LUIGI COPPOLA
PORTFOLIO 2012-2008
ARTIST STATEMENT
Luigi Coppola (born 1972, lives and works in Brussels) is an Italian artist who works within the field of
performance, video and public art project. His research
has developed towards partecipative and collaborative
practices and the development of politically motivated
actions in our society. The artist addresses in the dialectic between individual and collectivity the common
factor between such two lines of research, bringing to
front a notion of art practice as mise en forme of political, economic, social issues and claims.
Urged by the transformation to which the political sphere is undergoing, Coppola has been recently working on a
series of actions and events that directly address democracy in current times.
Stemming of a series of performances, Atti Democratici – an evolving artistic and curatorial framework that
includes symposia, performances, public interventions,
discussions and screenings – best represents the artist’s engage in a notion of art as place of encounter,
inclusion, debate and confrontation with others.
His artistic practice comes from a combination of various educational and professional experiences. He trained both as a scientist (Environmental Engineering, PhD
in Risk Analysis) as well as in the art field (Visual and
Performing Arts). His first artistic experiences are in
the field of research theater, which was based on conceptual language and the construction of perceptive environments. Successively his research moves towards politically motivated actions, strategies of representation
of relational mechanism and dynamics of our society.
He created performances and exhibitions in different international contexts such as 1st Democracy Biennale, Turin; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; Extra
City Antwerpen; Museum Madre, Naples; New Langton Art,
San Francisco; Galleria Lungomare, Bolzano (in the frame of Manifesta 7); Teheran Biennale, Teheran; Young
Artists Biennale, Athens; Dock11, Berlin; WunderderPrairie, Mannheim; Fabbrica Europa Festival, Florence. He
participated in international residences such as Seoul
Art Space, Geumcheon; AIR Antwerpen, Taipei Artists
Village,Taiwan; Hualien International Artists Workshop,
Taiwan; CESTA, Tabor; Here Arts Centre, New York.
He was associated Artistic Director of the Urban Art
Biennale in Bordeaux - Evento 2011, art for an urban reevolution .
VIDEO / PERFORMANCE
ON SOCIAL METAMORPHOSIS
VIDEO, 13’ 40’’ monochannel full HD 2012 presented in the frame of
POPULISM curated by Matteo Lucchetti, Kadist Art Foundation Paris
ENACTING
PERFORMANCE, 35’presented in Mains d’Oevres, Paris
The project sprung from a collaboration with the belgian economist and antropologist Paul Jorion. Starting from a section of the famous blog of the latter,
the two have worked on a text that gathers the propositions written by visitors
of the blog, that collectively participated in the creation of a “realist utopia” - as the title of the section recites. Here the users were invited to suggest their own ideas about the economical and political crisis. The new script
is staged through the structure of the classical greek choir, so as to articulate a parallelism of demands and propositions around the issues raised in the
text.
While the figure of the hero/leader is absent, the voice of the choir, here interpreting the so-called “people”, is empowered by the use of masks built by
the artist himself.
PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SPACE
BUILD YOUR LEADER
Performance presented in Atwerpen in the frame of
by Matteo Lucchetti
2011
ENACTING POPULISM
curated
“Your freedom is in danger, partecipate!” - shouts a girl through a loudspeaker one early afternoon in this last
Spring on the main square of Antwerp.
She wears a white tee shirt onto wich a
red hand is printed – the palm facing
up as if reaching out. “Are you unsatisfied with the current political situation?” - she asks a casual passerby
- “Then, join us!” Beside curious onlookers who stop to watch the happening,
a group of people wearing the same
uniforms are busy dividing the square
into different section with the help of
coloured tape to separate natives from
foreigners. Others take turns to speak out populist sloagans, or to mysteriously invite people to hold a waterlevel so as to construct a structure
that remains invisible to the eye.
This is not an ordinary demonstration,
nor a common political party rally. It
is Build Your Leader, a performance organized by Luigi Coppola in the frame
of “Enacting Populism”(...)
