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From: anon
Category: Exhibitions
Date: 08 March 2001
Emporio Mariani.A clever pun on Armani and the epomymous benefactor of the Swiss Academy, Mariani. The Swiss Academy,Villa Mariani, located near the Via Veneto, home of overpriced tourist shops, hosted this art market, which we cannot escape even here in sleepy Rome.Two young Swiss Artists called Monica and Dani, both very modern looking with died blonde hair, organised it. Artists from around Rome, mostly from those peculiar outposts -the national academies, produced multiples to be sold at reasonable prices. The multiples were laid out on tables or displayed in a glass case and did not seem to be more than a load of junk at first glance. What is a multiple? Obviously more than one of some kind of art work, usually intended to be sold in bulk at affordable prices so as to extend the ownership of art. This noble idea seemed in practice to involve the production of lots of careless and mediocre art. There were snappy shots of people hanging out in Rome, available for 20000lire ( wow! only 7 pounds for art!) prints with little sheets of sugar paper over them making them look professional, which seemed to sell well. My stuff- drawings in felt tips typically loose. There was a lot of other stuff on bits of paper, mostly computer printouts or photocopies, and a few useless objects with their knicnack status less pleasing than similarly useless mass production kitsch. Why would anyone want this stuff? They didn't, unfortunately for the penniless artists. The public, (actually a handful of the usual Rome art crowd, outnumbered by the creators) seemed to realise they would be better off getting any old image on a scrappy bit of paper and spending the money they saved on a decent frame.
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