Lost and found office

Lost and found office

ALMOST READYMADE (OBJECTS)

COLLAGES (FOUND PAPERS,PHOTOS)

APLAT |Paper and oil on found photo | 12 x 8 cm | 2011

LE PRINCIPE DU FAUX HASARD |Papier et acrylique sur photo trouvée | 24 x 18 cm | 2017

TOUS LES CHEMINS MÈNENT À ROME |Paper, graphite and oil on found paper | 24,5 x 34 cm | 2017

MONSIEUR |Paper and acrylic on found paper | 24,7 x 17,5 cm | 2020

POINTS DE CONTACT |Paper, graphite, crayon, acrylic and oil on found paper | 25,7 x 33,5 cm | 2017

YANOMAMI |Paper, graphite, acrylic and oil on found paper | 28,4 x 42 cm | 2020

TRAME |Papier et acrylique sur photo trouvée | 19 x 27,5 cm | 2017

CHATEAU DE SABLE |Papier et acrylique sur photo trouvée | 16,5 x 22,5 cm | 2017

NAÎTRE POÈTE |Paper and acrylic on found photo | 23 x 17 cm | 2017

LOVE AND HATRED STORIES |Paper and acrylic on found photo | 8,8 x 13,8 cm | 2016

Conjugaison |Paper, graphite, crayon, charcoal, acrylic on found paper | 22 x 35,3 cm | 2019

BANANES ATOMIQUES |Paper, oil, acrylic on found paper| 41,8 x 29,5 cm | 2020

EMPLETTES |Paper and acrylic on found photo | 14 x 9 cm | 2017

CAMPO (DETAIL) |Paper, graphite and oil on found paper | 25 x 69 cm | 2011

PARC RENÉE |Paper and oil on postcard | 18 x 24 cm | 2014

REMBRANDT AVEC GRANDES OREILLES |Postcard and oil on canvas | 24 x 19 cm | 2004

INGRES RAYSSE VILLANI |Postcard and oil on canvas | 24 x 19 cm | 2004

UNTITLED |Paper, graphite and oil on found paper | 17 x 10,7 cm | 2011

LOST AND FOUND OFFICE

The work of Julio Villani revels on an aesthetic of the fragment, exercised with an ever renewed and playful spirit. His practice often bears an all-round palimpsest nature. The artist is constantly on the lookout for the poetry lurking in the heart of the most trivial remains – faded images, obsolete utensils, manuscripts of another time – unearthed in what is undoubtedly his very own paradise: the flea markets he roams in his adopted city (Paris).

One must remember that a found object is actually always doubly so; firstly, when the artist, eyes like colanders (available, would say Breton), makes himself permeable to chance encounters and detects a hint of “never-seen” in the midst of the “too-much-seen” mass that renders our leftovers invisible.

A second time when – eyes turned towards the land of dreams (wide shut, would suggest Kubrick) – the artist dispenses with any trace of the object’s original use, to transform it into a receptacle of his own imaginary projections. As in the loss of self in psychoanalysis, it is in the tiny gap between being and becoming – between holding a bird and looking for many others in a bush – that the forgotten object becomes objet trouvé.

This in-between is what sustains Villani’s collages and almost readymade sculptures: oscillating between lost and found, they reside in this fringe of the world where the extraordinary leaps without warning from the ordinary. The passage from heimlich to unheimlich [1] is indeed an infinite – and fertile – playground for this artist for whom shifts of meanings are not only a source, but a resource of the imagination.

In this game, the artist doesn’t settle any boundaries. His findings do not limit themselves to objects: everything can be transformed, played anew. Including the inevitable influences of previous artistic references. For the Arts are the domain of the “work-phagia” by nature; copies and versions are common practice: from Poussin’s Sabines kidnapped by Picasso to the Gioconda decked out in mustaches by Duchamp – not to mention Ingres’ Odalisque all “greened out” by Raysse, to which Villani hastened to add his own coat.

The raw material is thus clearly announced, even denounced, by the artist; the superimposed layers are of his entire poetic responsibility. This is how found objects hold their office, he seems to say, claiming and emphasizing his borrows; quite reveling in them. The result is a scent of intelligent provocation – and a work of disconcerting freedom.

[1] The German word Heimlich can be translated as “familiar” and Unheimlich, by extension, as “unfamiliar” – but the translation is much scope of the word, especially when, adopted by Freud (das Unheimliche), it takes on the value of the irruption of a “disquieting strangeness” in the familiar universe.

