The first solo show by Gianna Rubini on the European scene, curated by Irene Targa, takes place from 12 to 16 June 2019 in Basel at Villa Jugendstil (Austrasse 90-4051), in conjunction with the most important international art market fair Art Basel.
The project is the synthesis of an acute investigation based on the artist’s memories: a few months at the Leskoc House in Kosovo. This facility accommodates around sixteen minors in foster care and cares for over one hundred local families in conditions of extreme poverty.
Gianna Rubini proposes a new intervention designed for the space that houses it: the living room of Villa Jugendstil (1890). Bourgeois, elegant and light space within which the artist places both physical and psychological weights by which he wants the viewer to “stumble”. As the title recalls, the strong need to belong to it, the home, is the main thought that gives life to this exhibition. The artist re-elaborates its socio-cultural dimension in its antitheses: a reassuring dwelling but also a place of disorientation and instability. This antinomy is also celebrated through the use of materials: bricks and children’s games. Both elements used to “build”, two types of different houses, the result is the representation of a house inside a house.
To invade this space is Hide and Seek, a brightly colored building with the appearance of a playground and four photographs on the walls taken by the artist in Kosovo. It is the story of acts performed by human beings. People can feel the trace but their presence is not seen, which is exposed by hidden voices of women who echo in the room: they scream a reality that is difficult to accept, with sweet bitterness they describe a horror poem.
For the period of the exhibition there will be the possibility of buying the limited-edition volume Skinny Data, consisting of texts and photographs, inside the exhibition. The book is the story of the experience lived by Gianna Rubini, with the intention of denouncing the harsh reality that still persists in Kosovo. The proceeds of the sale will be donated to the home support of Leskoc and its projects.