Pablo Chiereghin

some works 2010-2018

Studio Glockengasse 8A, 1020, Wien - 0043 650 7306291 pablo@pablochiereghin.com - www.pablochiereghin.com

Pablo Chiereghin’s research focuses on social and political dynamics. His actions, performances, inter-ventions are conceived in dialog with the public and play with the interferences between medium and sig-nificance. He often uses cultural readymade to stress the glitches among laws, behavious, languages and products. His practice finds fertile ground in the reality where behaviors and rules cause entropy and dis-crepancies.

Born in 1977 in Adria (Ro), Italy. He graduated in Communication Studies in Bologna. Postgraduate in Pho-tography at Central St. Martins, University of Arts of London. Co-founder of the collective Buuuuuuuuu.net. Co-founder of the association and project space www.Raumstation.space. Member of Künstlerhaus Vienna.

Solo exhibitions (solo), solo project and performance2017 • “Ausstellungsraum günstig zu vermieten”, Kunstzelle, WUK Vienna, AT 2016 • “Bagarino” performance, Kunstforum Vienna, Kippenberger Festival, Vienna, AT 2015 • “Kleiderspende” installation, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna, AT 2014 • “Police. We for you. You with us” Galeria Tir, Nova Gorica, SLO (solo)2013 • “Drop out of sight”, with Aldo Giannotti, Lust Gallery, Vienna, AT (solo) • “A trip between two imaginary points” permanent street signs installation, Strada Romea, IT 2012 • “Holiday Pictures” 4e7artforum, performance and video installations, Vienna, AT (solo)2011 • “Ooops” interactive sculpture in Augarten, Supported by KÖR, Graz, AT • “Ausstellung”, Tobecontinued gallery, Vienna, AT 2010 • “Hi I’m Pablo Chiereghin, I come from Adria” Das weisse haus Vienna, AT (solo)2008 • “Pablo Chiereghin. They say I seem clever” MiCamera gallery, Milano, IT (solo) • “Birthday Suit”, The Window Gallery, London, in coll. with Barbican Art Gallery, UK

Group Exhibitions (selected)2018• BIGSEE Design Festival Lubjiana, SLO • Jiffychat 07, Künstlerhaus, Vienna AT • Parallel Art Fair, Projektraum Viktor Bucker, Vienna, AT • ”Fake” Krudebude, Leipzig, DE• “10 Minutes Shift” Project in Atelier Glockengasse 8A, Vienna, AT • “Everyone’s asking if I’m ok / No one’s asking if I’m ok”, The icing room, London UK • “Current Signs” Das weisse haus Vienna, AT• “10 Minutes Shift II” Project Studio Kunsthalle Exernegasse WUK Vienna AT

2017• ”Domenica” with Aldo Giannotti and Massimo Vitali, curated by Marcello Farabegoli, Ambasciata d’Italia Palais Metternich, Vienna, AT • “Do not call it off space” das weisse haus, Vienna, AT• “Ich du wir” by Michicazu Matzune with Pablo Chiereghin, workshop, Centrale Fies, Dro, IT • “Migrant Project” with BUUUUUUUUU at Kunstasyl 2017, Vienna, AT• Dobialab Festival, Staranzano, IT• “Landgang”, Mitte in Favoriten, curated by Gerald Straub, Vienna, AT • “Alte Hüner gute suppe”, Atelier Glockengasse 8a, Vienna, AT

2016• Parallel Art Fair, Marcello Farabegoli projects, Vienna, AT • “Hafenfest” art festival in Viktor Adler Markt, Vienna, AT • “Walking. Arte in cammino” Torre Reitenberger, Tolmezzo, IT• Sympozium Galeria Miroslava Kubika, Litomyšl, CZ• “Back to Athens” festival, Cheapart Gallery, Athens, GR

• “Musao”, Masc Foundation, Vienna, AT• “Welcome Light” with BUUUUUUUUU at Kunstasyl 2016, Vienna, AT• “In Piazza“ performance Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels Vienna, curated by Marcello Farabegoli, AT• “Doin’t right” performace & party with Michicatzu Matzune, Brut, Vienna, AT• “Perform Paintik” festival at Arsenal, Art for Art, Vienna, AT • “Kunstzelle 10 Jahre” performance, WUK, Vienna AT• “Objekte” Theater am Spittelberg, Vienna, AT• “BYOV bring your own video” partecipative video installation, Atelier Glockengasse 8a, Vienna, AT

