Marco RAPARELLI

Abandoned Dog Animation | dv | color | 4'31'' | Italy | 2008 © Marco Raparelli "Abandoned dog Marco RAPARELLI : Abandoned Dog The story constitutes the main feature in Marco Raparelli's animations. Nevertheless, it is not a starting point. The animations are deviations of free and improvised images which are bound to each other in order to create infinite microcosms. The most recent of Raparelli's animations tells the story of an abandoned dog who, while walking by the sea, goes on different adventures, meets friends and enemies and is confronted by a multiplicity of abstract situations. The video works as a sort of metaphor of life where the dog plays the main character. He is a pariah who must cope to survive from day to day. The soundtrack to the video consists of a piano score by Cosme McMoon, who often accompanied American soprano Florence Foster Jenkins who, while having a mediocre vocal quality, was able to produce herself thanks to her immense wealth. Marco Raparelli was born in Rome in 1975. He graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Rome and studied animation at the College of Art of Loughborough in London. He collaborated on the satirical weekly "Cuore," and later worked as a cartoon artist for some time. In his artistic practice he uses paint, drawing and three-dimensional animation. Many exhibits, both collective and individual, have been devoted to his work. They include, "Clearly Invisible" in Consulta, Santa Monica Art Center in Barcelona in 2007, "Animotion" at the Gallery F15 in Moss, Norway in 2007, "Pina ti amo Catania," at the Ugo Ferranti Gallery in Rome, "As a Drop of Water on a K-way" at the Careof in Milan. His next individual exhibition will take place in January 2009, at the Umberto di Marino Gallery in Naples. Other text Thank you for your art, Mr Raparelli Cecilia Canziani A letterhead of the Centre d’Art Santa Monica in Barcelona bears the writing “I Like to work site specific” and the profile of a ladder . The design is a part of an installation created by Marco Raparelli and Stefania Galegati, wich in a very subtle way deconstructs the abused notion of a site specifiticy: what do we identify with the word site? The A5 piece of paper , the artist preferred format – or the museum, here taken back to its brand?Or never a notion of place –not yet context – but only physical space: a ladder, a part for the whole. The rethoric of artspeak is laid bare as often happens in the work of Marco Raparelli. The demi-monde of art moves around the same urban landscape in wich the artist has set the stories of Bef and her friends : absurd, bad and ugly characters from unlikely lives, but who you love end up loving. The stories of Marco Raparelli are not linear narrations : they are created from an image, from a news story or simply from a word wich is the beginning of an often circular story. Like the installation of a Bef City where a series of drawing around a pillar builds the continuous perimeter of a city. In the installation, the construction of the narration is often entrusted to to viewer: in Bef City, going going around the walls, the viewers find himself composing a sequence shot, with what many films about the city start. For his solo exibition Pina ti amo Catania, five hundreddrawings were rappresented to create a large narrative cage inside wich several stories could be freely invented, followed, constructed.Or still- going back to the site specific concept- on the walls of a room in Bratislava, Raparelli recreateds La cucina di Bef , with a crucifix- hung on the wall and a saucepan on the stove, clues that make you think that Bef lives in italy. In the centre of the room, there is a television, (real this time)wich you imageBef watches while she cooks, just like millions of other housewiwes around the world. Like us, after all, who stop for a moment in Befs house to watch the animation video wich complete the work. Image, in open order, a women in profile, with dark glasses and her mouth with a sulky pout is the testimonial of Chanel. On the buses wich move around her paper city you often catch a glimpse of La Perla posters.These drawings work inside an istallation on a museum as well as in the pages of a (real) magazine. Whether they have minimal dimension or fill up a room, the works of Marco Raparelli preserve the lightness of the observation. Notes about the world (the art world and others:is the same)which surround us seen through an ironic yet never cynical viewpoint of the artist. The problem arises when, after having spent some time with him, you look around yourself, one day, you pick up the phone and “Marco? I saw this woman who looked like Bef”. The universe of Raparelli is incredibly contagious. List of exhibition, filmography... Filmography -Ping Pong, 2008 1`31`` -Abandoned Dog, 2008 4`31`` -Fly Mc Fly, 2008 1`00`` -Pattini, 2007 00 50`` -Ristorante Italia, 2007 4`30`` -Pass me by, 2007 4`20`` Restroom, 2006 4`16`` -Elefant and man, 2006 00 56`` Group Show and screening • 2008 • - Sarah’s Journey Section of the 7th Bulgarian Biennal of Contemporary Art in Varna, Bulgaria , a cura di Lorenzo Bruni. • - Videart Yearbook Ex convento di Santa Cristina, Bologna, a cura di Renato Barilli, Fabiola Naldi • - One of these things is not like the other things, Unosunove contemporary art, Rome, a cura di Raimundas Malasauskas • – Beware of the wolf, American Accademy, Roma, a cura di Lorenzo Benedetti • – Places for Heroes, Gallery Via Nuova, Firenze, a cura di Lorenzo Bruni • – A,B,F,G,M,N,O,R,O,Z, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia a cura di Chiara Agnello • – Screening, Haunch of Venison, Londra • – Opla video animation from Italy, Galerie Vanessa Quang, Parigi a cura di Raffaele Gavarro • – Unfair Fair, LotoArte, Roma a cura di Cecilia Canziani and Vincent Honorè • • 2007 • – New Entry, Careof, Milano, a cura di Chiara Agnello • – Animotion, Gallery F15, Moss, Oslo, a cura di Bjørn Hegardt • – Fair play 2007 film and video award, Play Gallery, Berlino • – “Dopofestival”, Pesaro Film Festival, a cura di Adrienne Drake e Antonio Pezzuto • – “Clearly Invisibile” Consulta, Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona, a cura di Filipa Ramos • • 2006 • – “Generazioni/ Rigenerazioni”, Premio del Golfo, Biennale Europea di Arti visive La Spezia, a cura di Bruno Corà • Novembre 2006 – “Seven in a room”, Temple University, Roma, workshop a cura di Cecilia Canziani • Ottobre 2006 – “3500 cm2”, American Accademy, Roma / Assab 1, Milan, a cura di Lorenzo Benedetti • Gennaio 2002 - “Lavori in corso”, Milano. curated by Roberto Pinto • Febbraio 2001 - “Emporio”, Care/of Viafarini, Milano, a cura di Luca Beatrice and Alessandra Galletta