Exhibition // Santiago Taccetti at Galerie Rolando Anselmi

Santiago Taccetti – “Firma Matar” (2015), site-specific installation at Galerie Rolando Anselmi; Photo by Riccardo Malberti, courtesy of Galerie Rolando Anselmi

Argentinian, Berlin-based artist Santiago Taccetti produced a site-specific work for his first solo show at Galerie Rolando Anselmi, which opened last Saturday. The installation spans the full gallery space, and reappropriates a variety of materials in an attempt to fool the senses into a false familiarity. As a commentary on the idea of standardization, the piece invites viewers to participate in a language that is both familiar and foreign, by perverting the everyday understanding of materials and objects.

Santiago Taccetti – “Firma Matar” (2015), site-specific installation at Galerie Rolando Anselmi; Photo by Riccardo Malberti, courtesy of Galerie Rolando Anselmi

Taccetti contrasts standardization with improvisation, and encapsulates the term in both his method and its content. The artist shares the story of Nirvana‘s concert in Buenos Aires in the early 90s, when Cobain chose to play a set of improvised songs that had only previously existed in his dreams. The marketable product that emerged from the standardization of these dream songs contributed to his fame and fortune, but he felt most at home in their original unedited form. Taccetti touches on this feeling in his exhibition, where he aims to get at the roots of creative work, before it becomes marketable. Using pre-produced materials, he creates something uncertain: an empty signifier.

Santiago Taccetti – “Firma Matar” (2015), site-specific installation at Galerie Rolando Anselmi; Photo by Riccardo Malberti, courtesy of Galerie Rolando Anselmi