SOLOMOSTRY
Countdown

SetUp_Palazzo Pallavicini, Via San Felice, 24. Bologna
February 1st 2018/February 4th 2018
Opening: Thursday February 1st 2018 @6PM

The 6th edition of SetUp Art Fair, the international art fair dedicated to the emerging international scene takes place in the heart of ancient Bologna, from February 1st to February 4th. For the first time Palazzo Pallavicini, with its Renaissance elegance, hosts the event opening its doors to artistic projects with a unique theme: Waiting.

In this atmosphere made up of strong contrasts, Martina Corbetta choses to present a site-specific room with the Milanese artist Solomostry.  Born and raised in Milan, Solomostry graduated in Graphic Design & Art Direction, but marked his career by approaching graffiti very early. It is exactly in the hall of fame area between Lambrate and Via Padova, that the artist embarks upon the street culture confronting with the most famous crews in this neighbourhood.

We can say that Solomostry is a multifaceted artist who ranges from screen printing to murals, from painting to installation. Due to his eclecticism and thanks to bumping into the techno clubbing scene in the Lombard capital in about 2007, he moved away from graffiti to shape his new subjects: the Monsters.

Solomostry’s research is characterised by a fragmented line which models geometric expressive figures, revealing aggressive emotions. These are monstrous masks performing the impressions, restlessness and excesses, present in everyday life. The marked outline builds and destroys at the same time. The strong lines break the surfaces and define the space where bright and flat colours play, now typical of Solomostry.

Countdown is the name given to the project presented by Martina Corbetta. If the countdown firstly represented the instant before crossing the yard, that moment before entering the train depot destined to be the origin of the subversive artistic act, now Countdown becomes a room in which the spectator is the main lead. The pure adrenaline, the thin line that separated the day from the night, the revelation of unknown details from a parallel world in which one feels free, is now enclosed in a small room. The two minutes installation consists of an alternation of two lights, one white – the light of the everyday reality – and one magenta – the light of the artist’s own world. So, the Countdown is an endless countdown, that accompanies us towards a new phase, a new environment.

Personal growth is not possible without change. Improving and evolving means accepting the most difficult challenges: the passing of time in our lives. We always wait impatiently for a turning point, but when we reach it, we are catapulted back to the starting point, crushed into an endless vortex. So, once the Countdown is over, it will restart and you will have to be ready to accept the change.