Coppola’s work mainly focuses on the
importance of the figure of the leader
in populism to unveil its xenophobic
underbelly when it comes to immigration
policy and questions of national identity.
Build your leader reveals populism’s
literary backbone by focusing on its
main characters, the leader and the
enemy.
Build your leader, Graphic
Foundland 2011
Catherine Somzé (extrats from the article on
Artpulse magazine, fall 2011)
Build your leader, videostill from the performance, 2011
Build your leader, studio for the symbol, 2011
Build your leader, videostill from the performance, 2011
NEUTRAL ECOLOGICAL BODY # SEOUL
PERFORMANCE
LIVE PERFORMANCE as part of the exhibition “Rich Disorganization”
Seoul Art Space Geumcheon
2010
I wear a screaming mask, in order to give voice to several philosophers, intellectuals and activists who have or have had a clear vision on the crisis of the
current system and give us visions about the future.
Partecipants in the conference (through a temporary passage from my body)
Vandana Shiva (1952 India, philosopher, environmental activist)
Slavoj Žižek (1942 Slovenia, philosopher, critical theorist)
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975 Italy, poet, intellectual, film director, writer)
Joseph Beuys (1921-1986 Germany, artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art)
Doal Kim Yong-ok (1948 South Korea, philosopher)
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948 India, political and spiritual leader)
I will do my best to translate and expand their message.
NEUTRAL ECOLOGICAL BODY # SEOUL
series of 3 photos C print on paper (40x50) - 2010
PHOTOGRAPHY
BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT
PERFORMANCE
LIVE PERFORMANCE WITH YINGMEI DUAN
presented in the context of Biennal Democracy Torino and Festival Fabbrica Europa Firenze 2009
The stage is installed with a large pulley system of ropes. The ropes connect
the audience to different objects: a microphone, a book of the law, a bucket of
water, a chair, a table, a knife, and some rubbish bags. These ropes also hold
the artists, and the audience can interact with these ropes and pull the performers and the objects as they wish. It is almost as if they have a remote
control to command the performance.
One cage with a living white rabbit is free among the other tied objects. On
the stage there is also a stopwatch on stage timing the performance.
Within the pulley system/spider web the artists represent symbols of moral, social, religious constriction and denial of freedom, in which the audience has
an active role and a possibility to move and transform the performance.
“Breathe In Breathe Out” is the third collaborative performance project between
Luigi Coppola and Yingmei Duan.
Breathe In Breathe out, photos Christian Fusco, 2009
GUARANTEES ON THE CONTINUITY OF THE SPECIES
series of 3 photos C print on paper (40x50) - 2010
PHOTOGRAPHY
SOMETHING IS CHANGING
series of 3 photos C print on paper (60X40) - 2010
PHOTOGRAPHY
AS WE WANT YOU
PERFORMANCE
LIVE PERFORMANCE WITH YINGMEI DUAN
presented in the University of Applied Sciences Nijmegen, The Netherland,
2009
The performance is a collaboration between Yingmei Duan and Luigi Coppola on
the occasion of the festival “Beauty, Ugliness and the Sublime”. Their performance relates directly to this premise of the festival.
The performance is held in a space in which the walls are covered in mirrors.
The audience sits in two rows. The two performers stand at different sides of
the space, rather than looking at each other directly, they look at the reflections of their body in the mirrors. Slowly they begin to move towards each
other and meet in the middle of the room.
Coppola starts to undress Duan. He concentrates his attention to her and actively tries to change and move her body according to his own wishes. He also encourages the audience to observe and touch her while she remains passive. This
gesture gives the impression he wants the audience to support his idea of beauty.
Whilst this is happening Duan appears hesitant. Her face looks confused and
full of questions. She occasionally smells Coppola and various people from the
audience that approach her.
GHOST AND I
PERFORMANCE
LIVE PERFORMANCE WITH YINGMEI DUAN
presented in Lungomare, Parallel Events Manifesta 7, Bolzano, sep. 2008; 1st
Democracy Biennale Torino, Cavallerizza Reale, apr. 2009; Festival Fabbrica
Europa Firenze, Stazione Leopolda, may 2009.
