On Monday, June 15, 2020 at 6:00 pm, after the long pause caused by Covid-19 pandemic, Quartz Studio is pleased to present Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank and other problems, an edition by Jonathan Monk (Leicester, UK, 1969), purposely conceived for the Turin non-profit space. The project of this edition, following the one of Poster (Manifesto), realized in collaboration with Maurizio Nannucci in 2014, was pending since the exhibition Cool Your Jets (2016), resulting from a dialogue between Liam Gillick and Jonathan Monk on the topics of soccer and economy. Now, within the expanded time of the health emergency, that idea finally takes shape in order to support Quartz through the production of an edition of 10 (+1 AP). On the occasion, three installations have been produced. Each of them is composed by seven hexagonal cement tiles replicating the colors of the original Quartz floor cement tiles and three balls realized in Germany in 2016, thanks to the technical advice of Giulia Mainetti from Altofragile studio, Milan. The original project for the exhibition Cool Your Jets – writes the critic Marco Scotti – was born from a conversation between Jonathan Monk and Liam Gillick, in which to the questions posed by the latter related to themes of contemporary sociology, the former replied with quotations from the world of football. In Monk’s continuous interactions between conceptual art and autobiography, this sport regularly recurs, starting with his beloved Leicester City Football Club. Amidst the artist’s memories and works we find the collages The little things make all the difference, photos of actions during football matches slightly modified changing the position of the ball, Keep Stills, where letraset letters are superimposed over heads within old photographs – occasionally footballers – to compose phrases from On Kawara, or Alighiero Boetti’s world maps redesigned through football uniforms instead of national flags, and minimal sculptures by Sol LeWitt transformed into functional football goals.
Starting from September 2020, Quartz Studio exhibition programme will feature Henri Chopin (Paris, FR, 1922 – Norfolk, UK, 2008) curated by Eva Brioschi, Gernot Wieland (Vienna, AU, 1968) curated by Zasha Colah, Giovanni Kronenberg (Milan, IT, 1974), Lihi Tujerman (Tel Aviv, Israel, 1985) curated by Noam Segal, Martina Steckholzer (Vipiteno, IT, 1974) curated by Lisa Parola and Alice Channel (Oxford, UK, 1977). Such a commitment represents a growing path for the future, which cannot disregard the involvement of anybody who wish to promote, together with Quartz, a different idea of city and community. This is the reason why we have created the membership, a light and flexible form of participation and support dedicated to our community. Thought for a diverse audience with different levels of involvement, the membership will offer a variety of rewards and possibility of interaction, in turn connected with the different exhibition and publishing projects. Moreover, Quartz decided to open an Instagram page aiming for a broader communication of its own projects and a more direct connection with artists and supporters. Through these novelties, Quartz wishes to grow further, to realize its mission to the fullest and to turn it into an instrument of active participation. Together with anybody who will choose to join our community, we will support the artists, help the communication of the exhibitions, provide some educational offer for Turin University and Fine Arts Academy students, and support the promotion of external events. With our exhibitions we faced topics such as ecology, the feminine, psychomagic, capitalism, the idea of sculptural “form”, sensuality, the game, communication, politics, history, fairy tale’s narrative, the inner perception, memory and archives. In the next future, with the help from others, we would like to keep on producing complex thoughts in simple form.
Quartz Studio means to rethink itself by announcing the achievement of a new formula of confrontation and collaboration with various subjects (curators, art historians, educators, etc.), who across the time expressed and demonstrated common intentions in respect of a specific project. Keeping its nature of small independent reality, acting by site-specific projects that can be seen by everybody through its display window on the street, the space ramifies its own identity into a series of relationships that are activated according to the exhibition programme. Quartz would like to thank all the artists hosted so far (Allora & Calzadilla, Salvatore Arancio, Maurizio Camerani, Sara Enrico, Giuseppe Gabellone, Ryan Gander, Liam Gillick, Isa Melsheimer, Jonathan Monk, Maurizio Nannucci, Jorge Macchi, Adrien Missika, Riccardo Previdi, Andrea Respino, Astrid Svangren, Ola Vasiljeva, Yarisal & Kublitz e Athena Vida aka Gitte Shafer), the Fondazione Sardi per l’Arte and Lisa Parola for supporting its activity in 2018, and all those who gave and are giving their contribution in various way for a better visibility of the space and the communication of its contents, among them Elisa Barbero, Veronica Barisan, Eva Brioschi, Franz Bernardelli, Zasha Colah, Gianluigi Ricuperati, Maria Teresa Roberto, Marco Scotti, Noam Segal, Nina Wöhlk.
Quartz Studio would like to thank the artist and Sonia Rosso for the precious advice.
