Francesco
Bocchini

In Francesco Bocchini’s oeuvre the treatment of Eros and Thanatos is constantly changing. On the one hand there’s a ground-breaking vitality, an interplay between physical and spiritual movements, which repeatedly draws the viewer into its spell; and on the other hand, Bocchini is not the sort of artist who wants to please his audience at any price. Both in his mechanical works as well as in his most recent, wonderful works on paper, his re-use of existing, already experienced images and materials offer an opportunity to release hidden impulses, society’s poorly suppressed instincts. For this reason, Bocchini, the master of recycling – from used patterns for textile printing in Gambettola to sheets of scrap metal from the Romagna – has always created his own enchanted, yet rather anarchic universe, which is shaped not only by history and highbrow culture, but also by popular culture. There’s a kind of “koinè” or lingua franca in his work, in which languages merge into one other: Italian, French or German mingle in an omnipresence of elements which are in continuous tension with one another. In his often large-scale works on paper, colour assumes a vague, threatening background, the pictures are made up of excerpts, snippets from old newspapers, re-used photos, remnants of some public occasion which have faded with the forgetfulness of time. In addition, the artist obscures parts of the faces with dark shapes, reminiscent of the photos of John Baldessari, the great American artist and photographer whose father came from Trento. A form of psychoanalytical censorship, or a way of drawing attention to something by hiding it. The pleasure is not just that of the god Eros, who is nevertheless present in many of the works on display, but also that of the text, to quote an essay by Roland Barthes ("The Pleasure of the Text"). Francesco Bocchini does possess an unremitting power of narration, he is an attentive reader who is well able to construct visual stories.
Something always escapes you in his works, or gets deleted, something which makes us keen to have another look and to explore it more deeply. The artist builds mechanisms, visual or real, but they are always machines which elicit meaning and pleasure. Even when his long handwritten lists of names recall an inventory of a cemetery for less significant and greater heroes. His art always takes a deep breath, and the viewer completes the work with his questions, with the thousand question marks posed by the works of Francesco Bocchini, by encouraging the subconscious to reveal itself.
 
Valerio Dehò
 

Exhibitions

Among the main solo shows we remember: 2022, Testa carbonara, Studio Cenacchi, Bologna (I); 2019, La costruzione del piacere, Galleria Alessandro Casciaro, Bolzano (I) and Carte cannibali, Galleria Il Vicolo, Cesena (I); 2019, La costruzione del piacere, Galleria Alessandro Casciaro, Bolzano (I); Germinal, con Giovanna Caimmi, Cantieri Cristallino - Corte Zavattini 31, Cesena (I); Mercuriale, Gasparelli Galleria Arte Contemporanea, Fano (I); 2018, Carnival, Studio Cenacchi Arte Contemporanea, Bologna (I); 2017, Il cattivo sogno, Palazzo Ducale, Massa (I); Transambulare, Espace d'exposition du Toboggan, Lyon (F); 2016, Un peso cubitale, con Giacomo Cossio, Museo della Città, Rimini (I); 2015, Blumen, mari&cò for Expo, Milano (I); Un corpo metaforico, Francesca Antonini Arte Contemporanea, Roma (I); 2014, L’estro della pecora, Galleria l’Affiche, Milano (I); Magic, Torri dell’acqua, Budrio di Bologna (I); 2013, L’albero filosofico, Galleria Campari, Sesto San Giovanni (I); 2012, Magic, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venezia (I); 2011, In movimento, Galleria Goethe, Bolzano (I); 2010, La Storia Naturale, Galleria l’Affiche, Milano (I); Tutti vivi, tutti morti, tutti rivivi, tutti rimorti, AndreA Arte Contemporanea, Vicenza (I); 2008, Domino Blumen Falene, Mel Gallery Contemporary, Vienna (A); 2006, Francesco Bocchini, Galleria Scilla Cicognani, Cologna (D); 2005, Il mio pensiero è sempre luminoso, Galleria Il Segno, Roma (I); 2004, Bulgarico, Galleria L’Affiche, Milano (I); Ich bin so dumm, Galleria 41artecontemporanea, Torino (I); 2003, I primi asini pensavano per conto proprio, Galleria de’ Foscherari, Bologna (I); 1998, Anima patata, Galleria L’Affiche, Milano (I); 1996, Partito preso, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Roma (I).