The attention is focused on the crisis of European culture and the schematic
construction of new social models. It would be a continuous and futile attempt
to define new scenarios of social relationships, based on the consolidated culture of the Old Continent. The ghost is the advancing of the indefinite, incarnated by cultures that we can hear are coming, but are not able to identify. It
forces them to join in the game and seek in desperation for new models of social order.
Through the construction of simple and direct performative actions, the artistic duo, composed of the Chinese artist Yingmei Duan and the Italian Luigi
Coppola, work on activation, shaking-up relational mechanisms that criticise passivity and encourage taking the stance of a conscious and direct social
actor. The duo also work on distances, fears, and the political and cultural
divides that separate European culture from that of Asia.
Breathe In Breathe out, photos Christian Fusco, 2009
COLLABORATIVE PROJECT
DEMOCRATIC ACTS
APPLIED RESEARCH ON THE RELATION BETWEEN ART AND DEMOCRACY DEVELOPED BY A NETWORK OF ARTISTS, CURATORS AND THEORITICIANS.
1ST BIENNALE DEMOCRAZIA – Torino / 23-24 april 2009
curated by: Luigi Coppola, Marko Stamenkovic
FESTIVAL FABBRICA EUROPA – Firenze / 5-23 may 2009
curated by: Luigi Coppola, Marko Stamenkovic
LUNGOMARE – Bolzano / october 2009
curated by: Angelika Burtscher, Luigi Coppola, Daniele Lupo, Judith Wielander
Democratic Acts brought together hundreds of artists, philosophers, sociologists and curators in a series of public events closely woven together and unfolding in three stages. The idea of performing a “democratic act” springs from
a strong personal desire, and can be incisive when it accepts risk, conflict, or
dissent and aims at the realization or explication of what is latent. Democratic acts are artistic actions that endeavor to lay bare the foundations of the
democratic system, showing it to be a an open, imperfect, fallible and therefore rethinkable system founded on the individual and not on the mass.
ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTIONS:
Angelika Burtscher &
Daniele Lupo / Luigi Coppola / Yingmei Duan / Dariusz
Fodczuk / Carlos Motta /
Michelangelo Pistoletto / Juan Esteban Sandoval
/ Ei
Arakawa & Nikolas Gambaroff / Shilpa Gupta / Yael Davids / Cesare Pietroiusti /
Stefano Savona / Gustav Hofer & Luca Ragazzi / Riccardo Biadene, Andrea Segre,
Dagmawi Yimer / Žiga Testen / Lauren Alexander / Jack Henrie Fisher & Popahna
Brandes / Brave New Alps
/Segreteria Genoa Legal Forum / Dario Azzellini and
Oliver Ressler / Petra Bauer / François Bucher / Mary Billyou / Paul Chan / Jim
Fetterley /Annelisse Fifi / Jim Finn / Ashley Hunt / Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen/ Lin + Lam / John
Menick / Jenny Perlin / Dmitry Vilensky
/ Angie Waller / Susan Youssef
THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS:
Angelika Burtscher &
Daniele Lupo / Branko Brezovec / Cesar Brie / Luigi Cop-
pola / Yingmei Duan / Dariusz Fodczuk / Benoît Lachambre / Esteban Mihalik /
Andrés Morte / Carlos Motta / Andrés Neumann / Michelangelo Pistoletto / Juan
Esteban Sandoval / Patricia Rivadeneira / Marko Stamenkovic / Marco Valerio
Amico
/ Elvira Vannini / Daniele Balicco / Daniël van der Velden / Cornelia
Durka /Merijn Oudenampsen / Ghalia Elsrakbi
PROJECT IN COLLABORATION WITH:
Prima Biennale Democrazia Torino
/ Fabbrica Europa Firenze /
Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto / Casa della Creatività di Firenze
/
Sistema Teatro Torino / Ambasciata di Colombia in Italia / Lungomare Bolzano.
Democratic Acts project: Carlos Motta, The Good Life, installation - Fabbrica Europa Florence.