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For more on almost readymade and collages | ANARCHIVES

BIRDS |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 72 x 18 x 12 cm each | 2016

BULL |Object, zinc | 19,7 x 27,3 x 17,5 cm | 2013

FROGS |Objects, wood | 9 x 30 x 11 cm, 8 x 26 x 12 cm | 2020

SMILE |Objects, wood, cotton thread, paper | 23,5 x 39 x 18 cm | 2014

PORTRAIT AND SMILE |Objects, wood, cotton thread, wire, paper | 31,3 x 19 x 18,5 cm, 2016 | 23,5 x 39 x 18 cm, 2014

PORTRAIT |Objects, wood, wire, paper | 31,3 x 19 x 18,5 cm | 2016

ZEBU |Objects, wood, acrylic paint | 43,5 x 11 x 17 cm | 2013

BIRDS |Objects, wood, wire, aluminum foil | 31 x 29 x 33 cm, 32 x 28 x 33 cm | 2016

PIZA’S OWL |Objects, wood, wire | 2013

FACÉTIES |Objects, aluminum foil, paper, wire | 51 x 12 x 4 cm, 52 x 26 x 4 cm, 48 x 12 x 4 cm | 2013

SNAIL |Objects, wood, wire | 18 x 31,5 x 11 cm | 2020

A HAPPY EVENT |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 38 x 18 x 10 cm, 37 x 14 x 10 cm | 2012

NEST |Objects, wire, paper | 43 x 40 x 7,5 cm | 2020

HENS (AND WOODEN EGGS) |Objects, wood, paper, wire, acrylic paint | 36 x 12 x 12 cm and 40 x 19 x 10,5 cm | 1999 et 2012

TAMANDUA |Object, aluminium foil | 40,5 x 45 x 24,5 cm | 2015

BIRD AND HEN |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 21 x 14 x 9,5 cm and 25 x 16 x 10,5 cm | 2019

PORTRAITS (CAMPERS) |Objects, wire | 28,5 x 10 x 11 cm, 16 x 9,5 x 8 cm, 24,5 x 17 x 13,5 cm | 2016

THERÈSE, CLARA, MARIA-CLARA |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 2019

BIRDS |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 46 x 18 x 17,5 cm and 46 x 14 x 10 cm | 2012

LIZARD |Objects, wire, wool thread | 13 x 24 x 8,5 cm | 2018

BIRDS |Objects, wood, acrylic paint | 33 x 18,5 x 11,5 cm e 5,5 x 9,5 x 7 | 2021

DUCK AND HAMMERED BIRDS |Objects, wood, acrylic paint, wire | 54 x 22,5 x 19 cm, 19 x 9 x 5,5 cm, 18,5 x 17,5 x 3,5 cm | 2021

TARSILA’S COW |Objects | 49 x 53 x 26 cm | 2018 | On the right : Bull in the forest, by Tarsila do Amaral | MAM, Bahia, 2021

HUMMINGBIRDS |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 2004 | SESC Araraquara, 2005

PORCUPINE |Objects, wood | 12 x 55 x 12,5 cm | 2020

AT THE STUDIO |March 2017

ALMOST READYMADE (OBJECTS)

COLLAGES (FOUND PAPERS,PHOTOS)

APLAT |Paper and oil on found photo | 12 x 8 cm | 2011

LE PRINCIPE DU FAUX HASARD |Papier et acrylique sur photo trouvée | 24 x 18 cm | 2017

TOUS LES CHEMINS MÈNENT À ROME |Paper, graphite and oil on found paper | 24,5 x 34 cm | 2017

MONSIEUR |Paper and acrylic on found paper | 24,7 x 17,5 cm | 2020

POINTS DE CONTACT |Paper, graphite, crayon, acrylic and oil on found paper | 25,7 x 33,5 cm | 2017

YANOMAMI |Paper, graphite, acrylic and oil on found paper | 28,4 x 42 cm | 2020

TRAME |Papier et acrylique sur photo trouvée | 19 x 27,5 cm | 2017

CHATEAU DE SABLE |Papier et acrylique sur photo trouvée | 16,5 x 22,5 cm | 2017

NAÎTRE POÈTE |Paper and acrylic on found photo | 23 x 17 cm | 2017

LOVE AND HATRED STORIES |Paper and acrylic on found photo | 8,8 x 13,8 cm | 2016

Conjugaison |Paper, graphite, crayon, charcoal, acrylic on found paper | 22 x 35,3 cm | 2019

BANANES ATOMIQUES |Paper, oil, acrylic on found paper| 41,8 x 29,5 cm | 2020

EMPLETTES |Paper and acrylic on found photo | 14 x 9 cm | 2017

CAMPO (DETAIL) |Paper, graphite and oil on found paper | 25 x 69 cm | 2011

PARC RENÉE |Paper and oil on postcard | 18 x 24 cm | 2014

REMBRANDT AVEC GRANDES OREILLES |Postcard and oil on canvas | 24 x 19 cm | 2004

INGRES RAYSSE VILLANI |Postcard and oil on canvas | 24 x 19 cm | 2004

UNTITLED |Paper, graphite and oil on found paper | 17 x 10,7 cm | 2011

LOST AND FOUND OFFICE

The work of Julio Villani revels on an aesthetic of the fragment, exercised with an ever renewed and playful spirit. His practice often bears an all-round palimpsest nature. The artist is constantly on the lookout for the poetry lurking in the heart of the most trivial remains – faded images, obsolete utensils, manuscripts of another time – unearthed in what is undoubtedly his very own paradise: the flea markets he roams in his adopted city (Paris).

