MIRCO MARCHELLI
°1963, Novi Ligure (Italy)
Lives and works in Ovada, Italy
He goes about sniffing out old items of furniture and utensils in the flea markets and second-hand shops. He takes them and puts them away. “As the farmers say, that could come in handy one day,” he says. Or he works with them right away, transforming them into something else, creating new objects and presences. Every one of them brings its past with it; every one of them has a story to tell. “Every work I produce has a story behind it. Everything must have a story behind it, and everything is made of stuff that I find and recreate.” To which he gives enchanted, fairy-tale-like names with meanings like “Many good things”, “Reasons for happiness”, “Playful artwork”, “A mute scene for low clouds”, “Toys”, “Playing statues”, or “Echo of flowers”. But Mirco Marchelli is not a romantic young man absent-mindedly playing around with these toys, nor is he a prop master: he’s a rigorous artist, who began his career in music but is capable of a poetic openness, of what I would call a respect for time – musical and historical – and of a sense of the past that fertilises the present and (we hope) the future, “a projection back in time in order to move forward”, as he said on another occasion, describing his sense of time. Features and qualities that suggest the profile of an uncommon sort of artist.
Faithful, in a certain sense, to the teachings of twentieth-century art, but adopted with a suave lightness, Marchelli works with ready-made objects, or objets trouvé. Not to declare them works of art tout court, with an authorial gesture, nor to give them new life on the basis of a logic we might describe as “circular art”, and not even because these objects offer the carefree freedom of having been left behind by chance, and by chance having attracted someone’s eye, the pietas of the act of the person who picked them up, but because these objects have a story of their own: they are something. Almost someone, if expressing it this way were not overdoing it. And it is here that bricolage, in the most resolved sense of the visionary experimentation characteristic of the twentieth century, finds its most complete expression, putting together different materials, ideas and images...
fragment text by Adriana Polveron
represented in Italy by
MARCOROSSI artecontemporanea, Milan, Pietrasanta, Rome, Turin, Verona
SOLO SHOWS
2023
Un’eco di fiori, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Rome, Italy
Buoni Offici, Galleria Cardelli e Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
Voci in capitolo, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud, Lecce, Italy
Motivi di gioia, Alzueta Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2022
Tante belle cose, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Pietrasanta, Turin and Verona, Italy
Ariette semplici, Galerie Tourette, Paris, France
2021
Riguardo ad un frastuono rimbombante, Museo dei Lumi, Sinagoga di Casale Monferrato, Italy
Opera giocosa, Alzueta Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2020
Nuove consonanze, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, La Spezia, Italy
2018
A capo. Ceramiche Albisola, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Pietrasanta and Verona, Italy
2017
Giocattoli, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, La Spezia, Italy
2016
A due voci, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy
A due voci, La Cappuccina, Borgomanero, Italy
Canzoni in levare, Museo Ettore Guatelli, Ozzano Taro, Collecchio, Italy
2015
Mirco Marchelli, Alzueta Gallery, Palau de Casavells, Girona, Spain
2014
A due voci, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Turin, Italy
A due voci, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Verona, Italy
Via Crucis, Fondazione Lercaro, Bologna, Italy
2013
Scena muta per nuvole basse, Palazzo Fortuny, Venezia, Italy
L’ombelico del mondo, Marina di Scarlino, Italy
Ballabili miniati, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
2012
In Cauti Suoni, Spazio Perlartecontemporanea, Lugano, Switzerland
Mezza bellezza, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milano e Pietrasanta, Italy
Cosa gradita, Morotti arte contemporanea, Daverio, Varese, Italy
2011
Belle statuine, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Turin, Italy
Stato, Participio Passato, Accademia Filarmonica, Casale Monferrato, Italy
Meno Mare, Galleria Ghetta, Ortisei, Italy
In che stato, Galleria Traghetto, Venice, Italy
Al mare farà brutto, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Borgomanero, Italy
2010
Parole povere, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Monza, Italy
Piano pianissimo, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Verona, Italy
2009
Aristocratica, Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Aristocratica, GlobArt Gallery, Acqui Terme, Italy
Otium, Rosso 20sette artecontemporanea, Rome, Italy
2008
Ma c’è un Ma, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Pietrasanta, Italy