Democratic Acts project: Juan Sandoval, Isola, installation - Fabbrica Europa Florence.
Democratic Acts project: Jim Finn, La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo,
videoscreen (Unmasked marathon of film and video)
Democratic Acts project: Genova Legal Forum OP- Ordine Pubblico
part of the screening “Digitale Democratico” - Lungomare Bolzano (oct. 2009)
Democratic Acts project: up
performance
Yael Davids, down performance Ei Arakawa and
Nikolas Gambaroff. Photos Christian Fusco, 2009.
Democratic Acts project: Shilpa Gupta work in the
public space of Bolzano. Photos Christian Fusco,
2009.
PERFORMANCE / RESEARCH PROJECT
ACTS OF ORDINARY DEMOCRATIC EXERCISE
SERIES
ACT n.
ACT n.
ACT N.
2008
OF LIVE PERFORMANCES AND WORKSHOPS
1 Torino / performance, march 2008
2 Prato - Fabbrica Europa Festival, may 2008
3 Cittadellarte, Unidee programme / performance and workshop august
The acts are experiments of creation in a system defined by rules and symbols
stipulated by a community through a democratic process.
DEMOCRATIC ACT intended as a Exposed Primitive Democracy: each community defining their System, elect a Delegate with the potential of creating actions,
relations, images through the body of the Represented in the space.
The project is a succession of artistic, political and sociological experiments
in which the process as well as the mechanism of the Democratic Creation System, is clearly exposed.
Each community to reach the definition of a Democratic Creation System choose
the System Rules.
The System accept the principle of majority.
The Members accept the rules decided for the functioning of the System and
Symbols of Connection chosen for the representation of the community.
Through the election all the members have the possibility to become Delegate.
The election is coming out through an explicit vote.
All the mechanism is visible and transparent: rules, condition of becoming part
at the System, nomenclature, proposals made by the Members, outcomes of the votes, performance modality, consequences of transgressions concerning rules.
PERFORMANCE
DON’T GO TOO FAR
LIVE PERFORMANCE
Presented at the Cultural Centre Hualien, Taiwan, 2008 and Farmlab Social
Sculpture, Los Angeles, 2008
Photos: Chang shu-man
“Don’t
go too far” is an advice for caution.
Don’t take risks. Don’t choose an unknown
course. “Don’t go too far” is an attempt to
restrain. The performance is an act of resistency of this concept.
In the performance my body has tied with
200/250 kg of stones. The movement is really
difficult. I experience the advancing with all
my energies. In the beginning only small movements are permitted. An inscription on the
floor precedes constantly my advancing Don’t
go too far (also with writed translated in
the local language). With the movements of my
body I lose gradually some stones and therefore my advancing more easy. When I’m totally
free, I can run far.
VIDEO
AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN
ACTION IN PUBLIC SPACE / video
Realized in Tokyo, Japan 2008
2’ 35’’
I realized this action in Shinjuku subway station one of the most
crowdly place in the world. An attempt to break the cultural barriers
between people and to modify the dynamics of relation.
YEAR ONE - THIRD PARADISE
REENACTEMENT
a performance by Michelangelo Pistoletto
re-enacted by: Luigi Coppola
presented in Artissima 15- Action, Behaviour, Performance, Instant Theatre in
Turin in Teatro Regio
At the Teatro Quirino in Rome, on 17 March 1981, Michelangelo Pistoletto staged the theater piece Year One, interpreted by the inhabitants of
Corniglia. The actors, like motionless caryatids on the stage, carried architectural structures on their heads, while they narrated, in the
manner of a talking picture or a living sculpture, the progress of history from Cain and Abel to Romulus and Remus, from Egyptian to Roman
civilization to the astronauts’ first flight to the moon. The piece was
performed again in 1991 at Castello di Rivoli (From Year One to Today.
A Work in Four Stanzas) and in 1994 at the Marstall Theater in Munich
(Year One – White Year) as part of the event, Tempo, Tag, Theater. On
these occasions it was gradually enriched with new actors (the children
of the early participants) and new roles, among them the composition by
Cristina Pistoletto based on crucial events of 1989 (the fall of the
Berlin Wall and the Tienanmen and Timisoara incidents).
