speech: that of images.

With his memory a man evokes a car trip along a deserted street. The memory of this trip is transformed (in his imagination or in his thoughts) into an ambiguous presentiment of death, or of a termination of something. The second situation films a young Japanese woman gazing into space from the roof of a skyscraper. In Voyager, the problem that anguishes these two characters is never directly named. The man and woman, immersed in their memories and their visions, yearn with their thoughts but never verbalize their feelings or indicate precisely their desires. The particularity of Voyager is exactly this: for the duration of the film, Mazzi avoids the use of words to make clear what the feelings are that activate the characters' thoughts. Instead, the artist prompts our perceptions with the aid of rapid sequences (shot on super 8mm) that follow one after the other in an ambiguous atmosphere, suspended and dreamlike.

Following Mazzi's exhibition at the Watari Museum of Contemprary Art, the artist will be invited to the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS). He will project a selection of his works and will hold discussions with the students about video art and experimental cinematography.  

Marco Mazzi (Born 1980, lives and works in Florence and Tokyo) is a contemporary artist and filmmaker. He studied contemporary literature at the University of Florence, and spent considerable time in Japan studying photography. He is curator of the book The Other Voice (Scheiwiller Books, 2005) by Yoshimasu Gozo. Among the Artist's most recent exhibitions are: the 798 Art District in Beijing (China), the Komaba Art Museum of Tokyo (Japan), and "Artissima14", Turin(Italy). Mazzi's writings and pictures have been published by "Flash Art", "Exibart", "Arte e Critica", "Gendaishi Techo", "Koku Bungaku".  The artist's primary medium is film. Mazzi is represented by Daniele Ugolini Contemporary, Florence (Italy).

The catalogue of the exhibition, curated by Gaia Pasi, is published by "Gli Ori" editions, Prato (Italy).

Information about the exhibition:

Title: Voyager, A Journey through Time and Water.

Artist: Marco Mazzi.

Curator: Koichi Watari.

Genere: Solo Show - Project Room Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (Japan).

Location: The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, 3-7-6 Jingumae, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Date: January 18th 2008, hrs 18-21.

Ticket: 1800 Yen.

Progettato nel 1990 dall'architetto Mario Botta, il Watari Museum of Contemporary Art di Tokyo e' da considerarsi insieme al Mori Arts Center di Tokyo e al 21st Century Museum di Kanazawa fra le principali istituzioni giapponesi che si occupano di arte contemporanea e fra le piu' significative in Asia. Oltre ad ospitare grandi retrospettive di Joseph Beuys, Larry Clark, Henry Darger, Jean Fabre, Federico Herrero, Mike Kelly, Barry Mc Gee, Nam June Paik, Gerda Steiner& Jorg Lenzlinger, il museo ha dato vita a un intensa attivia' di conferenze, workshop, laboratori per bambini, project room, prestando pari attenzione sia ad artisti gia' affermati che alla scena emergente. Il primo artista italiano invitato a presentare un lavoro per la project room del museo e' Marco Mazzi con la proiezione del mediometraggio Voyager, a Journey through Time and Water (2005-2008). Il film sara' presentato in anteprima mondiale dal curatore Koichi Watari (assistente curatore a Documenta IX e curatore del padiglione giapponese della Johannesburg Biennale del 1995) e dal poeta e performer Gozo Yoshimasu. Quella di Mazzi e' anche la prima mostra personale che il Watari Museum organizza di un artista italiano contemporaneo. 

Voyager e' un percorso sensoriale per immagini che narra due storie parallele e diverse, ma intrecciate fra loro su vari livelli. In questo film Mazzi affronta stati d'animo senza nome, situazioni astratte e indefinibili, per le quali non esiste enunciazione, ma alle quali e' possibile soltanto alludere con una tipologia di vocabolario differente, quello delle immagini.Un uomo evoca con la memoria un viaggio in auto lungo una strada deserta. Il ricordo di questo viaggio si trasforma (nel sogno o nei pensieri dell'uomo) in una ambigua prefigurazione della morte, o nel presentimento della terminazione di qualcosa, forse soltanto la fine di un'estate. La seconda situazione riprende una giovane donna che guarda il vuoto dal tetto di un grattacielo. Nel film il problema che angustia i due personaggi non viene mai nominato apertamente. L'uomo e la donna, immersi tra i loro ricordi e le loro visioni, vagheggiano con i pensieri, ma senza mai verbalizzare i loro sentimenti o indicare precisamente i loro desideri. Pertanto, la drammaticita' della narrazione esplode nel non detto. La particolarita' del film e' proprio questa: Mazzi per tutta la durata della pellicola evita di esplicare le problematiche che attivano il pensiero dei personaggi, suggerendocene le percezioni con l'ausilio di rapide sequenze (girate in super 8) che si susseguono in una atmosfera temporale sospesa e onirica.

In occasione della mostra di Mazzi al Watari Museum, l'artista sara' invitato alla Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) per incontrare gli studenti e discutere il suo lavoro.