One must remember that a found object is actually always doubly so; firstly, when the artist, eyes like colanders (available, would say Breton), makes himself permeable to chance encounters and detects a hint of “never-seen” in the midst of the “too-much-seen” mass that renders our leftovers invisible.

A second time when – eyes turned towards the land of dreams (wide shut, would suggest Kubrick) – the artist dispenses with any trace of the object’s original use, to transform it into a receptacle of his own imaginary projections. As in the loss of self in psychoanalysis, it is in the tiny gap between being and becoming – between holding a bird and looking for many others in a bush – that the forgotten object becomes objet trouvé.

This in-between is what sustains Villani’s collages and almost readymade sculptures: oscillating between lost and found, they reside in this fringe of the world where the extraordinary leaps without warning from the ordinary. The passage from heimlich to unheimlich [1] is indeed an infinite – and fertile – playground for this artist for whom shifts of meanings are not only a source, but a resource of the imagination.

In this game, the artist doesn’t settle any boundaries. His findings do not limit themselves to objects: everything can be transformed, played anew. Including the inevitable influences of previous artistic references. For the Arts are the domain of the “work-phagia” by nature; copies and versions are common practice: from Poussin’s Sabines kidnapped by Picasso to the Gioconda decked out in mustaches by Duchamp – not to mention Ingres’ Odalisque all “greened out” by Raysse, to which Villani hastened to add his own coat.

The raw material is thus clearly announced, even denounced, by the artist; the superimposed layers are of his entire poetic responsibility. This is how found objects hold their office, he seems to say, claiming and emphasizing his borrows; quite reveling in them. The result is a scent of intelligent provocation – and a work of disconcerting freedom.

[1] The German word Heimlich can be translated as “familiar” and Unheimlich, by extension, as “unfamiliar” – but the translation is much scope of the word, especially when, adopted by Freud (das Unheimliche), it takes on the value of the irruption of a “disquieting strangeness” in the familiar universe.

.

For more on almost readymade and collages | ANARCHIVES

BIRDS |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 72 x 18 x 12 cm each | 2016

BULL |Object, zinc | 19,7 x 27,3 x 17,5 cm | 2013

FROGS |Objects, wood | 9 x 30 x 11 cm, 8 x 26 x 12 cm | 2020

SMILE |Objects, wood, cotton thread, paper | 23,5 x 39 x 18 cm | 2014

PORTRAIT AND SMILE |Objects, wood, cotton thread, wire, paper | 31,3 x 19 x 18,5 cm, 2016 | 23,5 x 39 x 18 cm, 2014

PORTRAIT |Objects, wood, wire, paper | 31,3 x 19 x 18,5 cm | 2016

ZEBU |Objects, wood, acrylic paint | 43,5 x 11 x 17 cm | 2013

BIRDS |Objects, wood, wire, aluminum foil | 31 x 29 x 33 cm, 32 x 28 x 33 cm | 2016

PIZA’S OWL |Objects, wood, wire | 2013

FACÉTIES |Objects, aluminum foil, paper, wire | 51 x 12 x 4 cm, 52 x 26 x 4 cm, 48 x 12 x 4 cm | 2013

SNAIL |Objects, wood, wire | 18 x 31,5 x 11 cm | 2020

A HAPPY EVENT |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 38 x 18 x 10 cm, 37 x 14 x 10 cm | 2012

NEST |Objects, wire, paper | 43 x 40 x 7,5 cm | 2020

HENS (AND WOODEN EGGS) |Objects, wood, paper, wire, acrylic paint | 36 x 12 x 12 cm and 40 x 19 x 10,5 cm | 1999 et 2012

TAMANDUA |Object, aluminium foil | 40,5 x 45 x 24,5 cm | 2015

BIRD AND HEN |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 21 x 14 x 9,5 cm and 25 x 16 x 10,5 cm | 2019

PORTRAITS (CAMPERS) |Objects, wire | 28,5 x 10 x 11 cm, 16 x 9,5 x 8 cm, 24,5 x 17 x 13,5 cm | 2016

THERÈSE, CLARA, MARIA-CLARA |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 2019

BIRDS |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 46 x 18 x 17,5 cm and 46 x 14 x 10 cm | 2012

LIZARD |Objects, wire, wool thread | 13 x 24 x 8,5 cm | 2018

BIRDS |Objects, wood, acrylic paint | 33 x 18,5 x 11,5 cm e 5,5 x 9,5 x 7 | 2021

DUCK AND HAMMERED BIRDS |Objects, wood, acrylic paint, wire | 54 x 22,5 x 19 cm, 19 x 9 x 5,5 cm, 18,5 x 17,5 x 3,5 cm | 2021

TARSILA’S COW |Objects | 49 x 53 x 26 cm | 2018 | On the right : Bull in the forest, by Tarsila do Amaral | MAM, Bahia, 2021

HUMMINGBIRDS |Objects, wood, wire, acrylic paint | 2004 | SESC Araraquara, 2005

PORCUPINE |Objects, wood | 12 x 55 x 12,5 cm | 2020

AT THE STUDIO |March 2017