Filippo Leonardi (b. 1970, Catania) lives and works between Catania and Turin. Major projects include installations and participatory events such as: Super-eroi, developed within the exhibition Big social game, Biennale Internazionale Arte Giovane di Torino, directed by Michelangelo Pistoletto (2002); Senza ragione, displayed at Galleria Gianluca Collica, Catania (2007) and Galleria Meno Parkas in Kunas, Lithuania (2008); Più nessuna danza, an environmental installation for the exhibition Greenhouse at Parco d’Arte Vivente (PAV), Turin (2008); Colombaia, exhibited at Galleria Collicaligreggi, Catania (2012), Marselleria, Milan, PAV, Turin, Museo delle Scienze, Trento, and Filanda, Tuscany (2013 – 2015); Perchè mangiamo gli animali, showed at American Academy, Rome (2013) and Museo Riso, Palermo (2014); Flora Plastica, presented at BOCS, Catania and Fabbriche Chiaramontane, Agrigento (2015); La visione dell’onnivoro, a site-specific installation at BOCS, Catania (2016). Leonardi is currently represented by Galleria Collicaligreggi, Catania.
FIVE YEARS
Unit 2B1 | Boothby Road | Archway, London | N19 4AJ
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Flora Plastica
Filippo Leonardi
19-27 August.2017
Preview 19 August 6-9pm
Gallery Open Sun 20 August 1-5pm
all other times by appointment
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Five Years is pleased to present Flora Plastica, the first UK solo exhibition of Italian artist Filippo Leonardi. Taking its title from the eponymous series, the show brings together selected works from the cycles: Senza Ragione (Without Reason), 2007 – 2009; La Visione dell’Onnivoro (The Omnivore’s Vision), 2016; and Flora Plastica (Plastic Flora), 2016; alongside the film Prefillossera (2017).
Leonardi’s research focuses on the relationship between humans and other species, emphasising alternative perspectives to an anthropocentric vision of the world. In Flora Plastica, works from different periods establish a dialogue with one another, providing an overview of the last ten years of the artist’s practice. The installation aims to reflect on the passage from life to death, drawing attention to the slippages and mutations that derive from it. The sculpture Rosa (2011), for instance, sees the desert plant Selaginella Lepidophylla (Rose of Jericho) performing its well-known practice of self-preservation within the hostile, man-made, habitat of a hairdresser’s hood. Similarly, a sculpture from La Visione dell’Onnivoro challenges the apparent superiority of mankind over other beings; whereas works from the Flora Plastica series offer a glimpse into the skeletal fixity of plants after death, visually contrasting with the plasticity that characterises them while alive. Shifting the artist’s intention to a yet another level is Prefillossera (2017): a film, which was first showed at The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington USA, as part of the exhibition Due South (November 2016). The work questions the notion of longevity – the understanding of which varies, when applied to the lifecycle of both animals and plants. The presentation at Five Years therefore unfolds as a journey, which contextualised some of the milestones in the artist’s research.
Flora Plastica originates from a collaboration between Five Years and the artist-run space BOCS, Catania, and is curated by Amy E. Brown and Miriam La Rosa.