The second art window “VETRINA #2” curated by Mara Sartore presents the Persian/Italian artist Elham M. Aghili
Elham M. Aghili (Sassuolo, 1989) is an Italian-born artist with Persian roots who is finishing her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. Her artwork “Hybrids” recalls an ideal garden inspired by the botanical garden “Orto dei Semplici” by Ulisse Aldrovandi in the sixteenth century at the University of Bologna. In the artist’s research, the garden constitutes an oasis and a refuge full of mystical meanings: a safe and intimate space that achieve a delicate balance between wild and controlled natural elements, whilst also being a space of social interaction. The garden, therefore, becomes a metaphor for our inner world, a microcosm of nature and humanity.
Elham has commented on her practice: “As an artist, I study the relationship between human beings, nature, and space. I am obsessed with nature, and I have transformed my obsession into an insane re-creation of my personal world, parallel to the real one. A world as wild, invasive, and almost primitive in its appearance, as surreal and calculated in every little detail as it can be. My Iranian origins and the profession in my family has always led me to live in close contact with Persian rugs. I have chosen the combination of yarn and nature to give voice to my artistic language: yarn, as a fluid and nebulous element that in my work becomes a solid and rooted form, able to creep into any ravine, and nature, because Persian carpets are historically where the first figurative representation of the garden was produced in textiles. The garden has a pervasive image in the Persian mindset and has been for centuries considered representative of an interior vision”.
Vino Vero continues its collaboration with Lightbox, a new series of events related to contemporary art curated by Mara Sartore. On a quarterly basis, international artists who work with nature are invited to present site-specific works in the window of the wine club adjacent to the bar.
With the series of exhibitions “Vetrina”, artists are invited to reflect on the theme of nature, a key element in the philosophy of Vino Vero, and to create a site-specific installation capable of communicating with a context distinctive far from the usual exhibition spaces in the city of Venice.
The next editions will see new installations from the following creatives: Matilde Sambo, Ignazio Mortellaro, and Lilla Tabasso.
Sign this petition so that Venice does not become the world’s biggest museum, with fixed opening and closing times, where people no longer have the right and freedom to live. This trend does not only affect Venice, but all Italian historic centres.
The court of Venice has issued a decree obliging Vino Vero, a natural wine bar with over 1,000 labels, to close early at 11pm. The reason for this is down to a complaint from the tenants on the floor above, according to whom the ‘noise emissions’ coming from the wine bar are intolerable, to the point of compromising their psycho-physical balance.
The judge’s order reads: ‘the anthropic activities connected with the “Vino Vero” restaurant exceed the tolerable threshold of noise emissions (…) even when there are only two people sat at a table and when there are four people on the premises, the noise emissions exceed the threshold of normal tolerability’.
We are faced with a huge paradox: if just two people sitting at a table having a glass of wine is a problem, then the activity of any venue or restaurant operating after 11pm in Venice becomes illegal.
The message which comes across is that Venice after 11pm should close and its inhabitants should stay at home under a curfew, because then even the normal passage of boats and people becomes a disturbance.