Galleria Tiziana Di Caro is pleased to host the first solo exhibition by Teresa Gargiulo (Vico Equense, 1996), called “Come disegnare un'isola” [How To Draw An Island], opening on Saturday 16 January 2021, 11:00 to 19:00.

Teresa Gargiulo’s practice includes drawing, writing, sculpture, photography and installation, and is centered on language and geography which are used as a pretext to explore identity and the changes this can undergo according to space and territory.

The exhibition includes works created between 2019 and 2020, and opens with a large piece called “grafemi per le mani, fonemi per le orecchie” [Graphemes For The Hands, Phonemes For The Ears], an installation involving one hundred and eighty sheets and which resembles a giant alphabet where phonemes replace letters: the piece addresses the variations in perception that usually take place when listening to people expressing themselves in different languages. Starting from this assumption, Gargiulo carries out an investigation on the expressive elements that belong to a language. Each phoneme has a specific connotation which if changed produces a variation of meaning in the word which it is part of, creating a short circuit that reflects the situation of those who, speaking a language other than their own, unconsciously alter their usual way of thinking and thus communicating, and at the same time are also perceived differently by those who are listening. This work probes the relationship that exists between us and the others, and the interference that a means of expression can cause.

In the second room, we find series of works related to a larger project called Ruenmp. The first series is called “How To Draw An Island - Notes” and consists of experimental works involving the frottage technique. These works use parquet strips as a basis onto which newspaper cutouts have been glued. It is on one of these that the artist reads ‘Ruenmp’ for the first time. Ruenmp is a sequence of letters that looks like a word but has no actual meaning, and is used as a pretext to map out a fake geography. Through frottage, Gargiulo outlines four bands akin to islands. Together they form an archipelago that becomes a place for linguistic experimentation, the result of which is a playful language with a penchant for change and thus potentially innovative.

Other drawings portray islands represented more synthetically, using signs that refer to realistic descriptions but which in actual fact lack any connection with real geography. The islands that Teresa Gargiulo gives us are nothing more than fantastic projections that deceive those who observe them, because they are described using a plausible scientific setting which, however, lacks any actual grounding.

A small diptych combines linguistic experimentation, which derives from the discovery of the word Ruenmp and the related island described once again through a simple perimeter, but without any physical, political or anthropic feature.

A flag symbolizing another island flutters on the balcony of the gallery, linking the space outside to the one inside, and announcing the approach to the imaginary archipelago.

In the next room there is another linguistic experimentation expressed in the form of an installation involving balloons forming the word OLITI. This comes from omitting the syllable “vi” from the words “olivi” [olive trees] and “viti” [grapevines], the remaining fragments then attached together, according to the puzzle game called “lucchetto” [padlock] and generating a fake word without any semantic value, but with precise visual and aesthetic features and which hangs floating midair. A large series of fake words, all starting with the letter O, is featured in a wall installation: a sort of dictionary without definitions, but only consisting of words amassed in a phonetic-verbal and visual cacophony.

The project closes by featuring a kit in the last room: an airtight bag containing a map with the instructions for building the island, a dictionary containing the list of words created during the experimentation, a piece of chalk for drawing the island and a small poster that reads “Il gioco è in possesso della significanza” [The Game Holds The Significance], suggesting that any meaning upshot can undergo speculation.

Teresa Gargiulo is the winner of the Neapolitan stage of Jaguart, an innovative artistic project born in 2019 of the dialogue between Artissima and Jaguar Land Rover, in a common aim to support emerging art and promote positive and long-lasting synergies among their respective users.

The same day and times will see the opening at the Shazar Gallery of Simone Cametti’s solo exhibition “Primitivo”, curated by Valentina Muzi.