Andrea Bianconi

Arzignano, Italy | 1974

Untitled, 2011. Ink on paper, 41 x 21 in. 

Andrea Bianconi was born in Italy in 1974. His work comprises drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos, and public performances. He reconstructs the world using its very own ruins. His oeuvre is an incessant wandering amidst dreams, obsessions, risks, surprises, and an endless roaming among the fragments of words and things. A spectacle that is both delirium and destruction, assemblage and disassembles to reach an apparent reality: the “Fantasy Ridge dell’Everest” (as the artist himself calls it). More than a method, it’s an idea, the pathway of the imagination. Bianconi establishes temporary contiguity and unlikely proximity, reawakening the “demon of analogy,” pushing beyond the confines of reality.

“There is always an idea of travel in my work. Everything has a direction: when we talk, we listen, we eat, we think, and when we breathe. The arrow is universal. Even the sunrise, a wonderful leaf that falls, and a growing flower all have a direction. The arrow is universal, it is everywhere.”

Idea, Idea, Idea,  2022. Ink on paper, 14 x 17 in. 

In 2020, Bianconi created Sit Down to Have an Idea, a project which began in Bologna. The project continued in the Dolomite Mountains by installing the armchair on Cima Carega in Tropea, the pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea. In 2019, Bianconi performed How to Create a Direction involving prisoners in the Prison of San Vittore, Milan.  He was also the first Italian artist to be invited to Davos during the 48th World Economic Forum, where he performed Voice to the Nature,  an exposé of the ongoing ecocide and a reminder to world leaders of the urgent need to act “now and not later” for the well-being of the planet.  Bianconi’s recent exhibitions include Solstice - Dialogic Drawing Experiment at the MSK Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium.  

Sit Down to Have an Idea, 2022. Chair design by Favaretto & Partners, The Biga Luxy.

Sit Down to Have an Idea is an art project undertaken in 2020 by Bianconi. The inspiration comes from the artist’s studio, where he keeps his “armchair of ideas.” “Every time someone comes to visit me, they want to sit in my armchair thinking they are inspired. So, I said to myself: why not give everyone the chance to sit down, reflect, and have an idea?” said Bianconi. “Having ceased to be an object that encourages idleness, the armchairs I have customized with the slogan “Sit Down to Have an Idea” have become a sort of incubator of ideas for the duration of the event. A chair for everyone is an idea for everyone.”

Bianconi’s solo exhibitions and group shows include Embassy of Italy, Washington DC; Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium;  Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway;  Museu do Meio Ambiente, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Centro del Carmen, Valencia, Spain; Matadero, Madrid, Spain; Film Society Lincoln Center, New York; Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Swiss Architecture Museum (S AM), Basel, Switzerland; Kunsthal Charlottenburg, Copenhagen, Denmark; ISCP, Brooklyn, New York; Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy; and Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, Texas.

An anthology of ten years of performances (2006-2016) was recently published and released by Silvana Editoriale, Italy, including performances in the Czech Republic, Houston, New York, Shanghai, and Venice.  In 2011, Charta published Biaconi’s first monograph. In 2012, Cura Books published his first artist book, ROMANCE, launched at MoMA PS1, New York. In September 2013, his book FABLE was launched at MoMA PS1, New York, now part of the Museum of Modern Art Library Collection.  In 2017, the AmC Coppola Collection published SOLO, a monograph that included an interview with the international curator Catherine de Zegher. In 2022, Skira Books published his third artist book, Stupidity Exercise Manual.

Bianconi lives and works between Vicenza, Italy, and the United States.

All images are copyright-protected and courtesy of the Sandford L. Dow Collection.