gallery two | Silence | Shape

These photographic artworks present themselves as natural landscapes in which we see ‘exploded’ and spreading coloured smoke, jarring both thematically and visually with the context and the setting. The noise of the world fades, urging us to consider that while we are immersed in deafening shouts and obsessive information around the clock, a mysterious pink smoke that explodes without sound in a snowy plain perhaps acquires greater significance than a news story released at full gallop by the media. The suggestion of ‘sacredness’ that flows from the images is undeniable as they express a sense of immanence of mystery, making the absence of sound visible. (Adapted from “Riot and Beauty,” Fundaciòn Loewe, Madrid, Spain.)

Filippo Minelli, born 1983 in Brescia, Italy, is a contemporary artist living and working between Barcelona and London, analyzing and searching architecture, politics, communication, and geography to create installations and performances documented through photography and video. Interested in the landscape and public spaces, Minelli initially engaged in unauthorized actions, which made him a pioneer of what was later labeled as ‘street art,’ and then he continued a personal path based on the aesthetics of protest, bringing politics to an anthropological and introspective level by decontextualizing the use of tear gas, reversing the function of flags, and borrowing from the aesthetics of protest slogans. His works have been exhibited worldwide in museums and magazines. www.filipponminelli.com