StraightUp @ExtraDry
ExtraDry is an exhibition of video art born from the desire to draw contemporary art out from its usual expositive spaces and onto
the walls at Dry, Via Solferino 33, and the new Dry, Viale Vittorio
Veneto 28, in Milan.
Following the ExtraDry project curated by Peep-Hole for three editions from 2013-2016, CaseChiuse arrives at Dry with a new format and presents StraightUp@ExtraDry, an award for young artists.
In step with the ideas of the founders of Dry, StraightUp@ExtraDry wants to give visibility to the creativity emerging from the extremely current research of young artists expressing themselves through video.
As well as giving visibility, the award is designed to support their future research by the assignment of three different awards and the acquisition of the winning work.
The name “Straight Up” is a blend of English slang and bar vocabulary. It implies something honest and fresh that aims for the top, just like the synergy we wish to create between the award, the artists and their future.
Dry is defined by its strong contemporary feel. It offers the very best quality while remaining accessible and informal, making it an ideal location to exhibit video art and create a new kind of synergy between the work and the public. With the launch of StraightUp@ExtraDry and its commitment to art project since 2013, Dry proves once again that the space is ideal to exhibit videos and offers a chance to show contemporary art to a wider public.
The selection committee for the StraightUp@ExtraDry award consists of Simone Bertuzzi and Simone Trabucchi, the Invernomuto duo, and Paola Clerico, creator of CaseChiuse project.
The jury consists of Ilaria Bonacossa, director of Artissima, Paolo Zani, founder of Galleria Zero, and two of Dry’s founders and art collectors Bernardo Attolico and Tiziano Vudafieri.
Coordination and curatorial assistance by Ginevra D’oria.
Each artist selected to participate will have to present at least three videos which will be projected at Dry Via Solferino and the new Dry Vittorio Veneto.
March 27th - July 2nd 2018
Natália Trejbalová
Natália Trejbalová is the fourth artist selected for StraightUp@ExtraDry.
Her research is conducted through digital video, using advertising imagery and videos taken from YouTube, together with new footage to penetrate the hyper-real capitalist imaginary, selecting some of its most inconsistent aspects, such as the exoticizing gaze of the western world regarding what is foreign to it.
Her works are also capable of establishing a visual dialogue with the viewer, raising and challenging certain themes like capitalist consumption and ecology, through manipulation and reinterpretation of the universe of glossy images with which we are visually bombarded on a daily basis.
For the StraightUp@ExtraDry prize the artist has proposed an overview of her work of the last three years, with a group of six videos presented at Dry 1 and Dry 2.
Among the various video genres born directly on YouTube, some have the sole purpose of relaxing their viewers. They are long videos, often making use of tropical imagery, which serves as an emblem of this audio-visual escape from the western world. The video 32.min.RELAX (How to Build an Archipelago).2 takes its cue from what it represents, probably the most influential aspects on an economic and environmental level, namely the creation of artificial archipelagos in palm-tree form off the coast of Dubai.
The video makes direct reference to the last scene of Zabriskie Point by Michelangelo Antonioni. As in a sort of tribute, instead of the explosion of objects and materials, we see explosions of images and computer screenshots, thanks to a particular glitch in a digital animation program.
The protagonist’s monologue is a sort of “user review” of a smartphone app that functions as a personal tutor. Focusing on the psychological perspective of the individual in relation to the interpretive possibilities of an algorithm, the app is capable of offering effective advice in all spheres of everyday life.
Bellagio Bellagio is a project that began in 2015 in collaboration with the electronic musician Matteo Nobile. It is an archive of audio-visual stereotypes subdivided into various randomly selected topics: the power of machines, the spotted wild animal, the future today, escape to a tropical paradise, green & organic purity, the humanization of flora… The field of research of Bellagio Bellagio is the “stock” encoding of popular imagery (starting from stock photography, or images purveyed for illustrative needs) and, as a result, the creation of a type of behavior that could be defined as “stock.”
Natália Trejbalová was born in Košice, Slovakia, in 1989.
She studied at the Fine Arts Academy of Bologna and the Brera School of New Technologies, Milan.
Her works have been shown in various Italian and international group exhibitions, recently including: 16th Rome Quadriennale (section curated by D. Quaranta); Midasův dotyk, Liberec Regional Gallery, Czech Republic; Solo Figli, Padiglione de L’Esprit Nouveau, Bologna; Vanishing, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland.
