On March 12, at the new independent Roman space Studio Orma, Arrocco will open. The installation by Paolo Martellotti and Marco Celentani is curated by Studio Orma.
The exhibition originates from a working relationship, dialogue, and observation between the two artists. For about a year, Marco Celentani attended Paolo Martellotti’s studio as an assistant. From this proximity, an initial image emerged, arriving in a dream, which then became the core of the project. In this vision, Martellotti appears in the shadows, almost unreachable, hidden by his own works, by the tools of his craft, by the years of work accumulated in the space.
ARROCCO, a great wall composed of works of art
Arrocco takes shape starting from this image, translating it into an installation. Before our eyes, a large wall composed of sculptures, logs, tools, pigments, books, and materials from Martellotti’s studio in Trastevere. The elements are first removed from their usual arrangement. They are then recomposed according to Celentani’s unconscious framework, redesigning the space of Studio Orma.
The wall divides the space in two and determines the position of the viewer. On one side, the physical impact of the material – wood, iron, tools, worked surfaces, traces of making. On the other, a presence subtracted, defended, hidden. In this sense, the installation approaches the form of the portrait. Yet, it is not a frontal or descriptive portrait, but a construction that returns, through fragments and clues, an artist, his imagination, and his working time.
The title of the installation mimics a chess move
The title “Arrocco” refers to the chess move in which the King is protected by a defensive structure. At the same time, it evokes an imagery of siege and fortification: objects change function, becoming barrier, guard, temporary architecture. The exhibition works on this ambivalence — protection and separation, care and distance — transforming the studio into a mental and material scene.
Castling relates two perspectives and two positions. On one side Martellotti, author of the works and the symbolic world that generated them. On the other side Celentani, artist and observer, who intervenes on their arrangement and constructs an original interpretation.
The result is a shared and relational form, between life and dream, in which two distant generations meet through art.
Orma Studio
Studio Orma continues with Arrocco its research on site-specific practices capable of transforming the exhibition space into a field of experience, relation, and interpretation.
It is an independent exhibition space dedicated to contemporary art in the Monteverde district, in Rome. It was founded by Edoardo Innaro and Marco Celentani. It develops a program of exhibitions and site-specific projects with particular attention to formal experimentation, the dialogue between practices, and the transformation of space. Recent exhibitions include: Emanuela Moretti a screen has no edges curated by Gianlorenzo Chiaraluce; Margaux Compte-Mergier Matière Survivante; Leonardo Zappalà La scrofa che divora la prole.
Paolo Martellotti
Paolo Martellotti (Rome, 1943) is an artist, architect, and museographer. In the Seventies, with the Gruppo Labirinto, he participated in important national and international exhibitions of “architect-artist”. Since the Eighties, he has continued his work with Il Laboratorio. His works are present in private collections and permanent collections. Among these, AAM – Architettura Arte Moderna (Francesco Moschini collection), the Associazione culturale Arte Tribale (Spoleto), the Tchoban Foundation Museum for Architectural Drawing (Berlin), the State Museum of Architecture A.V. Shchusev (Moscow), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the MAXXI (Rome), in addition to museums and institutions in Italy and abroad.
Author of artworks conceived for gardens and always fascinated by myths related to trees, he was invited with a garden project to the first Biennale of Architecture in 1980 at the Centre Pompidou. In the early years of the new millennium, he ventured into the mysterious and immeasurable world of trees and wood sculpture. Some of his sculptures have appeared in group and solo exhibitions, including “Bosco magico. Gli alberi sciamanici di Paolo Martellotti, Musei di Villa Torlonia, Casina delle Civette 2018. He lives and works in Rome and Pescasseroli.
Marco Celentani
Marco Celentani (Rome, 1997) is an artist and curator. Co-founder of Studio Orma, he carries out research that intertwines artistic practice, curatorship, and the construction of exhibition devices. Since 2019, he has organized and curated numerous projects with Orma, combining pictorial practice with work on space, the dialogue between works, and curatorial mediation.
Contacts
Studio Orma – Via Francesco Amici 10, Rome
[email protected]
+39 331 769 4025 | @studioorma