2015• “Social Glitch“ Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna, AT• “Moving not moving” Gallerie Laurance Bernard, Geneva, CH• “Feuer und Flamme” Museum des Stiftes Admont, Admont, AT• “Perpetuum Mobile” Vienna Art Week, Kunst Haus, Marcello Farabegoli project, Vienna, AT• “Modell#1”, “Modell#2” and “Small” Kunstraum Super, Vienna, AT• “Artmart” Künstlerhaus, Vienna, AT• “The local artist is present”, artist talk and screening, Trieste, IT• “Modell” Collini Areal, Hohenems, AT• “Living Monuments” MLZ Gallery, artist talk and screening, Trieste, IT• “Die Wiesse haus Kunstschau”, das wiesse haus, Vienna, AT• “ArTs festival” Festival arte in spazio pubblico, Trieste, IT• “Subpop”, Popmuseum, Vienna, AT

2014• “There is no current exhibition”, andata.ritorno Gallery, Geneva, CH• “Objective Point of View” brut-Künstlerhaus; Vienna, AT• “aNOther Festival” Konzerthaus-brut, Vienna, AT• “Salotto Vienna” MAK, artist talk and screening, Trieste, IT • “Jahresgabenausstellung”, das weisse haus, Vienna, AT• ”Deltarte Festival” Parco del Delta del Po, IT

2013• “Kunstgastgeber Gemeindebau” Projekt von KÖR, Vienna, AT• Photon Gallery, artist talk and screening, Lijubliana, SLO• Trieste Contemporanea, artist talk and screening, Trieste, IT • ”Deltarte Festival” Museo della Bonifica, Taglio di Po, IT • “All the times that i told the story of my Place” performance, National Archeological Museum, Adria IT • ”Jahreausstellung” das weisse haus, Vienna, AT• ”Unterholz” and “Interpersonal influence initiative screaning” Aparat, Vienna, AT

2012• “Poli di Attrazione” Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Vienna, AT• ”How to Disappear completely” with Aldo Giannotti performance, das weisse haus, Vienna, AT• “Multimart”, Gumperdorferstrasse, Vienna, AT• “Jahresgabenausstellung” das weisse haus, Vienna, AT• “The Family” Lust Gallery, Vienna, AT

2011• ”Declining Democracy” with Buuuuuuuuu.net, CCC La strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze, IT• ”Kunst und Kapital” Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, AT• ”Free Port of Art” Trieste Biennale, Magazzino 26, Trieste, IT• “NeoSI” at Schattendof Kunstverein curated by Amer Abbas, Schattendof, AT

2010 • “Privacy Matters”, European Month of Photography, Anzenberger Gallery, AT (duo)• “ArtMart”, Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, AT• “Klang/Farben Film/Musik”, European Center for Culture, Belgrade, SRB• ”When a ball dreams, it dreams it is a frisbee”, Rondo, Graz, AT• “The collective body”, Liquid Loft studio - Grundkino, Vienna, AT• “Be my Guest” performance with Aldo Giannotti, at Kittycorner, Berlin, D• “Love Nest” Wannabe Gallery, Milan, IT• ”Siteshow”, London, UK

Bibliography

Catalogs and pubblication (selected)• “Great Balls of Austria Austrillion to come” Christian Rupp edition, 2018• “Domenica” by Marcello Farabegoli projects, ISBN 978-80743-7212-4, 2017• ”Austrian and Czech stars” by R.Adam and M.Farabegoli. ISBN 978-80743-7212-4, 2016• “Atria Musa” by Alessandro Ceccotto, Il Prato, ISBN 978-88-6336-344-9, 2016• “Social Glitch” by S. Eckermann, G. Nestler, M.Thoman, ISBN 978-3-200-04408-1, 2015.• ”Art and Politics Now” by Anthony Downey, Thames and Hudson, ISBN978-0-500-29147-4, 2014.• “Eyes on Monat der fotografie Wien”, Fotohof Edition, Salzburg, ISBN 978-3-902993-03-08, 2014.• ”Kunstgastgeber Gemeindebau” KÖR, project catalog, 2014.• “Art in public space Styria Projects” Ambra/v, ISBN 978-3-99043-568-7, 2013.• “Jahresbericht 2011” Universalmuseum Joanneum, ISBN 978-3-9501936-7-1, 2012.• “Die Weissen Jahre” Das Weisse Haus, ISBN 978-3-902829-47-4, 2012.• “Declining Democracy” Silvana Editoriale, La strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze, 2011.• “Free port of Art”. Trieste Biennale, Central Europe Initiative, 2011.• “Eyes on Monat der fotografie Wien”, Fotohof Edition, Salzburg, ISBN 978-3-902675-46-0, 2010. • ”Portraits with telephone numbers” project catalog, 2010.• “Pablo Chiereghin. They say I seem clever”, catalog, Noiza, 2008.

