Diogene Lab

Rules & feelings
Homage to the Black Square

Via Modena 43/E

Opening 6:00pm, Thursday 27th November 2014

Open by appointment from 28th until 30th November (please contact 329/1629510)

Rules & feelings – Homage to the Black Square is an exhibition of work created by Low Secondary School students who worked with artist Jaimini Patel during her residency Diogene BivaccoUrbano_R 2014 in Turin and DiogeneLab.

The venue chosen for the exhibition is the studio where Patel realized Screen, a site-specific piece recently presented to the audience of the Artissima art fair.
For the first time the work realised as part of the DiogeneLab program will be presented within an exhibition context with text panels and a booklet for visitors. The exhibition invites the residents of Borgo Rossini, Aurora districts and the general public to learn of the work of DiogeneLab: an innovative art education project, which introduces creative ways of thinking and contemporary art to schools and communities.

Jaimini Patel and DiogeneLab’s workshop has been realized with second year students (“I” section), as part of the residency requirement that the artist develop a project with a school group.
Patel has decided to base the work on rules and feelings. She has started presenting and commenting a series of abstract art pieces, significantly opening with Malevič’s Black Square, and has then moved to her own production, reflecting on how the concept of rule can affect the art process, in terms of restraints of materials and features of space.
Students have firstly experienced different ways to compose paper shapes, following precise indications: each series of works created was therefore influenced by variables such as the time given to finish up, the sheet’s dimensions, the number of colors that could be used.
They have then focused on conveying a feeling visually, in a non-figurative way, choosing from a list (heavy, calm, claustrophobia, tension, etc.), trying to comprehend and experiment the communication potentials of visual arts.

DiogeneLab is Diogene’s learning and educational program of activities curated by Mauro Biffaro, Raffaella Giorcelli and Alessandro Allera. Since 2011 DiogeneLab has created 2.500 contacts and realized more than 70 workshops for students and public events. The aim of DiogeneLab is to help personal and cultural growth by giving students the opportunity to comprehend and experience art, to introduce different perspectives and ways to connect ideas and thoughts, which are fundamental for the creative process.

Project activities involve Regio Parco Public Institute’s Giacosa Low Secondary School (students from 11-13). In June DiogeneLab hosts a one-day show with a temporary, public installation of the work resulting from the workshops and a party for the students, their families and local residents at the Diogene tram: the venue for the BivaccoUrbano residency (located very close to the school).

Over the years Diogene has become an important cultural organisation for the neighbourhood.