After 15 years the occasion of Artissima - Action, Behaviour, Performance, Instant Theatre in Turin in Teatro Regio, there will be the new
version of this performance: Anno Uno – Terzo Paradiso. The work is
devoloping with the new generation of the inhabitants of Corniglia and
with the people of Cittadellarte.
Year One,
Teatro Quirino Roma, 1981 Photo: P. Mussat Sartor
Year One - Third Paradise,
Teatro Regio Torino, 2009 Photo: E. Amici
WALKING SCULPTURE
REENACTEMENT
a performance by Michelangelo Pistoletto
re-enacted by: Luigi Coppola
presented in TATE Modern - UBS Long Weekend of Performance – 2009
One of the key protagonists of arte povera, Michelangelo Pistoletto ricreated his seminal action Walking Sculpture in London, first performed
in 1966 on the streets of Turin. The original sculpture Ball of Newpapers, a two metre globe made of newspapers, which embodied the constantly shifting, newsworthy events of life over a two-year period, was
taken for ‘a walk’ through the streets of Turin with his wife Maria Pistoletto in an action entitled Walking Sculpture, creating a political,
yet playful gesture.
For UBS Openings: Long Weekend a contemporary replica of the original
sculpture was made using today’s newspapers to represent today’s political and social condition. It was rolled by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Maria Pistoletto and Luigi Coppola from Tate Modern, across the Millennium Bridge, through parts of the city, and then complete it’s journey
back to Tate on a boat.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Walking Sculpture, 1967
Walking Sculpture, Tate Modern 2009
COMMUNITY ART The Politics of Trespassing
Edited by Paul De Bruyne, Pascal Gielen.
Valiz Antennae Series 2011
Italian philosopher Antonio Negri
has declared that “Every kind of
change belongs to a form of community art,” inverting the convention that community art can be
an integral component of social
change and extending the rubric of
art to propose a commons of all
those striving to effect change in
social, economic, technological
and ecological arenas. So how do
these endeavors influence and act
upon one another? In Community
Art, artists and theorists Tilde
Björfors, Bertus Borgers, Paul De
Bruyne, Changchengh, Luigi Coppola, An De bisschop, Miguel Escobar
Varela, Jan Fabre, Alison M. Friedman, Pascal Gielen, Sonja Lavaert, Carol Martin, Antonio Negri, Alida Neslo, Tessa Overbeek,
Lionel Popkin, Richard Schechner,
Hein Schoer, Ricky Seabra, Jonas
Staal, Klaas Tindemans, Luk van
den Dries, Quirijn Lennert van den
Hoogen, Hans van Maanen, Bart Van
Nuffelen and Karel Vanhaesebrouck
explore the practices of artistic
and social movements in western
and non-western societies.
PUBLICATION
ARTS IN SOCIETY. BEING AN ARTIST IN POSTFORDISM TIME
PUBLICATION
Edited by Paul De Bruyne, Pascal Gielen.
NAI Publisher 2009
In his contribution to this publication the
Italian philosopher Paolo Virno argues that
art has been dissolved in society like an
effervescent tablet in water. The arts have
become an essential component of the postFordist production process and have to a large degree lost their autonomy. Taking up the
challenge of the views of Virno, Hardt and
others concerning the place and function of
art in society, this book’s authors consult
high-profile international figures from various artistic disciplines and endeavour to
gain insight into the changing circumstances
in which today’s creative processes arise and
take shape.
The ways in which the world of art has evolved in recent decades is traced in discussions with, among others, the visual artists
Michelangelo Pistoletto and Thierry De Cordier, choreographers Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Sang Jijia and Willy Tsao, theatre
director Pippo Delbono and pop musician Matthew Herbert.
Arts in Society sketches a provocative impression of the manner in which prominent
artists, theorists and art intermediaries
relate to economic, political, social and
ecological issues. It presents an instructive
narrative about power and impotence, cynicism
and utopia, and nihilism and engagement aimed at all those who presently dare to call
themselves artists and everyone who wants to
understand and defend the importance of the
role of the arts in society.