He has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions, including: 2022, Marginalia. Le forme della libertà, Castello Visconteo di Pavia (I); 2020, Metamemoria, Palazzo Ducale di Massa (I); 2018, RE.USE Scarti, oggetti, ecologia nell'arte contemporanea, Museo Casa Robegan, Treviso (I); Selvatico [tredici] – fantasia/fantasma, Museo Civico Luigi Varoli, Cotignola (I); Wunderkammer der Natur, SR Contemporary Art Exhibitions, Berlin (D); 2017, Modus, evento collaterale della 57 Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – La Biennale di Venezia (I); 2016, Per vie diverse, Magazzini del Sale, Cervia (I); Stanze della meraviglia, Rocchetta Mattei, Grizzana Morandi (I); Art Diagonale, Museum Angerlehner, Wels (A); Un peso cubitale, Francesco Bocchini e Giacomo Cossio, Museo della Città, Rimini (I); 2015, Cibario banco planetario, mari&cò, Milano (I); 2014, Francesco Bocchini e Federico Guerri, De Freo Gallery, Berlin (D); Edificare nella vertigine, Festival Internazionale di Teatro, Santarcangelo di Romagna (I); Selvatico, una testa che guarda, Convento dei Cappuccini, Bagnacavallo (I); Mais de quel genre de réalité parlez-vous?, Bâtiment des Télégraphes, Losanna (F); Biennale Internazionale del Disegno, City Museum, Rimini (I); 2012, Undici allunaggi possibili, Cà Zenobio, Venice (I); 2011, Round the clock, evento collaterale della 54. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, Biennale di Venezia (I); 2009, Playstation, Merano Arte (I); Steellife, Triennale di Milano (I); 2008, Frescobosco, Certosa di Padula, Salerno (I); 15ª Quadriennale d’Arte, Roma (I); 2007, Small is Beautiful, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal (D); 2006, Ai confini della realtà. Arte scienza e tecnologia, ARCOS, Muse d’Arte Contemporanea del Sannio, Benevento (I); Allegra con brio, Chiesa del Suffragio, Carrara (I); 2005, Bologna si rivela, Palazzo Fava, Bologna (I); Minjonies, Scuola elementare Sacro Cuore, Alghero (I); 2004, XIV Quadriennale, Anteprima, Promotrice delle Belle Arti, Turin (I); Dal profondo, Palazzo della fortezza, Mainz, Carloni SpazioArte, Frankfurt (D); 1997, Trialog, Werkgallerie, Kassel (D); Luoghi, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna, Republic of San Marino (SMR).

Biography

Francesco Bocchini, born in Cesena in 1969, is a sculptor and visual artist.
From 1992 to 1995 he collaborated with the Teatro Valdoca in Cesena and created sculptures and installations for theatrical performances. In 1995 he founded the REBU theatre and put on performances and visual instillations. Subsequently he worked with the Accademia Perduta and other companies, including Rio Rose and Björn theatres in Denmark and Dei Calci Teatro in Bologna. He has exhibited in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna and in the Pinacoteca Nazionale and put on numerous solo exhibitions, including the following: Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Rome; Palazzo Ducale, Massa; Galleria de‘ Foscherari, Bologna; Galerie Goethe, Bozen-Bolzano; Galleria Francesca Antonini Arte Contemporanea, Rome; Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice; Galleria L‘Affiche, Milan; Galleria 41artecontemporanea, Turin; Mel Gallery Contemporary, Vienna, etc. Amongst his numerous participations in group exhibitions, the following locations are worth mentioning: the 54th and 57th international art exhibitions La Biennale in Venice, fringe event; Rimini City Museum; Museum Angerlehner, Wels (Austria); Kunst Merano Arte; Triennale, Milan; 15th Quadriennale d’Arte, Rome; Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal (Germany); ARCOS, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea del Sannio, Benevento; Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna, San Marino Republic. The artist currently lives and works in Gambettola (Cesena).