Articles (selected)• TRT World, International Turkish TV report about the exhibition Current Signs (Mar 2018) • Profil, “Shimpftransporter”, about Self Vandalized Car (Dec 2017)• Parnass.at, “Domenica” (6 Jun 2017)• Artribune.com, “Il Settimo giorno” on the exhibition Domenica (13 Jun 2017)• Die Presse “Kunstasyl” catalog distribuited with the newspaper (26th Oct 2016)• Heute features “Self Vandalised Car” (3rd Jun 2016) • Die Presse “Kunstasyl” catalog distribuited with the newspaper (28th Oct 2015)• Il Piccolo “La Clanfa debutta in Piazza ArTs” (25th May 2015)• L’Espresso ” L’arte di Vienna a Trieste” (26th Aug 2014)• Il Piccolo “Trieste Chiama Vienna” (10th Aug 2014)• Die Presse “In Triest zeigst sich Wien in Salon” MAK Salotto Vienna (12th Aug 2014)• Rebelart.net features “Bank Club”, (Apr 2013) and “The Scam” (Jan 2012)• Heute features “Bank Club” (May 2012) and “Un Sorso di Romagna” (6th Nov 2012)• Die Presse features “Un Sorso di Romagna” Multimart (4th Nov 2012)• Repubblica.it, features “Portraits with telephone numbers”, 30 photos (Jan 2011)• Il Piccolo “Le Polaroid del Triestino Pablo Chiereghin” (7th Nov 2010)• SNOB magazine, Russia, feaurures 14 pages Portfolio of “Picture of a Lie” (Jul-Aug 10)• GQ Italy, interview, in the New talents columns, (Feb 10)• Zoom, features “Pablo Chiereghin. They say I seem clever” (Nov-Dec 2008)• Kult, features “Pablo Chiereghin. They say I seem clever” (Oct 2008)• PhotoIcon, portfolio publication 3 pages (n.5, Spring 2008).

• Report, RAI use the series Birthday Suit for RAI National TV, as a trailer of the TV-show (Feb-Apr 2008).• Renische Zeitung.de features “Birthday Suit” (Mar 2008)• Repubblica.it, features “Birthday Suit” with a gallery of 26 photos (Jan 2008)

Collections• BKA Bundeskanzleramt Kunst und Kultur, Austria, • Gesellschaft der Freunde der Bildenden Kunst, Wien • Private collections

Art Fair & Auctions• Parallel Art Fair 2018 & 2016• Kunstasyl, Benefizauktion Wien, 2017, 2016 e 2015• Vienna Artfair, Multimart, 2012• Dorotheum 18. Benefizauktion Wien, 2012• ArtVerona, Micamera, 2010

Prizes, Grants & Residencies • The Litomyšl Symposium – artist in residence, CZ , 2016• Walking art festival – artist in residence Paluzza, Udine, IT, 2016• Ivan Moudov´s “Air Drawing Contest” winner with “A line from here to home” Mumok, Vienna, 2013• Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Steiermark supports the project Ooops in Augarten Graz, 2010• Rondo, Graz, artist in residence, 2010

Websiteswww.pablochiereghin.comwww.buuuuuuuuu.netwww.raumstation.space

l gioco delle tre carte (three cards monte, Rot gewinnt)During Parallel art Fair, held in the former building of the biggest Austrian bank, Unicredit Bank Austria, the artist

organizes a street scam game known as Il gioco delle tre carte (three card monte) and makes black money with it.performance, framed cards, 2018

Signsseries of signs for the exhibition Domenica in the Italian Embassy Vienna

performative installation, actions, instructions 2017

“Every 20 minutes a the advices of the Austrian Ministry of Foregn Affair for Austrian tourist visiting Italy will be read loud”

text on the sign

“Due to the high number of visitors the buffet will be server on plastic dishes and cups”

text on the sign

“Throw a coin, wish something, do not tell anybody”

text on the sign

“To prevent any damage, a nylon sheet had been place on the most preciuos fornitures”

text on the sign

“Due to bureaucratic reasons the exhibition Do-menica (Sunday) by Pablo Chiereghin,

Aldo Giannotti and Massimo Vitali will be opened on Thursday the 27th of April”

text on the sign

Pitch Invasion by Aldo Giannotti and Pablo Chiereghin

performative installation, actions2017

Sonntag (Sunday)

A fixed camera films supermarkets when they are closed.stills from the video PAL 8min loop.

