Alberta Pane Gallery is pleased to present the third solo exhibition by the Italian artist Michelangelo Penso. In the Paris gallery, the interactive sculpture Human vibe accompanies a series of prints on aluminium, rubber and wood.

Michelangelo Penso’s aesthetics is inhabited by macro and micro-organisms. His work is strongly inspired by scientific iconography, mostly coming from mathematics, genetics, and astrophysics. His artworks, created from industrial materials such as polyester, rubber, resin or aluminium, evoke DNA chains as well as constellations and planetary systems.

Human vibe consists of a small meteorite-like mineral object equipped with a system of touch sensors, which send out sound frequencies according to captured vibrations. By interacting with Human vibe, we can “tune in” to a flow of information emitted by our body, which is normally undetectable for us. Interaction develops by touching both sides of the sculpture, which are coated with tin to enable capturing the electrical response from the skin (GSR). The enclosed technology (microcomputer, sensors, miniature audio systems) processes these signals continuously and makes the sculpture react with sound and vibrations.

Human vibe, located in the center of the exhibition space, is surrounded by a series of paintings (Frequencies) showing astro-seismograms coming from recordings of electromagnetic radiations emitted by three planetary systems (HD 10180, HIP 41378, TRAPPIST-1 ).

Stars, as human bodies, generate vibrations which can be recorded by specific sensors. These scientific discoveries provide today a better understanding of the functioning and composition of astronomical bodies. The exhibition Frequencies attempts to translate the invisible complexity of physical and biological interactions into a perceptible form or language. The artist invites us to become aware of the vibrations sent out by microscopic, human, and astronomical bodies. He encourages us to consider the reactions that these vibrations trigger in the elements that surround us on very different scales. As in a scientific laboratory, this exhibition allows to experience the imperceptible resonances that we produce. It also invites to look attentively at the shapes of the invisible frequencies of stars and planets.

Relations between humans and technological systems take an increasingly significant place in Michelangelo Penso’s latest research. In this context, he proposes us to experience frequencies, which link the infinitely big and the infinitely small: two systems that are invisible to the human eye.

Michelangelo Penso is one of the most influential artist on the Italian contemporary art scene. Specialized in sculpture, installation and drawing, he has always been interested in various materials. His latest works, developing a new concept of sculpture, are composed by materials of industrial origin, such as rubber and polyester belts or pieces of aluminum and steel: genetic structures expanded to fill a real space.

Working in a space between art and science, Penso’s pieces are conceived to be understood both in the macro aesthetic and in the micro aesthetic domain. His sculptures and installation are clearly and objectively perceived, but they also recall the other senses, indeed, creating different connections and images in our brain. All his consideration is about memory: the memory of a past life in a distant place (as for the drawn moleskins series) or the memory of a genetic and biological form (as for his latest works), to be continuously changed and modify.

For this exhibition, Michelangelo Penso chose to pay tribute to the French writer Gaston de Pawlowski, who inspired Marcel Duchamp in his artwork « The Large Glass », referring to Chapter XXXIII of his novel Journey to the land of the Fourth dimension (1912), in which he speaks about giant bacterium.

As the metaphor of the human condition and its fragility, a giant sculpture  (Physarum polycephalum, 2013) completely invade, in a disturbing way, the gallery space from the first to the second floor, opened and inaugurated on this occasion.

In May 2017 the gallery opened its second venue in Venice, a former carpenter’s shop of 350m², transformed into an evocative exhibition space. In the same year, the gallery undertook an editorial venture: Edizioni Alberta Pane. This new series of publications reinforces the role of the gallery as promoter of the artistic activity, fostering the public fruition, and the relationship of the artists with institutions, collectors and editorial production.

Artists: Gayle Chong Kwan, Marie Denis, Romina De Novellis, Igor Eškinja, Christian Fogarolli, Luciana Lamothe, Marie Lelouche, Marcos Lutyens, Ivan Moudov, Fritz Panzer, Michelangelo Penso, Michele Spanghero, Esther Stocker, João Vilhena