With texts by Luigi Coppola, Marie-Josée Corsten, Michael Hardt, Gert Keunen, Rudi Laermans, Sonja Lavaert, Karel Vanhaesebrouck.
Absalon (Israël)
Hüseyin Alptekin (Turquie)
Association des Arts de la Parole (France)
Associazionedidee (Italie)
Juan Aizpitarte (Espagne)
Bang on a Can All Stars (Etats-Unis)
Yael Bartana (Israël)
Ruedi Baur (France)
Bruce Bégout (France)
Roger Bernat (Espagne)
Iva Bittova (République Tchèque)
Michael Blum (Israël)
Ivan Boccara (Maroc)
Bureau d’Etudes (France)
Claudia Castellucci (Italie)
Civic City (Suisse)
Chto Delat ? (Russie)
Collectif de la Halle des Douves (France)
Collectif LMDP (France)
Collectif Sainte-Machine (France)
Daniza Dakic (Bosnie-Herzégovine)
Pippo Delbono (Italie)
Castello di Rivoli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Italie)
Bryce Dessner (Etats-Unis)
eXYZt (France)
Sébastien Farges (France)
Harun Farocki (République Tchèque)
Focus Innovazione Sociale (Italie)
Pierre Fraenkel (France)
Madan Gopal Singh (Inde)
Joseph Grigely (Etats-Unis)
Shilpa Gupta (Inde)
Michal Heiman (Israël)
Ibai Hernandorena (France)
Hannah Hurtzig (Allemagne)
Suzanne Husky (Etats-Unis)
David Hykes (Etats-Unis)
William Kentridge (Afrique du Sud)
Phil Kline (Etats-Unis)
Laurent Mareschal (France)
Marzia Migliora (Italie)
Aydan Murtezaoglu (Turquie)
Ooze (Pays-Bas)
Dan Peterman (Etats-Unis)
Steve Piccolo (Italie)
Marjetica Potrč (Slovénie)
David Prudhomme (France)
Radio Grenouille (France)
Refunc (Pays-Bas)
Claire Roudenko-Bertin (France)
Wilhem Sasnal (Pologne)
Thomas Schütte (Allemagne)
Wael Shawky (Egypte)
David Sheppard (Royaume-Uni)
Erzen Shkololli (Kosovo)
Nedko Solakov (Bulgarie)
Sound Res (Italie)
STEALTH.unlimited (Pays-Bas, Serbie)
Sufjan Stevens (Etats-Unis)
Mladen Stilinovic (Serbie)
Pascale Marthine Tayou (Cameroun)
Van Abbemuseum (Pays-Bas)
Jeanne Van Heeswijk (Pays-Bas)
Chaar Yaar (Inde)
Akram Zaatari (Liban)
ARTISTIC DIRECTION
EVENTO 2011 art for an urban re-evolution
Biennale of urban art in Bordeaux (France) 2011
Artistic Director: Michelangelo Pistoletto
Joint Artistic Director: Luigi Coppola
This biennale was centred on the participation of all kinds of public and the implication of artists that activate collective
creations. Approximately 250 organisms (nonprofit organisations, local institutions,
schools, etc.) were part of the different
projects of the event.
Whether it be the strong mobilisation of music enthusiasts for the Sound Res with the
active participation of the Conservatoire
de Bordeaux, but also the contribution of
graphic designers and illustrators for arc
en rêve and STEALTH.unlimited‘s project at
the Abattoirs, EVENTO 2011 was an event of
contemporary creation that calls upon international artists as well as the creative
abundance of the territory.
The Sites, real laboratories of open and
shared artistic creation, were strong examples of this local implication. More than 60
non-profit organisations are participating,
alongside the Halle des Douves association,
in the project of Dutch artist Jeanne Van
Heeswijk p, to offer a daily programme from 6
to 16 October, from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The Evolving Theatre on Place André Meunier
also calls upon the collaboration of structures and inhabitants of the neighbourhood,
through all kinds of workshops set up from
September.