2017

Ausstellungsraum Gunstig zu Vermieten For two mounth the Kunstzelle in WUK is rented out for advertising, commercial purposes and marketing events. The project brings Adv in a space dedicated to art and in one of the oldest social cultural center in

Vienna opening a debate on what is allowed or not in the cultural frame and program of the institution.The artist maketed the space to designers, Adv companies, a beer brand and organized a Market in the

whole yard. The space had been rented at different prices and all the money went to the artist.performative actions 2017

Bagarino (Ticket Tout)The artist stands in front of the art institution trying to sell museum entrance tickets to visitors at a reduced price.

He does not mention that it is an art project and keeps the money for himself.

The practice of the Bagarino (Ticket tout) is common for concerts, football matches, sold-out events. The action of approaching a visitor outside a museum is conceived to push a negotiation-situation where it is not supposed to

happen. The performance activates dynamics of trust. It creates a situation where the seduction of a bargain works against the fear of the potential buyer to do something illegal. The project deals with cultural stereotypes and with

“the art of getting along” bringing people, who are just in the mood of entering a museum, in touch with another person that is making his living in a clandestine way. From a more general point of view, the project involves and

reshapes the relations between artist, public and art institution.

performance for Kunstforum Vienna, Kippenberger Festival, C-Print 40x30 cm, detail (photo Gianmaria Gava), 4min video (video stills, photo in the Kippenberger exhibition, down)

2017

Self-Vandalised car

In the framework of urban traffic people are reduced to single units of nondescript cars. Suddenly, however, one such unit disturbs the everyday flow unmistakably, an unidentified (but voluntarily) violence, a studied insult, is occurring.

When the traffic participants notice the offended unit they are pushed to think about the background story of the per-son driving the vandalized car. Instantly, a generic unit turns into a specific person and the following questions comes

up. What has that person done to deserve such an insult? Could this happen to me? The interference with the flow of traffic results in confusion and irritation in a seemingly normal situation and as such

transfers the effects of glitches in electronic data flows on an urban and social level. Here, curiosity bifurcates into mockery or empathy. The vandalized car becomes a moving pillory in which not only the driver “stands” but social affirmation and common anonymity as well. The written assault boils down to an attack at a status symbol that is

relevant both in the private and the public realm. (text by Gerald Nestler)

. C-Print 135x104cm (up), series of eight C-Print 30x40cm (photo Gianmaria Gava)

video PAL 4min, (video stills down) https://vimeo.com/193427046 2016

Es tut uns Leid (We are sorry)

Art for Art is one the biggest decoration workshops in Europe. After an economic scandal wich involved its major client, the Viennese Burgtheater, the company reduced significantly its profits and consequently its

employees. The intervention consists in a termination letterpainted along the 160 meters of window of the decoration halls.

“We regret to inform you that, due to the unstable financial situation your employment contract is hereby terminated“

termination letter on windows, intervention, 160 meter longVideo PAL12 min, photos, photos wallpaper collage

2016

Guten Tag (Hallo)Everytime i meet a policeman I greet him/her in a polite way.

performance-statement (ongoing, started 2015)

Self Portrait with a Supermarket

The artist, by contract, becomes the main model of a supermarket chain in Czech Repubblic infiltrating commercials and marketing to perform a self-portrait. The project deals with multilayer interferences between marketing, self af-

firmation, privacy, branding and definition of art.

contract:

Pablo Chiereghin born in Adria, on September 29, 1977 and based in Vienna in the Glasergasse 4/9 1090 and Martin Kubík born in Litomyšl on September 2, 1971 and based in Litomyšl, chairman of the board of the company Kubík

a.s. agree that Pablo Chiereghin will be the main model for the next Kubík supermarket advertising campaign and his face/person will be used in the advertising and in the in-shop communication so as for commercial communication.

