12.01.–22.02.1995

Since its foundation in 1987, it has been the aim of Portikus to enable artists to develop works that specifically deal with the space of the exhibition hall. A current example is the exhibition in which the young English artist Steven Pippin created a photographic self-portrait of Portikus using a pinhole camera.

The Italian artist Luciano Fabro, born 1936, has conceived for Portikus an installation situated in the field of tension between outside and inside, history and present. As Fabro stated, he would like to weave "threads of thought" between Portikus' current function as exhibition hall and its earlier function as municipal library, the front columns of which are the only remains of the classicist building destroyed in WWII. His aim is to create an exhibition "in which one can read like in a book".

The renowned artist Luciano Fabro already became known in the 60s as representative of Arte Povera, along with the artist colleagues Mario Merz, Jannis Kounellis, Alighiero e Boetti, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and others. Since that time, his works have been exhibited several times at the documenta and the Biennale in Venice, as well as in numerous international solo exhibitions.

In the course of his more than 30-year artistic career, Fabro has not dedicated himself to a certain style or formal vocabulary; never has his function as author interfered with the reception of his works. Myths and history are often the source of his works in which he poetically combines various materials (glass, bronze, marble, fabrics, etc.).

Photo: Katrin Schilling