On 20 February 2021, Mari minori, a solo exhibition by Francesco Faina, opens at Studio Cenacchi.

The exhibition brings together watercolours and mixed-media works. Among them are Faina’s Calembour: witty and inventive ‘fish’ in which wordplay is essential to the work, with each title becoming an integral part of the image.

Paola Mastrocola writes:

“[…] Words are images. Words are play.

You need to know how to see in order to play. And vice versa.

I do not know whether images or words come first in Francesco’s mind. (Even for a writer, it is never entirely clear whether stories find their words or words create their stories. Who knows…). What is clear is that titles play a central role in his work: they are inseparable from the drawing. The titles cannot be overlooked: Mezze penne con le cozze, Guarda che pesce luna, Cernia lampo, Alice nel paese delle meraviglie, Totani e tabù, Elettrocefalogramma, Capa santa, Totani e tabù…

The idea is born from words at play. […]”

The exhibition also features the Presepi laici strombolani, playful works inspired by Stromboli, an island Faina knows well and loves. Their miniature scenes evoke familiar views and memories of the island, inviting us to move closer, explore their details and travel through the imagination — at a time when travelling there in person was still impossible.

Faina writes of these works:

“[…] Small portable nativity scenes, secular ones in this case: island scenes connected to Stromboli, a place that is itself a living nativity scene. I have simply borrowed fragments from memory, made from almost nothing: wind turbines, a ship arriving at the pier, lava flowing down the volcano, the Strombolicchio lighthouse. I recreate landscapes that are part of my life, of how I think about my life and what happens within it. In my life, too. […]”

Francesco Faina
Mari minori
Curated by Jacopo Cenacchi
with text by Paola Mastrocola

20 February > 20 March 2021

GALLERIA STUDIO CENACCHI
Via Santo Stefano 63
40125 Bologna

OPENING HOURS
Tuesday–Saturday: 4.30–7.30 pm
Monday: by appointment
Sunday: closed