Solo exhibition, during the 54° Biennale di Venezia, Riva S. Biagio/Arsenale Space - Castello 2145, Venice. Curated by Alan Jones. June 4th – November 27th 2011.
Woman’s images. Beneath the Afghan burqa, the Middle East niqab. Lighting up, revealing, reflecting on today’s mysticism, fanaticism and obscurantism. And on women’s irrepressible desire to express themselves. Veiled eyes for the ironic covers of fashion magazines or for the street-art posters. Veiled multitudes on the billboards conjuring up a future ever more dominated by Islam. Veils which conceal but cannot suppress the longing for femininity, beauty, youth and which display discreet or showy decors, colors, brands. Big digital paintings, where the mouse replaces the brush, the uniqueness of art embraces the seriality of technology. As a counterpoint, a small golden sculpture represents an elaborate evening dress. It could be a Capucci, a Dior, a Ferré. It is the Western dream, the dress which turns woman into a deity and does not oppress her. Language crossing: art interfaces with fashion, graphics, advertising, photography, Internet, Photoshop, the social. 

THE EYES BEHIND THE VEIL. "Flavio Lucchini belongs to a roster of artists which over the decades has remained exceedingly small, that is to say, those protagonists in the high realm of fine art whose first affirmation came in the inner sanctum of the commercial mediatic world. The only other similar clinical record in recent art history that comes to mind is that of Andy Warhol. Contemporary art is all about bringing the work as close to the real world as possible, even to the point where it becomes impossible to tell where the art ends and the world starts. Flavio Lucchini is well acquainted with every twist and turn along this invisible borderline between the everyday world and the mediatic fantasy-land of fashion where our inmost dreams are programmed. Today, the set of mediatic instruments that he possesses permits him to focus on the East-meets-West image of the burqa. Dress codes are like musical forms: they are much more than a mere question of what to wear for a night of dancing at the nearest discotheque. When fashions change, the walls of empire are shaken. Andy Warhol pulled the image of Mao straight off the newswire and elevated it to an icon for philosophical speculation. This legerdemain of iconic displacement was behind all of the operations of Pop Art subversion. And let’s not forget the strict legislative codes of the Serenissima Republic of Venice regulating dress, who-would-wear-what. A trick that is still working today". 
 
Alan Jones

Flavio Lucchini (photo C.F.F.)

A visitor inside the exhibition

Performer inside the gallery (photo C.F.F.)

Internal view (photo G.T.)

Internal view (photo G.T.)

Internal view (photo G.T.)

Internal view (photo C.F.F.)

Internal view (photo C.F.F.)

Internal view (photo C.F.F.)

Internal view (photo C.F.F.)

Lucchini and the two performers (photo C.F.F.)