{"id":32314,"date":"2023-09-01T11:31:26","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T11:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sineglossa.it\/?post_type=progetto&p=32314"},"modified":"2025-03-15T17:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T17:54:15","slug":"argo","status":"publish","type":"progetto","link":"https:\/\/sineglossa.it\/en\/projects\/argo\/","title":{"rendered":"ARGO"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u201cAre you not the future of all the memories in you? – Paul Val\u00e9ry wonders – the future of a passed time?\u201d<\/p>

Through this exhibition project, artist Paolo Bufalini questions the possibility of deviating the generative models tendency toward standardization<\/strong>, in order to make them a poetic-speculative tool<\/strong> capable of activating a discussion of the archive and memory as active agents.<\/p>

The Argo exhibition project starts by training generative AI models with a personal data set<\/strong>, consisting of the digitization of artist Paolo Bufalini’s family albums<\/strong>. The models, trained to reproduce the likenesses of the subjects and scenarios contained in the albums, provide their \u201cown\u201d interpretation, resulting in a journey into the past in which the boundary between documentality and poetic invention is blurred.<\/p>

Its title Argo recalls the topos of homecoming<\/strong>, as it seeks to inhabit the complexity of the concepts of identity and belonging by hybridizing past and present, the actuality and the memory.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The exhibition project<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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With <\/span>Argo<\/span><\/em>, Paolo Bufalini continues his investigation into the remediation of biographical materials through technological devices, which began with the projects <\/span>Land of Nod<\/span><\/em> (2023) and<\/span> beloved<\/span><\/em> (2023).

The exhibition applies generative artificial intelligence tools to a series of datasets made up of the digitalisation of the artist’s family albums, covering a time span from the 1950s to the early 2000s. Once the datasets were created, the artist used them to train text-to-image generative models capable of reproducing the likenesses of the subjects represented in the albums.

The result is the generation of an <\/span>augmented past<\/span>, a photographically credible representation of something that has not been, but <\/span>might have been<\/span>, in an ambiguous overlap between what’s factual and what’s imagined. The family albums provide an opportunity for a more general reflection on archives and their power to open windows onto parallel worlds through a dizzying knowledge that redefines the linearity of time. <\/span><\/p>

The result is a series of syntographies in which the artist’s family members are depicted, at different ages of their lives, in the pose of sleepers. The ambiguity of sleep, where the subject is both absent and present, reflects the more general uncertainty of the image and recalls the dreamlike dimension underlying the entire project. <\/span><\/p>

Argo<\/span><\/em>, from the very title, is intended as a journey – a journey through time and through the artist’s personal history, but also a journey into the technological unconscious, that space containing data that cannot be directly interpreted (in computer science latent space) on which generative models process images through associations precluded to humans. By customizing generative models with biographical and emotionally invested materials, Bufalini operates a poetic re-appropriation of the technological device, subjecting those same materials to the unpredictability of statistical correlations.<\/span><\/p>

Two flasks, containing gold objects dissolved in a stirring acid solution, complete the exhibition. The sculptural work declines a similar idea of latency on a more markedly processual level. The gold – present, but imperceptible to the human eye – refers to the infinite new generative possibilities that can only manifest themselves in its final fall.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Paolo Bufalini<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Paolo Bufalini<\/strong>\u00a0(Rome, 1994) is a visual artist based in Bologna. His research is distinguished by a marked formal and medial heterogeneity, which finds its primary motif in the investigation of the relationships between psychic, temporal and material depths. His work has been exhibited in institutional and independent spaces in Italy and abroad, including: Biennale di Gubbio, c\/o Palazzo Ducale, Gubbio; Museo di Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto; Marktstudio, Bologna; La Rada, Locarno; Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio, Bologna; Eataly Art House, Verona; Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbertide (PG); Dolomiti Contemporanee, c\/o Castello di Andraz (BL); Fabbri-Schenker projects, London; Localedue, Bologna; MASSIMO, Milan; Raum, Bologna; Neverneverland, Amsterdam. Recent awards and residencies include: SIAE – Per Chi Crea (2023); Carapelli for Art (2022); Premio acquisto Regione Emilia-Romagna (2020); Nuovo Forno del Pane (residency), c\/o MAMbo, Bologna (2020).<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Exhibition at Palazzo Ducale, Genoa<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From November 9 to December 5, 2024, Argo<\/em> was exhibit at Ducale Spazio Aperto<\/a>, within Palazzo Ducale in Genoa.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Exhibition at Home Movies, Bologna<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From December 12 to 15, 2024, Argo<\/em> has been displayed at Fondazione Home Movies \u2013 National Family Film Archive (Sala Berti \u2013 Refettorio delle Monache, former Convent of San Mattia, Via Sant’Isaia 20, Bologna).<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Credits<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Argo is an art project by Paolo Bufalini<\/strong>, curated by Sineglossa<\/strong>, developed with the support of Italian Ministry of Culture<\/strong> and of SIAE<\/strong>, within the context of “Per chi Crea” program.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Projects you might like<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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