The exhibition took place on December 6, 2008, at 20.00, within a home gallery set up in a typical block of flats living room.
In the 60s and 70s, conceptual art dismantled the idea of beauty and the commercial art object produced by the artist. This was carried out through dematerialization and the use of text as medium. However, in post conceptual art and post minimalism a move towards a simultaneous recuperation of beauty and the use of concept could be observed.
Michele Bressan's aesthetic and emotional appropriationism is powerfully rooted in the medium of photography. Its apparition is only possible after going through all stages of apprenticeship leading to the possession of technical abilities that make the artist a mature photographer.
Thus, Michele Bressan goes beyond the limits of the medium with the help of a set of gestures through which he selects and designates images as ready-mades. Nevertheless, the aim of this procedure is still the creation of images that are viable from an aesthetic point of view, even if a conceptual production method is used.
The exhibition brings the raw matter from which the artist selects his images into the proximity of the viewer. The display is made up of 20 photographs taken by amateurs in the 80s which were found in Romania. These were turned into postcards, and presented in the exhibition along with a half an hour film projection of home movies shot in 1976 by an American family (the Jacksons).
A certain voyeurism is facilitated by the exhibition, as both the photos and the home movies were initially meant to be seen by the eyes of the loved ones and not by those of art lovers.
The fact that the images enter almost automatically an area of aesthetic judgment, surpassing the limit of a simple indiscretion is the merit of the person who selected them. The coherence of the aesthetics of the found photos and that of the home movies can be partly explained by the standardization of technical means, but also by a consumerist behavior that was possible in the 80s in America, which was created at the same time, or appropriated after the Revolution of 1989 in Romania as well.
And it is quite possible that each image from the home movies could go through the same procedure of printing on a postcard format. This is because all the film frames have the same image texture built up of saturated color, blurry outlines, spots and used film flaws which give them an aura of a memory turned into an object of contemplation.
The home movies and photos taken by the amateurs of the 80s as well as the poetics of their images seem to be the favorite subject, but also one of Michele Bressan's recurrent aesthetic options, whether his own production of films and photos is concerned, or those he recuperated from others.
The photos were distributed through a tombola to the public at the opening. Because of limited space, access was invitation based only. As the capacity of the living-room is of 20 people, I took the liberty of inviting personally 10 of them.
Following an internet comment on my initiative, I decided to give up the distribution of objects through the web, making it possible for 10 people to attend the openings that take place in the gallery. To this end, 10 invitations were offered to those who wanted them through a public announcement on feeder.ro.
