Max Coppeta FLUXUS Curated by Cynthia Penna October 3—27th , 2019 Opening Reception: Oct. 6th, 2019 3-5 pm LA Artcore at Union Center for the Arts 120 Judge John Aiso St. Los Angeles, CA 90012 Gallery Hours: 12-4 p.m., Th—Sun www.laartcore.org Max Coppeta's fourth exhibition inspired by the work of Italo Calvino: "Le cittaÌ€ invisibili" (The Invisible cities). The previous exhibitions inspired by Calvino's work were held in Lancaster "Italian Summer", in Avellino "The invisible cities", in Salerno "Black Out". All the exhibitions were elaborated during meetings with the performer and artist, Margherita Peluso. What are these "cities" of Coppeta’s that the artist dedicates an entire body of work and a massive production effort? The artist states: "My reflection on the urban fabric was created in 2001 with the multimedia project, “Pavimentazione sensibile/Duty Free”, which then became a piece with the “CittaÌ€ vuote” on exhibit at the Moha Museum in Lancaster (California) in 2017. The artistic encounter with the performer, Margherita Peluso will be crucial to combine the physical matter of the works with the performative action that will result in a series of events that will outrun any conventional label. The exploration of this narrative language that draws inspiration from the novel “Le cittaÌ€ invisibili” by Italo Calvino, soon finds new pathways and profound grandeur, bringing together into dialogue and relationship the works with the action of the body: paintings, sculptures, installations, music, acting, performances, all become a unique flow of a dual direction." More than static elements of the past these cities are elements of dynamism, of transformation, of interior modification: modification of the present filled with a past that was also in transformation. The memory of the past (as Calvino states), already transformed in itself, transforms the present and the future. More than structured cities, for Coppeta they represent a journey around humans and their existence on planet Earth. Not just a journey made of everyday life, but a journey that, drawing on the personal or collective past, projects itself into the future of humans and their existence. Coppeta "narrates" a story between the surreal and the metaphysical, dedicated to the cities, their inhabitants, to that flow of life that unravels and condenses within these strange assemblages of humanity. The entire exhibition can be divided into chapters that speak of flows, tensions and transformations. Fluxus *Based on “Le cittaÌ€ e il cielo 3.” (The cities and the sky 3.) - Tecla page 124 The work that gave rise to the title of the exhibition consists of a twisted intertwining of transparent Plexiglas tubulars interrupted and deviated by joints of black synthetic material. Flow like a flow of liquids, of time, of humanity in movement, in transhumance which, through this displacement, acquires a new identity, it changes, it transforms. The artist states: "It is like water in a riverbed, which if on the one hand it follows the path traced by the other creates new branches and escape routes." The continuous flow of matter that travels is sometimes choked, prevented, diverted, but never interrupted. The flow is only diverted and every deviation coincides with a change;; every bottleneck represents a transformation. The deviation joint pointed out in the work by black- colored material is there to indicate the power and violence of the deviation or of the bottleneck: similarly and unfortunately, in the history of humanity, wars that cause millions of deaths and that determine inexorable changes, not only of socio-political structures, but also of ways of thinking and behavior. It therefore modifies: the joint points, the choked flows are deviations created for building new pathways. "...obstacles deviate, define and build both nature and human relations" (Coppeta). But Time, History proceed in their inexorable and relentless succession in a flow that although modified, appears to be equal to itself and ultimately does not in itself change: the flow is a metaphysical concept that contains in itself transformation and modification. "Without deviations the vital flow would be a straight line and without any sort of history. Blocking a flow means verifying its evolutionary and adaptive capacity." (Coppeta)