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00:28 My name is Marisa Bellani. I'm the curator of this exhibition, which is a solo show by
00:34 Shanatib Shanvipava called The Sound of Many Waters. This exhibition came
00:40 together after talking with the artist about this new body of work, which is
00:46 highly autobiographical and speaks, each painting speaks of one episode of his
00:55 life that has in recent years marked his growth and evolution through the many
01:04 years today. The water came as metaphor for connectedness and fluidity, which are
01:17 two important themes as well in this exhibition, talking about queerness,
01:21 sensibilities, temporality, and Venice was like such a perfect place to talk about
01:30 this because everything here is connected by water. It seems so obvious
01:35 to do it here. Then we, the first painting that Shanatib finished was this one,
01:43 which is Triumph of Life. It's a man riding a horse. This is a painting about
01:54 hope and I think from what our discussion, what he said was it's one of
02:01 the painting where you can relate personally to most, as in the figure
02:07 being maybe him, which is not the case in others. His works are between
02:15 abstraction and figuration, but very much leaning towards abstraction. There is
02:23 also a big work on the way he paints and how he applies layers after layers. The
02:35 drying time between each one is very long because he used like thick layers,
02:40 which is also very interesting for this exhibition about time and about
02:45 going back and forward. From going to his studio I could see like at different
02:51 stages of the painting, I could see how they would evolve and how he would
02:56 settle on the final result. Also through a conversation about colors, which
03:06 was not the case in his early paintings. They were more monochromatic white and
03:11 way less vivid like this. Colors have come into play recently, like maybe in
03:20 the past year, and they now represent an emotion. He attached an emotion to each
03:25 color, but not each color will tell one emotion. It's not as straightforward as
03:29 this. And then I think to talk about his brush paint and the symbols that are in
03:37 his painting, which you can find a lot, like the heart here, the hearts that are
03:44 here as well, like here, here, there, that they come back in each work and they also
03:52 come back in the small works. And these are very important. The two lines are the
04:03 heart center and it's like how he grounds himself. And my understanding,
04:08 which is always maybe personal, but my understanding is that each work being so
04:13 personal, it's always an event that it goes through and he overcomes it through
04:18 the painting. And he marks this is done when the two heart centers are there and
04:26 they are everywhere, but I don't see any here or maybe it's hidden, which maybe
04:32 means that the future fertile is still something pending and something that he
04:37 still needs to go through. This is a painting which depicts very abstractly
04:45 the rooms of a clinic where you can do like a, what's it called, like when you
04:55 want fertilizing. So he did like this and it was like very like one room
05:02 after another and it's very clinical and the green is obviously a color of hope
05:07 and you know and looking at the future. Then there are little gems like this one
05:18 which is a concentrate of his technique because also Charnaty is not a
05:28 conceptual artist, it's not all about what it means. Obviously it means a lot
05:32 to him and they also convey a more universal message to which we can all in
05:38 our own way relate to, but what I find exceptional and this is also why we work
05:43 together is his painting skills, although he self-taught and learned it through a
05:50 lifetime. But this is like somewhere where you can really see how we can
05:56 layer and test and like the size of his brush which is always the same and how
06:02 we use it. It's also very visible in a painting like Lovers at First Sight.
06:12 There are a lot of these brushstrokes, it's very airy and I find that the way he can
06:23 depict completely different atmosphere every time and however having a very
06:30 strong mark of us being able to recognize it's him and it's his brushstroke
06:36 is actually quite exceptional. Like this one, Fantasy Room, is a completely
06:43 different atmosphere where it seems cramped and that's also why we've
06:49 put it here in the show. And the person on the painting, we don't know
06:57 if he's entering or exiting the room and this is his fantasy room and all of us
07:04 again it's something that is very related to him but it's also something
07:09 that we can all relate what are our fantasies, which one can we share, when do
07:15 we need to lock the door, when can we leave it open and let other people enter,
07:20 share them and this level of intimacy that is talked about in this painting.
07:29 Now for the whole exhibition what is quite exceptional and remarkable is the
07:37 location that we managed to find and how the artist has occupied the space
07:46 without changing it but with a lot of integrity and respect to the original
07:52 architecture as added the perimeter of his own world. So these walls that are
07:59 very like chunky and metal to reflect the water and the reflection, they also
08:04 serve as a perimeter for the show so we know that we are inside this world and
08:11 inside the message that he wants to tell us. However everything else has remained
08:18 untouched and as it was and we are very lucky of where it is, it's absolutely
08:24 beautiful and even the original ceilings which they look like water and with this
08:30 blue brushstrokes almost similar to his, it's quite lucky and yeah and I think
08:39 it's a beautiful exhibition because it's merged quality of works, installation
08:48 and message so I was very very honored to be part of it.
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