The above-mentioned advertising campaign should be created and made public before the end of the year 2017. Pablo Chiereghin will not be entitled to receive any payment as a part of the expenses for travel, board and lodging connected with the project. Pablo Chiereghin agrees that he will have no further right to additional consideration or

accounting, and that he will make no further claim to the company Kubík a.s. Pablo Chiereghin agrees to the photo/video shooting styling requirements including haircut, outfits, makeup which will be not defamatory of his person

and commit himself to represent the company Kubík a.s. and its commercial aims. Martin Kubík agrees that Pablo Chiereghin will receive a digital hi-res copy of the produced material and he is also entitled to receive, upon request,

one or more physical copies of the material produced or printed. Martin Kubík allows Pablo Chiereghin to use the above-mentioned material in his artistic practice as for exhibitions, lectures, presentations, portfolio,

books and articles, websites and in any other artistic contest. Both Martin Kubík and Pablo Chiereghin agree that this valid contract is an art piece. The art piece is signed in

double copy: one belongs to Pablo Chiereghin and the other to Martin Kubík

contract, advertising material different formats, 2016

Is it all so perfect using the “traditional” old communist lauspeaker system, a sound of demonstration is

transmitted at ramdom intervals in the wealthy and historical town of Litomyšl (CZ). with Buuuuuuuuu.net

Sound installation running for 2 mouths- Video PAL 4 min2016

Sorry (Athens)

Intervention, A4 paper on burned car in Exarchia, Athens.photo, printed on PVC, 200 x 120 cm

2016

Storie di alcuni posti e alcune persone (Stories of some people and some places) I was invited to Walking for a residency on the Austrian-Italian border in order to develop interventions on a WWI high

mountain path. During my residency I tried to chat with as many people as possible focusing on the actual relation-ship between Austria and Italy, Italians and Austrians. Without asking permission I quoted on signs eleven small

stories extracted from the conversations I had. Two other signs were statements which implied the following actions:

During the month of August, I will bring with my minivan, Italian people to Austria and Austrian to Italy. I hope to have nice conversations during the travels

To strenghten the institutional friendship between Italy and Austria and the municipalities of Kötschach-Mauthen and Paluzza I asked the majors to swop the national flags between the municipalities of the two cities. The flags will be changed here on the first Saturday of August and returned a week later.

Storie di alcuni posti e alcune persone (Stories of some people and some places) photo documentation, self pubblished booklet on Pigna paper containing the graphics of all the signs. 2016.

In PiazzaWithin the photo exhibition of the director Urlich Seidl “Im Keller” the artist translates live from Italian into

German a TV documentary about fascists gathering in the streets of Predappio, the Italian town where Benito Mussolini was born and buried

performance, video documentary stills, 2016

Longitudinal Demoperformance in the frame of the Social Glitch exhibition, where random keywords of the Instant Associa-

tion workshop (with E.Klacan, Hoelb/Hoeb, G.Straub) are sprayed on a 30m long banner and carried in a longitudinal demo along the old city center. 2015 (foto Andreas Diem)

Kleiderspende (Clothes donation)

Kleiderspende is an installation created in the frame of kunstasyl, a charity art auction for migrants. The rug bricks had been assembled in a wall which reflects the “permanent-emergency-status” in which governments

and institutions deal with the migrant situation, revealing a contradictory strategy of aid and exclusion.

installation 5m x 2m, C-Print 120 x 84 cm, 2015

Police. We for you. You with us. An exhibition about social order and safetyGalerjia Tir, Nova Gorica, Slovenia, 2014

Gallery installation view (sign, flag, gates)

Police. We for you. You with us. An exhibition about social order and safety

Dj set performance with police related songs in collaboration with miss gregg

(text)The building of the art Gallery Tir, in the occupied cultural center of Mostovna, Nova Gorica, is transformed into a police station. The artist, far from proposing a clear position, develops a series of projects between safety and social order. The exhibition uses police promotional videos and a sound selection of police-related songs performed live in a DJ-set as cultural ready-made. The aim is to underline the role of this “democratic” institution in relation to fear, anger, safety and control, bringing these social issues into the relation between individuals in their hierarchic roles of officers and common people.

