SOZZANI - Mimmo Rotella Institute

The Galleria Carla Sozzani presents the exhibition Mimmo Rotella. Erotique from October 8th to November 13th  2016. This show is part of a larger review Mimmo Rotella 2016 involving Cardi Gallery, Fondazione Marconi, Galleria Carla Sozzani, Robilant + Voena in Milan.

The selection of works exhibited on this occasion focused on eroticism with an overview of the lesser known techniques of Rotella’s oeuvre: the photographic transfer reproduction (in which a photograph is transferred onto an emulsified canvas) and frottage (obtained by sprinkling a nitrate solvent onto the pages taken from magazines and transferring the image obtained to a sheet of white paper).The realization of these works is closely linked to the period between the end of the Sixties and the  Seventies, when the artist mainly lived in Paris while travelling first in New York-where he took a room at the Chelsea Hotel-and then in the French Riviera: here, he get involved with the atmosphere and international glamour of Gassin, Ramatuelle and Saint-Tropez. After the "Sixty-eight" the so-called sexual revolution dismantled the conservative ethics: the "liberation of eros" was theorized as a liberation not only of sexuality, but also as a vehicle to unleash all the creative energies, before restrained by social conditioning mechanisms.

Rotella is moved by the analysis and exploration of the erotic dynamics: "Next to my work, I count a lot on my erotic life which I never omit, because it also serves as inspiration and, perhaps, as the work at the same time. On this fact my life is focused, it relies on these erotic adventures, then at some time, they become the basis for my future work and present actions."