Selected Work, 1999–2012

Davide Bertocchi was born in Modena, Italy in 1969. He currently lives and works in Paris, where he was artist in residence at Le Pavillon du Palais de Tokyo (2003–2004). He has exhibited extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. Recent solo exhibitions include Empirical Resolution Attempts, Galerie Pangée, Montreal (2011); Mono-Cycles, l’Ozio, Amsterdam (2011); “Divide” Bertocchi, BASE: Progetti per l’Arte, Florence (2009). He has recently exhibited in group shows including Performa 09: Pandora’s Sound Box, White Box Projects, New York City (2009); Ça & là (This & There), Fondation d’entreprise Ricard and Pavillon du Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); Notes on Camp, Jarach Gallery, Venice (2012).

www.davidebertocchi.com

Selected Work, 1999–2012

Davide Bertocchi uses imagery culled from music and science, which he intentionally manipulates by imposing unusual and intimate perspectives. His body of work, ranging from video to sculpture to sound installations, mainly deals with pseudo-scientific phenomena, such as the dissipation of energy and the movement of information through its “support mechanisms” such as CDs, DVDs, records, and/or magnetic tapes, the orbital movements of planets and galaxies—this useless rotating revolutionary movement and its existential and enigmatic impact on everyday life. One of his best-known works, Spazio, an endless work in progress started in 1999, depicts an infinite number of images of planets or galaxies completely invented by him, but that may indeed exist, as our knowledge of the universe is still very limited. His work questions the scientific monopoly that has presumed to explain everything with a sequence of models and a belief in a general idea of Progress. It does so by pointing to the immensity of what is not known—whether we can accept it or not—as our greatest freedom.

Contemporary Italian Thought (1)

Davide Bertocchi, Quadrophenia, 2004 aluminum walker, vinyl records, aluminum, mirrors

130 × 160 × 100 centimeters

Courtesy the artist and the collection of Norman Regis, Milan

The wheels are made from two sizes of vinyl records, allowing the walker to move only in circles.

Davide Bertocchi, Are You Ready?, 2002 Single channel video. 13 minutes. Filmed by Jonathan Brooks.

Photo: Ken Dickinson

Members of a Metal Detecting Club in Wales seek twelve metal letters buried in the sand by the artist. When assembled, the letters spell out “Are you ready?,” the words of the first wireless transmission made by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897.

Davide Bertocchi, Passato, Futuro, 2007 modified 1970s alarm clock

Original alarm clock modified by the artist to present a constantly changing time following an unpredictable random logic.

Davide Bertocchi, Scettro, 2012 wood, 45 rpm vinyl record, playing card 112 × 25 × 25 centimeters

Courtesy the artist and Jarach Gallery, Venice

Photo: Claudia Rossini

Part of a new series of sculptures made following a random logic: the objects are not linked to each other until they are combined to form a new logic, a new sense to be discovered.

Davide Bertocchi, B2, 2004

29 skateboards assembled on a steel structure

389 × 248 × 20 centimeters

Courtesy the artist and the collection of Tullio Leggeri, Bergamo Produced with Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

This moving sculpture borrows its shape from the B-2 stealth bomber. A team of skateboarders rode this unidentified object around the parking lot at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

Davide Bertocchi, Spazio, 1999–present

3000 ink-jet prints on photo paper

each print is 7.5 × 4.5 centimeters

Courtesy the artist, My Private, Milan, and MAMbo Bologna

Photo: Marc Domage

Every photo represents an imaginary planet or astronomical site created by the artist. Each image is different and the work is an “infinite” work in progress.

Davide Bertocchi, Le r...