Police. We for you. You with us. An exhibition about social order and safety

Video PAL 5 min loop

Video Installation views (official promotional videos from international police - Georgia, Texas, Italy, India, UK)

outside installation views

Die Plakate von Gott (God Slogans)installation and video realized with existing advertising material of the archdiocese of Vienna,

2015

Dio c’é (God exists) photo down right - sub-culture sign for heroin dealers

graffiti on the wall, 2015

Mir fehl das Meer (I miss the sea)within the frame of Council house project Kunstgastgeber Gemeindebau

organized by KÖR (Art in public space Vienna) and Wiener Wohnen

intervention 2013

left, “Domenica” Italian Embassy in Vienna, 2017

middle, “Hafenfest” in Wien Favoriten Viktor Adler Markt, Vienna, 2016

right, Grundsteingasse festival Ottating,Vienna, 2016

Bank Club“I do not know where my money is now and how it is invested but I am having fun in the bank”.

Using their bank cards people gain access to the entrance room of some banks and have a party there. This party-project is a copyleft instruction to hedonistically protest against bank’s policies and their role in

our daily life.

performance, video PAL 7 min, photos 40 cm x 30 cm, 2013video and editing Roberto Beani

photos Gerald Zahn

see video: www.vimeo.com/61538730

The Scam

The artist organizes a complex financial operation under the fake supervision of a broker’s company.The participants give money under the promise of having the amount doubled or at least to have their

money back within 3 months.The artist gives to the investors signed contracts and then uses the money for personal purposes.

performance, contracts, 2011

How to Disappear Completely with Aldo Giannotti

performance, video PAL 2:37, photos 40 cm x 30 cm, 2012see video at www.vimeo.com/55784073

Self-disappearing tool with Aldo Giannotti

Pepper Spray on a Plexiglass shelf, 2013

Portrait with other peoplewith Aldo Giannotti

2013, C-Print photography on diasec

A straight line through the planet with Aldo Giannotti

2013, video PAL 1’32”see video at www.vimeo.com/70276095

Buuuuuuuuuartistic participative action against authoritative democracies

(an ongoing project with Aldo Giannotti and Gianmaria Gava)

above left: blog image www.buuuuuuuuu.net above right: installation views at Declining Democracy, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze, 2011

SonnenfreundeThe garden of the Italian Institute of Culture in Vienna is declared a naturist garden.

In the exhibition halls (facing the FKK garden)institutional naturist magazines from the 60’s and 70’s are on display

Intervention and objects, 2012

Sonnenfreunde, exhibition views

Destination Italy

The artist presents the two introduction pages of Italy’s Lonely Planet guide. A video projection magnifies the brief description of a nation, its economy, its culture,

its politicians, people, habits and moods.

2012 and 2016, video installation,

(text Lonely Planet)

Destination Italy

‘I am young and send texts (sms),’ Italy’s prime-minister-cum-media-tycoon Silvio Berlusconi remarked with his Cheshire-cat smile in a TV interview in early 2009. Born in 1936 and keen to promote his sense of eternal youth, Berlusconi is the image of the Italian self-made man who once made his living singing on cruise ships but became wealthy in construction and, from 1980, the media.Elected three times as prime minister since 1994 (most recently in a landslide in 2008), Berlusconi’s electoral fortunes slipped in mid-2009 in nationwide provincial and municipal polls as he was enveloped by scandal. After his wife, former actress Veronica Lario, announced she would file for divorceand claimed her husband consorted with minors, an investigation was opened into the presence of call girls at parties hosted by the prime minister. Berlusconi declared the claims to be part of a plot orchestrated by the left and publications like La Repubblica and Espresso (both owned by a rival tycoon). The prime minister has, since the early 1990s, been involved in numerous court cases related to claimed wrong-doing in his business affairs. Nothing has ever stuck but, as head of the government, he promoted an immunity law, passed in July 2008, that protects him from prosecution while in office. It came in before his British lawyer, David Mills, was convicted in February

