Tobias Zielony - SAILS / SAILS - Galleria Lia Rumma Naples 
Tobias Zielony
Blue Sail, 2009-2010
C-Print. 153.5 x120, 5 cm. Edition of 6 Courtesy Lia
Rumma
Opening Saturday, October 9, 2010, 11:00
Galleria Lia Rumma - Via Vanni Gaetani 12-80121 Naples
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10:30 to 13:30 / 14:30 to 19:00
After Italian solo artist: "The Hidden" ("The Hidden"), presented in Milan in February 2007, the project of Tobias Zielony "Sails", promoted and produced by Galleria Lia Rumma Naples, photo shows an animation of nine minutes and sixteen seconds, and exclusively, the parallel complete photographic series, consisting of 16 images.
Throughout the month of October 2007, and then several times during the following year, the artist has explored, as usual in his work, how to present themselves, the poses and the way of "killing time" adolescents from the suburbs of the city, turning their gaze to the impromptu meeting places in the east and north of Naples in arriving, finally, to the sails of Scampia.
Burdened by a series of changes in the execution of the project (Francesco di Salvo's 1962-'75), failures of managerial and, more generally, the density excess and undersize service plan area 167, the monumental character of these buildings and antiurbano, have now been sentenced by a municipal resolution all'inabitabilità and to be vacated and demolished (The lot consists of three buildings has already been completely demolished, while in autumn will be presented by the City Council a detailed plan of rehabilitation or replacement of the remaining four sails of Lot M). Only a hundred families, survivors and assigns of the occupants, still live in the buildings now reduced to ghostly ruins.
Composed 7000 images taken at night with a digital SLR and fitted with a speed different from the real one, the animation camera "Le Vele Scampia" returns in terms of cinematic language distress of those who live or frequent these places. This is the third video work by the artist after "The Deboard," presented in the "Play Forward" of '08 and the Locarno film festival "Big Sexyland," both in 2008.
In this part of the host city, in addition to subsidized housing estates and "parks" of the cooperative agreement in private, a Roma camp - and then sail on the landings of blue (the designer for the condominium units b) , overseas models of identity (the sub-culture hip-hop and break dancing, for example) local variations of global codes, and unique tools reaction to boredom and degradation, overlap and merge with a strong local identity.
Tobias Zielony's work does not just repeat a dress code, but strongly marked, but the actual practices observed. For this reason his work has been in Naples, more than in other metropolitan areas, the suggestions raised by the peculiarities of the context of a dizzying rate of youth unemployment (50%) and where there is a combination of lawlessness and widespread phenomena sparse nuclei cultural resistance that triggered, a widespread practice associational, social initiatives of various kinds. Tobias Zielony
was born in Wuppertal in 1973 and was trained at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. He studied documentary photography at the University of Wales, Newport. He has received numerous scholarships in the United States, and since September 2009 the chair of the art photography Hochschule fuer Kunst Medien in Cologne. He currently lives and works in Berlin. The project "Sails" was exhibited at the Kunstverein in Hamburg (June-July 2010) and that of Dortmund (September-November 2010).
Tobias Zielony
Stairs, 2009-2010
C-Print. 93x114 cm. Edition of 6
Courtesy Lia Rumma
Opening Saturday 9 October 2010, 11 a.m.
Galleria Lia Rumma – Via Vannella Gaetani 12 – 80121 Naples
Gallery opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10.30 a.m.-1.30 p.m. / 2.30 p.m.-7 p.m.
After “The Hidden”, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Italy, which was held in Milan in February 2007, Tobias Zielony’s “Vele” project, promoted and produced by Galleria Lia Rumma in Naples, includes a photographic animation that lasts nine minutes and sixteen seconds and, as an exclusive exhibit, the complete accompanying photographic series of 16 pictures.
For the entire month of October 2007, and then on a number of occasions during the following year, the artist worked in his usual way, examining how adolescents like to appear to others, the poses they adopt, and the way they “kill time” in the suburban districts of the city. He looked at the places they choose for meeting up at in the eastern area and in the north of Naples, eventually ending up at the Vele in Scampia.
Hampered by a series of modifications to the original plans (by Francesco di Salvo, 1962-75), by management failures and, in more general terms, by the excessive housing density and insufficient services facilities in the 167 zone plan, these monumental, anti-urban buildings have now been condemned as uninhabitable by a municipal resolution. They are to be cleared and demolished. Plot L, with three buildings, has already been razed to the ground, and in the autumn the local municipality will present its detailed plan for redeveloping or replacing the remaining four “sails” in plot M. Only about a hundred families – the last remaining assignees and occupants – still live in the buildings, which have now been reduced to ghostlike ruins.
Consisting of 7000 shots taken at night with a digital reflex camera, and edited at an artificial speed, the Le Vele di Scampia photographic animation uses the language of cinema to convey the deprivations of those who live in or frequent these places. This is the artist’s third video work after The Deboard, which was shown in the “Play Forward” section of the 2008 Locarno film festival, and Big Sexyland, of the same year.
As well as the subsidised-housing districts and the authorised private-cooperative “parks”, this part of the city is also home to a Rom camp – on the landings of the light-blue Vela (“housing units” for the designer) – with American sub-culture models (hip hop and breakdance, for example), which are local versions of global codes and the only means of reacting to boredom and urban decay, overlapping and interacting with a very strong local identity.
Tobias Zielony’s work goes beyond simply presenting a stylistic code, however distinctive it may be, for his is a process that observes reality. This is why, more than in other metropolitan areas, his work has been influenced by the very particular characteristics of the context, which is afflicted by a staggering level of unemployment among the young (50%), in which there are both widespread forms of illegality and some sparse centres of cultural resistance which, through a pervasive system of associations, has led to social initiatives of various types.
Tobias Zielony was born in Wuppertal in 1973 and studied at the academy of visual arts in Leipzig. He studied documentary photography at the University of Wales, Newport. He has received several scholarships in the United States and, since September 2009, he has held the chair of Artistic Photography at the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne. He currently lives and works in Berlin. The “Vele” Was project shown at the Kunstverein in Hamburg (June-July 8, 2010) and in Dortmund (September-November 2010).
