UNA is pleased to present the solo show by Simone Monsi: New Blabs on Clouds and Planes, the second appointment in the annual exhibition program in collaboration with Spazio Leonardo, the new space of Leonardo Assicurazioni—Generali Milano Liberazione.

The site-specific project developed by Monsi for the Gallery at Spazio Leonardo sets out from the observation of strange phenomenon in the atmosphere, caused by excessive pollution coming from human interference in the environment and the human perception of it mediated through the Internet.

The exhibition includes a new cycle of Transparent Word Banners, light colored Plexiglas structures with phrases taken from the media debate on climate change, and some sculptures of the Final Chapter series, soft totems of cloth upholstered with images collected following the hashtag #sunsetporn, in which sunsets appear as beautiful as they are unnatural. For the occasion of the exhibition, a catalog will be produced with a critical text by Rossella Farinotti and installation views of the site-specific project.

The visual action of Simone Monsi elaborates on widespread messages found on the Internet. The artist regains possession of images of different types, which he obsessively collects for personal cataloging, with an almost inductive method: from the general to the particular. Monsi is attracted by collective thought, making it intimate, bringing it close to himself and re-indexing it as a calm, almost pleasant, critical complaint. This is done through the putting into play of purely aesthetic visual re-workings. The question becomes: how to make an idea thrown into the web and confused among others, which in reality represents something tragic, dense and, in fact, common, into something clear, appealing and concise?

Simone Monsi (*1988) earned his MFA at Goldsmiths University London in 2016 and currently lives and works in Milan. Recent exhibitions he has participated in include: Refresh02 – #LAYERS. Contemporary Art in the Digital Era, curated by Fabio Paris and organized by iMAL, La Raffinerie, Brussels, 2018; Hyper-Faded Ordinary Life. Simone Monsi e Lucia Cristiani, curated by Carlo Sala, TRA Treviso Ricerca Arte, Treviso, 2018; Deposito d’Arte Italiana Presente, curated by Ilaria Bonacossa and Vittoria Martini, Artissima, Turin, 2017; Utopias are more or less fascistic, curated by Roxane Bovet, Nicolas Krupp, Basil, 2017; Spero che questo trasloco sia l’ultimo (solo show), Placentia Arte, Piacenza, 2017; Cyphoria, curated by Domenico Quaranta, 16a Quadriennale d’arte, Rome, 2016.

In 2018 he won a competition proposed by the Region of Piedmont and the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with Artissima for the creation of the image coordinated by the Spazio Regione Piemonte for the 52nd edition of Vinitaly, Verona. In 2017 he was the winner Premio Francesco Fabbri per le Arti Contemporanee, Pieve di Soligo (TV) and he received special recognition by the jury at CARIOCA KIDS Prize, Artissima, Turin.