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Rebecca Agnes
Luoghi che non esistono più
exhibition views at RITA URSO artopiagallery, Milan

September 17 | October 15, 2010

In the space of the gallery, 16 models made of wood and painted paper, reconstruct some sights of Milan during the period in which Rebecca Agnes lived there. "I lived in Ticinese in Milan, a very specific district because of the things that were and that happened. The "Green Bar", where I took coffee and cigarettes every day, was the bar of the residents of the street but also one of the venues on Saturday afternoon for the dark scene in Milan from the early 90s until the end. The record store "Ice Age" under my apartment was until 2006 a benchmark for alternative music, with "Supporti Fonografici". The cheapest and friendly "Ristorante Cinese" in Corso di Porta Ticinese has changed management and became a Japanese restaurant in 2003. At number 68 has finally closed the "Ambulatorio Veterinario Dottor delle Donne." The "Panificio" closed around 2003. To these remains to add the "Rainbow Club" (1993-2008) located in Via Besenzanica 3 and the "Linus Club" (1994-2000) behind Via Larga. " This is a selection of different places: common characteristic is that they are "Places that no longer exist," they were simply replaced by others in the process of transformation of urban and social fabric of the city. The trace and memory are the origin of these models: the artist is made them based both on his memories, some more accurate than other approximate, both on the tracks imprinted in the collective memory of a certain generation. Precisely for this reason are extremely simplified, skinny, characterized by only a few details: a sign, the color of a wall or mirror. The works are not to scale because in memory there is not numerical proportion, they are simply large or small, far or near. This "possible city" created by the artist is clearly highlighted in the catalog, published by Artopia, accompanying the show: it was built along the lines of science fiction Urania and collects not only images of works but also the stories of several places and actions taken by social-network. The models, which follow one another according to the real topography, are suspended on shelves governed by steel cables. This set-up air, light and wide-ranging reports to the impalpability of memory itself, to the spirit, to the character of the place, to its “genius loci”. Next to "Luoghi che non esistono più" in Milan Rebecca Agnes also has "Altri luoghi che non esistono più." This is the title of the installation located on the largest wall of the gallery where more than a hundreds of postcard-size works carried out by different people which Rebecca asked to draw a interesting place for them but that no longer exists. Being able to draw is not important: what matters is the memory. The drowings come from Italy, of course, but also from Germany, Spain, Ecuador, Estonia, Great Britain, Greece, the USA etc.

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