The Central Parc project is mobilising many
structures of the Grand Parc neighbourhood,
whether it be the social and cultural centre, the animation centre, the Library, but
also several associations.(...)
Evento 2011, visual identity Ruedi Bauer and Civic City
Evento 2011, Opera Pagai, Aquavillage
Evento 2011, Nikolay Oleinikov (Chto Delat?), Who belongs this city?
Evento 2011, Exyzt, Palace
LUIGI COPPOLA
Lecce, ITALY – 1972
EDUCATION
Academic
2010- 2009 Researcher at Fontys University, members of the Arts in Society Knowledge Circle. Studies and research on art & post-Fordism, community art.
Tilburg (NL)
2002 -1999 PhD, Safety and Risk Analysis, Politecnico di Torino (ITA)
Dissertation title: Exodus in Case of Panic, an investigation of models of evacuation in confined spaces, merging the studies of crowd psychology, collective
unconscious theory and anthropometry, with the aim of setting integrated design
criteria.
1997 – 1991 MA and BA in Environmental Engineering – Politecnico di Torino
(ITA)
Extra -academic
Education in performing and visual arts, obtained via a experiences, interests
and collaborations involving artists, theorists, methods and institutions: a
sort of learning-by-doing or “on the job training”.
2011-2009 collaboration with the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto and his institution Cittadellarte. Study of the “materials action” from the Arte Povera movement of the 1960s and 1970s: reenactment of performances, publications, imagining art institutions for socially engaged practice.
2010 collaboration with Italian philosopher Paolo Virno: studies in Art & PostFordism.
2006-1999 applied studies in Authentic Movement (A. Whaterhoeg), Expression Primitive (Jhon Doese) and dance rituals from southern Italy.
1995-1998 study and collaboration with the Italian exponent of the literature
and contemporary art movement Neovanguardia: Edoardo Sanguineti, Nanni Balestrini, Alfredo Giuliani: studies, performances and experiments.
1993-1996 workshops with Josef Svoboda (scenography, Czech Republic), W. and J.
Janicky (theater, Kantor’s actors), Luciano Berio (music), Riccardo Caporossi
(theater).
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2011-2010 Joint artistic director of the urban art biennale Evento 2011: Art
for an urban re-evolution, Bordeaux, FR
2010-2008 Collaborator of Michelangelo Pistoletto and Cittadellarte, Biella ITA
2008 – 2004 Founder and director of the art and activism network LOSS – Laboratorio Operativo Sistemi Sensibili, ITA
2008-2006 Professor in the course Art and Community, Faculty of Science of Education, University of Torino, ITA
2009-2002 Freelance teacher of relational dynamics. On Stage college, Artherapy School Lecco, Professional Education Provincia of Bolzano, Mus-e, art for
children Torino.
