Contemporary Italian artist Marco Lodola lights up the DDP

Diplomacy

Published: 14 Sep. 2022, 14:17

Contemporary Italian artist Marco Lodola lights up the DDP

The exhibition, “Marco Lodola: Lights for the future,” organized by the Italian Embassy in Seoul will be open through Oct. 9 on Miraero Bridge and in Gallery Mun of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul. [EMBASSY OF ITALY IN SEOUL]

Dozens of Marco Lodola’s neon statues and plexiglass silhouette figures are scattered throughout Dongdaemun Design Plaza as part of the contemporary Italian artist's first solo exhibition in Korea.

“As you have seen entering this room, the work of Marco Lodola is one that catches your eye immediately and conquers you with its simple beauty,” said Federico Failla, ambassador of Italy to Korea, in addressing the audience at the opening ceremony of the exhibition at the plaza on Sept. 7.

“The keyword is ‘light,’” he said. “Light as a need for everyday activities, light as a source of beauty, but also light as an omen for the days to come. Let it be a wish in these heavy days, when tensions in the international community have quite risen.”

Some iconic figures are easily identifiable in the collection, like the members of Beatles, Luciano Pavarotti, Leonardo Da Vinci, David of Michelangelo and Mona Lisa.

They each have a spin to allow the viewers to not only see the figures but become a part of them, said Avio Mattiozzi, curator of Italian gallery Mirabili, who was visiting Seoul for the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

Lodola's Mona Lisa exhibited at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza through Oct. 9. [ESTHER CHUNG]

“You see here that the face is not there,” Mattiozzi said, pointing to the face of a figure of Leonardo Da Vinci, which has been replaced with a mirror. “So when you look at the piece, you are actually entering the world of Leonardo, his colors, his shapes, so that the art is no longer an object separate from you — it becomes you or you become it.”

Lodola, born in northern Italy in 1955, is celebrated as one of the most exciting contemporary artists in Italy. His works, known as a key representation of the neo-futurist movement, have a distinct pop style that is inspired by film, music, art and design.

He is the only living artist in the world to have exhibited in the oldest museum, the famous Uffizi in Florence, according to the Italian Embassy in Seoul.

Federico Failla, ambassador of Italy to Korea, left, with Avio Mattiozzi, curator of the Mirabili at the exhibition on its opening on Sept. 7. [ESTHER CHUNG]

“Almost 70 years after the original futurism movement and all the other many Italian and international modern and contemporary artistic forms of representations born through these decades that Lodola studied and was part of, [he then] brought him with other artists, in the ‘80s, to create the ‘New Futurism’ movement,” said Mattiozzi.

“The essence of Lodola's message is to bring to all of us interior and exterior love, positivity, happiness, that intense good energy that we, viewers, can then translate, process, and then, send back to him, in any form and way,” he said.

Students of the Italian language department of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies at the opening ceremony of the exhibition at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza on Sept. 7. [ESTHER CHUNG]

The exhibition, “Marco Lodola: Lights for the future,” organized by the Italian Embassy in Seoul with Seoul Design Foundation, the Mirabili gallery and the Italian Cultural Institute, will be open through Oct. 9 on Miraero Bridge and in Gallery Mun of the plaza. There is no entrance fee.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]