• art work

John Lovett e Alessandro Codagnone lavorano come duo dal 1995. Basati a New York hanno esposto e performato in spazi privati e pubblici tra cui: ICA, Boston; Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino 2007, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milano 2006; Artists Space, New York; De Appel Centre For Contemporary Art, Amsterdam; Performa 05, Biennial of Performance, 2005; Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul 2004; Participant Inc, New York; TRANS>Area, New York; Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst, Berlin, 2003; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2002; Link Project, Bologna, 2001. Nel 2006 è stata pubblicata una biografia di Lovett/Codagnone (Charta ed.). Il lavoro di Lovett/Codagnone (performance, foto, video, installazioni) esplora le relazioni di potere esplicite e implicite.

John Lovett and Alessandro Codagnone have been working together in New York as Lovett/Codagnone since 1995. They have exhibited and performed in public and private spaces including: The ICA, Boston; Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Turin, 2007; The Ludwig Museum, Cologne; Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, 2006; Artists Space, New York; De Appel Centre For Contemporary Art, Amsterdam; Performa 05, Biennial of Performance, 2005; Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul 2004; Participant Inc, New York; TRANS>Area, New York; Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst, Berlin, 2003; and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2002; Link Project, Bologna, 2001. A monograph on Lovett/Codagnone was published by Charta in 2006. The work of Lovett/Codagnone uses the spectacular nature of contemporary art as if it was a rhetorical figure. Their performance work and video installations explore power relations, both as manifested in explicit cultural signifiers like S/M and in clandestine or unconscious practices. Previous photography-based collaborations displaced gay subcultural signifiers into suburban environments or urban public spaces. In more recent works, the audience is confronted with an appropriation of theatrical fallout, scripted communication that makes up patterns of interaction and dysfunction within family structures. The complexity of human dynamics is explored and re-delivered, often through the distilling of a pose that demands intensity and endurance. Lovett/Codagnone's strenuous performances convey uncomfortable and complex relationships in which the only constant is ever-shifting power roles.