2007-2000 Director of the performing art space “Reiss arti performative” Torino
-ITA
2005-2004 Teaching staff of Torino University, Faculty of Arts and Cinema, ITA
2005 Teaching staff of Master “Theatre and Community” – University of Turin – ITA
2003 - 1999 Founder, director and performer of the performing arts collective
Blusuolo – ITA
1997-1993
Performer in Corte Ospitale Company Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Modena
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 Neutral Ecological Body # Seoul, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, cur. Kim Hee-young , S. KOREA
2009 Atti Democratici, 1st Democracy Biennale, Cavallerizza Reale, Torino,
ITA
Atti Democratici, Fabbrica Europa Firenze, Stazione Leopolda , ITA
2009 Selfportait of the artist, CCCB Barcelona, (SP)
2008 Untiled Portrait project, performance and exhibition Museo MADRE Napoli, ITA
Untitled Portrait, Untitled Ocean, Stazione Leopolda, Festival Fabbrica Europa, ITA
PERFORMANCES / VIDEO SCREENINGS / GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2012 - Steirscher Herbst 2012, Graz (AU), screening and panel in Truth is con
crete cur. F. Malzacher
- Kunsthaus Graz (AU), exhibition in Cittadellarte Sharing Trasformation cur. K.T. Bucher
- 50°49’19.50’’N 4°21’25.53’’ ERG Gallery (BE), screening
- Kadist Art Foundation Paris (FRA), exhibition in Enacting Populism
cu
rated by M. Lucchetti
- Lovely Days, Brac (CR), screening cur. By R. Poljac
- Mains d’Oeuvres Paris(FRA),
performance in Enacting Populism curated by M. Lucchetti
2011 - Extra City – Antwerpen (BE) performance in public space / screening
2010 - Artisterium International Contemporary Art Exhibition and Art Events, Tbilisi (Georgia), cur. M.Guruli
- MASS Alexandria, Egypt, workshop cur. by W. Shawky
2009 - Teatro Regio Torino (ITA), performance in Artissima Teatro – Blinding The Years, cur. A. Bellini
- Tate Modern, London (GB), performance in Long Weekend Performance,
cur. C. Wood and K. Noble
- University of Applied Sciences Nijmegen (NL), performance
2008 - Dock 11, Berlin (GER), performance
- 1st International Roaming Biennal of Teheran, video screening
- Teatro Affratellamento, Firenze (ITA), performance
- Lungomare gallery - Parallel Ev. Manifesta 7, Bolzano (ITA), performance
- Cittadellarte Fond. Pistoletto, Biella (ITA), performance /workshop
- EXTRA Italy, Castrovillari (CS) (ITA), video screenings / prize
- New Lanton Arts Gallery, San Francisco (USA), performance
- Farmlab Social Sculpture, Los Angeles (USA), performance
- Festival Fabbrica Europa, Prato (ITA), performance
- Officine Caos, Torino (ITA), performance
2007
- Hweilan Cultural Centre (TAIWAN), performance
- Guling Theatre of Taipei(TAIWAN), performance
- Taipei Artists Village, (TAIWAN), exhibition
- Festival Wunderderpraerie, Mannheim (GER), performance
- Officine Caos, Torino (ITA), performance /
PUBLICATIONS (selected)
2011 - COMMUNITY ART: the politics of trespassing, editor Pascal Gielen and Paul De Bruyne, Valiz Antennae Series
2010 - We’ve come a long way: Michelangelo Pistoletto actions and collaborations with the people of Corniglia, curated by L. Coppola, Cittadellarte Ed.
2009 - Arts in Society: being an artist in post- fordism times, edited by Pascal Gielen and Paul De Bruyne, contributors included: Paolo Virno, Michael Hardt, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pippo Delbono, Anne Teresa Dekeersmaeker, Matthew Herbert, Rudi Laermans. Nai Publishers, NL
PRIZES, FELLOWSHIPS, RESIDENCIES
2012 - Finalist of Talent Prize 2012, ITA
2011 - Residency and fellowship AIR Antwerpen, Belgium
2010 - Residency and fellowship
Seoul Art Space_ Geumcheon, South Korea
2008 - Residency New Langton Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
- Residency Here Arts Center, New York
- Prize and grant for production Moving – Movimento, ITA (Fab
brica Europa Firenze, Santarcangelo dei Teatri, Cantieri Culturali - Assessorato Cultura e Politiche Giovanili del Co
mune di Prato, Giardino Chiuso/ Teatro dei Leggieri, San Gimignano (Siena), Movi|mentale, Interno 5 – CDTM, Napoli)
- Grants Movin’up (GAI, DARC), ITA
2007 - Residency Taipei Artists Village, Taiwan
- Residency and fellowship HweiLan International Artists Re
sidence, Taiwan.
2006 Residency CESTA Cultural Exchange Station, Tábor - Czech Repu
blic
CONTACTS:
LUIGI COPPOLA
A. Rue T. Verhaegen, 154 - 1060 Bruxelles
T. +32 (0) 495 259039 (Belgium)
T. +39 3381070924 (Italy)
M. [email protected]
S. luiscop
www.luigicoppola.org
www.attidemocratici.org