ANGELO BELLOBONO
PROJECTS
LOW LIFE WELLBEING CENTER 2009

Angelo Bellobono’s new project, in a sort of anthropological and social catalogue, continues the artist’s analysis of behaviours linked to belonging and to established and codified identity, decontextualizing them and reproposing them in a subtly ironic way which makes no allowances. [Download pdf][ read more ]

low life acrylic on canvas 150 x150 cm 2008
warm me up acrylic on canvas 150 x150 cm 2008
low very low  90x90 acrylic on canvas 2009
I am a fashion designer in bali 150x150 acrylic on canvas 2010
I'm look like but i'm not cm.153x156 2010 acrylic on canvas - photo by Dario Lasagni
I'm so hip 150x150 acrylic on canvas 2010
wow wendy 2009 cm.150x150 acrylic on canvas - photo by Dario Lasagni
kominas taqwacore 150x150 cm acrylic on canvas 2009
vicious head 120x120 acrylic on canvas 2009
lowlife ex-stasi 30x20 acrylic on wood  2009
lowlife animation 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife attitude 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife clubber 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife consumer 4 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife drawing 19 2010
lowlife finger food 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife gym 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife mather 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife meditation 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife planet 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife pregnant 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife teen 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife victim 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife worker 1 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife worker 4 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife worker 6 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife worker5 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008
lowlife yoga2 21x14,5 drawing on paper 2008

Angelo Bellobono’s new project, in a sort of anthropological and social catalogue, continues the artist’s analysis of behaviours linked to belonging and to established and codified identity, decontextualizing them and reproposing them in a subtly ironic way which makes no allowances.
Faced with a range of serious and concrete inadequacies linked to real hardships and problems are an equal number of ostentatiously displayed surface attitudes, created in opposition to institutionalized systems but which eventually end up becoming equivalent and parallel systems which are equally rigid, codified and hierarchical. People’s tendency to organize themselves into ghettos and separate groups lies behind all forms of intolerance and behavioural arrogance. Politics, in this period of strong regression and (deliberate) destabilization of the status quo, once again plays the card of national identity, creating the conditions for uncontrollable damage. The economy has always exploited individual weaknesses, creating reference models around which people group themselves with their own distinctive products. Writers such as Richard Yates, Pirandello, Tondelli, Kurt Vonnegut, Orwell, Geoff Dyer, Michel Houellebecq have cynically and accurately described the outlines of this indoctrination. By means of painting, drawing and video animation this project investigates, strips bare and reassembles individual and global psychological attitudes and fears, group games and ironies, trends and displacements of commonplaces. With a painting style that is at once forceful and rarefied, each canvas is packed with emotions that are intimately perceived but which belong to all, frozen, hung out to melt and which dry up again, still dirt-laden. The drawings, rapid and non-complacent in style, uncover private vices, public virtues and dress codes. To conclude, an ironic and solemn video animation shows us the protagonists of this hypothetical well-being centre coming to grips with yoga and pilates, activities which are perhaps difficult to reconcile with punk or pseudo-punk culture; even the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” becomes a new age mantra with its chorus of “no future for you”.

a project by Angelo Bellobono
curated by Alessandro Facente
Changing Role Gallery – Napoli – october 2009



Il nuovo progetto di Angelo Bellobono, in una sorta di inventario antroposociale, continua l’analisi dei comportamenti legati all’appartenenza e all’identità costituita e codificata, decontestualizzandoli e riproponendoli in una sottile vena ironica e senza sconti. Di fronte ad un ventaglio di serie e concrete inadeguatezze legate a disagi e problematiche reali, esistono altrettanti atteggiamenti facciata energicamente ostentati, messi in atto allo scopo di opporsi a sistemi istituzionalizzati e che finiscono per crearne di equivalenti e paralleli, altrettanto rigidi, codificati e gerarchici. L’attitudine degli uomini ad organizzarsi in ghetti e raggruppamenti, è alla base di ogni forma di intolleranza e arroganza comportamentale. La politica, in questo periodo di forte regresso e destabilizzazione (voluta) degli equilibri conclamati, gioca ancora una volta la carta dell’identità nazionalistica, creando i presupposti di danni incontrollabili. L’economia d’altronde ha sempre sfruttato le fragilità individuali, creando modelli di riferimento intorno a cui raggrupparsi con relativi prodotti identificativi. Scrittori come Richard Yates, Pirandello, Tondelli, Kurt Vonnengut, Orwell, Geoff Dyer, Michel Houellebecq, hanno cinicamente e correttamente descritto i panorami dell’indottrinamento. Attraverso l’uso della pittura, del disegno e della videoanimazione, il progetto scandaglia, scarnifica e ricompone psicologie e paure individuali e globali, giochi ed ironie di gruppo, tendenze e spiazzamenti dei luoghi comuni. Attraverso una pittura al tempo stesso forte e rarefatta, la tela si popola di emozioni percepite intimamente, ma che appartengono a tutti, congelate, appese a sciogliersi e che si asciugano ancora cariche di sporco. Il disegno, dal tratto veloce e poco compiacente, rivela vizi privati, pubbliche virtù e dress code. Per finire, una videoanimazione ironica e solenne ci mostra i protagonisti di questo ipotetico wellbeing center, alle prese con yoga e pilates, pratiche magari poco riconducibili ad una cultura punk o pseudo tale, e anche “God Save the Queen” dei Sex Pistols diventa un mantra new age sul ritornello “no future for you”.

progetto di Angelo Bellobono
a cura di Alessandro Facente
Changing Role Gallery – Napoli – ottobre 2009