2009 of taking bribes from a Berlusconi company to hush up evidence in other trials against Berlusconi.In a sense, ’twas ever thus. The land that gave us Roman efficiency and Renaissance aesthetics has a turbulent history. The peninsula remained hope-lessly divided into bickering city-states and small warring kingdoms after the fall of Rome and eventually succumbed to foreign control. Italy only reunited and regained independence in the late 19th century. Since then, what is today Europe’s fourth largest economy has been a country of enormous contradictions.The Belpaese (Beautiful Country) is one of the single greatest repositories of sensorial pleasures on earth. From art to food, from stunning and varied countryside to flamboyant fashion, Italy has it all. This is the country that brought us Slow Food, devoted to the promotion of fresh products and fine traditional, cooking. What started as a local protest against fast food has become a worldwide movement.With 44 sites, Italy has more Unesco World Heritage sites than any other country on earth. Its great città d’arte (cities of art), like Rome, Venice and Florence, have been attracting visitors for centuries, and with good reason. At times, it seems like the country rests on its artistic laurels. This is not entirely true. Milan, the country’s financial hub, has created one of Europe’s biggest and most modern trade fairs and is planning a major residential development, the CityLife complex ( p272 ), in the heart of the city. Venice is possibly the city that has, in appearance, changed least down the decades but it has recently opened a sleek new bridge over the Grand Canal and a spectacular contemporary art space at the Punta della Dogana. Nature occasionally strikes hard at Italy’s artistic wealth. Flooding in 1966 caused incalculable damage to Venice and Florence. One of the positive results of those disasters was the emergence of a new class of expert art restorers. Such expertise will be in demand in Abruzzo, struck by an earthquake (6.3 on the Richter scale) on 6 April 2009. It left 295 dead and 55,000 homeless.The city of L’Aquila, at the epicentre, was hit especially hard. Stupor at the collapse of the general hospital in L’Aquila turned to anger when it was revealed that it had been operating without permits and had not been built to meet the seismic standards of the area. Berlusconi promised €8 billion for reconstruction and an anti-Mafia watchdog to make sure organised crime didn’t benefit from these funds. He also moved the July G8 world economic summit from Sardinia to L’Aquila, at a time when Italy’s economy was looking especially fragile. The International Monetary Fund predicted a 2.1% drop in Italian GDP in 2009 and further losses in 2010.The question of the Mafia remains an open sore. The publication in 2006 of Gomorra, a chilling and personal account of the Naples Camorra by journalist Roberto Saviano, showed just how deep the problem goes. Although Sicily’s Cosa Nostra grabs many of the headlines, the Camorra is Italy’s biggest organised crime group (if this mix of warring clans can be considered a single entity). Known to its own members as The System, it is involved in everything from drugs and arms trafficking to illegal industrial waste disposal. Occasionally there is good news on the crime front. In early 2009, Salvatore Zazo, a key Camorra boss involved in drug trafficking between Colombia and Naples, was arrested in Barcelona, Spain. Immigration is a hot potato. Im-migrants have forever changed the face of Italian cities and towns, bringing cultural enrichment and social tension. Berlusconi’s centre-right administration has made illegal immigration a major issue and, in 2009, signed a deal with Libya allowing Italian Navy vessels to force boat people back to Libya. The first three boatloads were sent back in May, raising eyebrows from the UN to Brussels and causing an outcry at home. Further protest came with a new, hardline security law package passed in July. It makes illegal immigration a criminal offence and obliges doctors, among others, to report patients without legal papers to the police.Berlusconi dropped another bombshell in February 2009 when he announced that Italy, which had turned its back on nuclear power in the 1980s, would build four reactors with the aid of the French EDF power giant. Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI got himself into hot water after reinstating four arch-conservative bishops who had been under a papal ban since1988. One of them, the British Bishop Richard Williamson had, only days before the Vatican’s announcement, declared he did not believe in the Jew-ish Holocaust in WWII. Both the Pope and Williamson wound up making public apologies.A feeling of apprehension pervades much of Italian society, but an irrepressible sense of humour allows Italians to poke fun at themselves and their leaders and get on with the good things in life. A lovely case in point is the 2008 film, Il Divo (p68), about long-standing political eminence Giulio Andreotti.

FAST FACTSPopulation: 59.6 million - Area: 301,230 sq kmGDP: €1273 billion (€21,359 per head) - GDP growth: -1% - Tourism contribution to GDP: 11.5%Inflation: 0.2% - Unemployment rate: 7.8% (10-13.5% in the south)Average life expectancy: 77.6 years (men), 83.2 years (women)Highest point: Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) at 4807mCoffee consumption: Italians drink 600 cups per head a year, according to one study!

