The most complete publication ever dedicated to the Tuscan artist.
In Japanese Nō theater, Hagoromo is the title of a pièce featuring the fisherman Hakuryo, a magical mantle of phoenix feathers, and a Tennin, a dancing spirit. A story that gives its name both to what Massimo Bartolini considers his first mature work and to this publication, aimed at retracing in chronological order the stages of his more than 30-year artistic career.
The book is an all-encompassing monograph on the artist from his beginnings to the present, and is intended as a guide to navigate his multifaceted research, made up of an incredible variety of languages and materials: from performance works to drawings; from large public installations to small works-sketches assembled in the studio; from sound sculptures to photographs and videos.
The volume, which accompanies the exhibition at the Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, is divided into four parts: the first collects curatorial texts and essays by international authors that explore Massimo Bartolini's themes and language; the second hosts a rich iconographic section arranged chronologically; the third is an in-depth look at the sound installation In là (2021-2022), created on the occasion of the exhibition specifically for the museum spaces and accompanied by the polyphonic score by musician Gavin Bryars; and the last hosts the most comprehensive bio-bibliographical materials collected so far on the artist.
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, in 2022-2023.
Massimo Bartolini (born 1962 in Cecina) studied as a surveyor in Livorno (1976–1981) and graduated from the Accademia di Firenze (1989). He teaches visual arts at UNIBZ Bolzano, NABA (Nuova Accedemia di Belle Arti, Milan) and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. Also following his experiences in the world of theatre, Massimo Bartolini's first works were performances involving live music, theatre machinery and dancers. Thereafter he devoted himself separately to installation and performance, thereby isolating the actors from the theatrical machinery and the stage in order to create a space that directly alters the viewers' perceptions also through an architectural narrative. Bartolini's typical attitude is one of extreme openness across mediums, which he uses and reinvents in unorthodox ways. He uses an extraordinary variety of languages and materials: from performance works involving temporary actors, the public or the architectural space, to drawings produced over deliberately long periods of time; from large public installations often created with the collaboration of other hands and knowledge, to small sketch-works assembled in the studio; from complex sound sculptures to photographs and videos. Bartolini is one of the most internationally-known Italian artists. Since 1993, he has exhibited in numerous solo and collective exhibitions in Italy and abroad.
Edited by Luca Cerizza and Cristiana Perrella.
Contributions by Fiona Bradley, Luca Cerizza, Laura Cherubini, Carlo Falciani, Chus Martínez, Jeremy Millar, Cristiana Perrella, Marco Scotini, David Toop, Andrea Viliani.