Amata o tic tac, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
Mirco Marchelli, Alzueta Gallery, Palau de Casavells, Girona, Spain
2007
Ma c’è un Ma, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Turin, Italy
Trombe clarini e genis, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy
Bella cera, Galleria Traghetto, Rome, Italy
2006
Via Crucis, Ex Chiesa della Beata Vergine delle Grazie, Villafranca Piemonte, Italy
2005
Mirco Marchelli, Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Cime, segni e specchi d’acqua, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
2004
Quindici diciotto, Galleria Traghetto, Venice, Italy
2003
Acqua calda acqua fredda, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
2002
Via Crucis, Galleria San Fedele, Milan, Italy
2001
C’era una volta il re, Galerie Bäumler, Regensburg, Germany
2000
Orizzontale quasi verticale, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
1999
Asino chi legge, Todi Arte Festival, Todi, Italy
Cristoforo prima di partire, Galleria Ferrara, Reggio Emilia, Italy
1998
Mirco Marchelli, Galerie Sfeir Semler, Amburgo, Germany
Pause popolari, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
1997
La casa di Mirco, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
1996
Mirco Marchelli, Galleria Cesarea, Genoa, Italy
1995
Galleria Triangolo Nero, Alessandria, Italy
1994
Galleria Corte Zerbo, Gavi, Italy
GROUP SHOWS
2022
Learn but the letters forme(d) by heart, Adams and Ollman Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA
2021
The Sun Also Rises, Everyday Gallery, Anversa, Belgium
2019
Futuruins, in collaborazione con Museo Hermitage di San Pietroburgo, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
2017
Eterne Stagioni, Palazzo Monferrato, Alessandria, Italy
2016
La Leggerezza della Scultura XI Edizione, Parco dell’Arte, Cerrina Monferrato, Italy
Miserere, Arca – ex chiesa di San Marco, Confraternita di San Vittore e ì Studiodieci, Vercelli, Italy
Colmare il vuoto. Marco La Rosa in dialogo con le opere della Collezione Paolo VI, Centro Studi Paolo VI, Concesio, Brescia, Italy
2015
Mappemondi, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Verona, Italy
2014
Infinito Presente. Elogio della relazione, Museo Diocesano, Trento, Italy
Novanta artisti per una bandiera, Palazzo Arsenale, Turin, Italy
L’Orlando furioso: incantamenti, passioni e follie. L’arte contemporanea legge l’Ariosto, Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia, Italy
2013
Borderline. Tra spirito e materia, Centro Culturale Santa Maria della Pietà, Cremona, Italy
Incontri…Contemporary Italian Art, The Schaufler Foundation, Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Germania
Rinascere, Museo del territorio, Biella, Italy
Novanta artisti per una bandiera, Sala del Vittoriano, Roma; Accademia Militare, Modena; Chiostri di San Domenico, Reggio Emilia, Italy
2012
Costellazione, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
2011
L’arte non è cosa nostra, 54. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte della Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Italia, Arsenale, Venezia, Italy
Alla luce della Croce. Arte antica e contemporanea a confronto, Fondazione Lercaro, Bologna, Italy
A due a due, Museo dei Campionissimi, Novi Ligure, Italy
AAM, Spazio Eventiquattro – Gruppo 24 Ore, Milan, Italy
2010
Clicking on the Future, Fondazione Achille Marazza, Borgomanero, Italy
Impronte, Galleria Bonioni Arte, Reggio Emilia, Italy
La Leggerezza della Scultura, Parco dell’Arte, Cerrina Monferrato, Italy
Nel segno della croce, Galleria San Fedele, Milan, Italy
Vertigini, Studio Vigato, Alessandria, Italy
Contemporaneamente, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Pietrasanta, Italy
2009
Vegetando, Convento di Santa Caterina, Finalborgo, Italy
L’oro nero, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy
Favole d’artisti di ieri e di oggi, Galleria San Fedele, Milano, Italy
Ad Librandum, diverse sedi, Vicenza, Italy
8 artisti 4 mura, Studio di Architettura Gatti, Alessandria, Italy
Imago, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Borgomanero, Italy
2008
900. Cento anni di creatività in Piemonte, Palazzo del Monferrato, Alessandria, Italy
Blu, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy
Collezione 20×20, GlobArt gallery, Acqui Terme, Italy
Sconfinamenti, Arte Fiera, Bologna, Italy
2006
Sentire con gli occhi, Galleria San Fedele, Milan, Italy
2005
Je ne regrette rien, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
Galleria Art Forum, Ute Barth, Zurigo, Switzerland
Galleria Traghetto, Venice, Italy
2004
Biennale d’Arte Sacra, Museo Stauros, Isola del Gran Sasso d’Italia, Teramo, Italy
2002
Il respiro nascosto delle cose, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
2001
Storie storte e vite parallele, Galleria di Castelbianco, Savona, Italy
2000
Carte blanche à Helene de Franchis, Galerie Lucien Durand Le Gaillard, Paris, France
1999
Morbida quiete e la notte, Studio la Città, Verona, Italy
1997
10 stanze per 10 artisti, Arte Fiera, Bologna, Italy