Un sorso di Romagna / Ein Schluck Oberösterreich

This work deals with political merchandising, nostalgia and normalization. The bottles purchased in an Italian supermarket and presented as readymade in Austria, open a negotiation on the dis-

similarities in the civic sense and in the social and juridical attitudes between Austria and Italy. The title, referring to the regions of birth of Mussolini and Hitler, is based on a famous slogan for a

cheap Italian table wine “Un sorso di Romagna”.

bottles of wine regularly on sale in Italian shops, wooden box, 2012

Exchangeable Object instruction on a plinth, 2015

A trip between two imaginary pointspermanent road sign installation,

Strada statale Romea between Venezia and RavennaAluminum street road 200 cm x 150 cm, 2013

Monument to the diver (studio)with Aldo Giannotti

installation , performance, drawing, photos Trieste, 2015

Ooops150 soccer balls are kicked by the artist onto a tree in a public park

performance, sculpture, 2011project realized with the support of KÖR Steiermark

Holiday Pictures It happened to me a lot of times to fall asleep while seing a slideshow of holiday pictures

2011, performance

“Holiday pictures” is a social ready made. The performance, that took place in a Viennese gallery, consists of a slideshow of a holiday snapshots as it was to be shown to friends and relatives.

The pictures accompanied by videos were shot as private memories and they become a visual medium of a narration allowing the artist a supplement of private stories, inappropriate details,

and boring references with the aim of letting the pubblic asleep

Snow2010, intervention at Rondo, Graz, AT

title, window, landscape

Austellung

Ausstellung is a show about tautology in art. The exhibition is a negation of complexity through a needless repetition of materials or techniques in which the aesthetic of the works presented remains incidental.

Stepping back from the allusions of readymade, the exhibition project focuses on simplicity using thingsthat mean exactly what they are. This linear process develops in reference to the definition of art

boundaries, underlining a rupture between the presence of the object and a voluntary absence of thecontent. Referring to semiotic background theories, the relation between medium and message is here

emphasized in the presentation of channels or incidental tools that normally stay behind the art piece butconstitute the physical fundament of its possible existence.

Ausstellung is, on one hand, very honest with the public and, on the other, it is a sarcastic critic to art thatmakes complexity its essence

exhibition project, 2011

Schwarzweißbild (B/W photo)

“Tengo Famiglia” (“I have family”)Statement 2012

“Prendete e mangiatene tutti” (Take it and eat it)

The artist serves a home-made soup with four kinds of beans, lentils, cabbage, Jerusalem artichokes, onions, potatoes and olive oil. Unleavened bread and red wine.

The project, conceived for the show Collective Body, in its reference to the Catholic rituals aimed to propose a common digestion

installation performance, 2010

(text in the work, english translation)

I, Pablo Michele Chiereghin,born in Adria (Ro) Italy the 29th of September 1977, disposing mind and memory do hereby make, publish and declare the following to be my Last Will and Testament.

I nominate as executor my father Nerino Chiereghin.

I direct that my legally enforceable debts, last illness and funeral expenses, be paid out of my residuary estate, and when not possible will be covered by my parents Odette Pannilunghi and Nerino Chiereghin.

I leave my artworks to my beloved partner Annibelle Seilern und Aspang, she should donate 10 pieces to my parents, one piece to Aldo Giannotti, Gianmaria Gava, Maurizio Maier, Roberto Fazzina, Alberto Ama’ Damiano Barbon, Carlo Chiereghin, Nicola Ferman and Manuela Spiga.

I hereby commit Annibelle to give one third of the profits coming from the future exploitation and the selling of my works to my parents.

I leave my personal belonging, objects and books of the house of Vienna to Annibelle. She will give some memories of my recent life to my parents. In case of irreversible coma, persistent vegetative state or terminally illness I want to have life-sustaining treatment for maximum two months. According to this will and maximum limit, my executor can decide to short the treatment period. After two months I do not wont any treatment given to postpone my death. After my death, I wish to donate the following organs: heart, lungs, kidneys, corneas, liver, and any other in accord with my Executor. I direct that my remains be cremated.

I dispose to have a not religious funeral and I ask Annibelle to organize the ceremony.

This testament could be modified anytime.This text was declared as testament and personally signed by me under the uninterrupted presence of my three wit-nesses

Vienna, December 17, 2009

Instructionsmixed media,

160 cm 40 cm by 40 cm, 2010

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CONTACTSPablo Chiereghin

tel. 0043 650 7306291pablo@pablochiereghin.com Glasergasse 4/9, 1090, Wien

Studio Glockengasse 8A 1020 Wien

all works © Pablo Chiereghin