The Consulate General of Italy in Bengaluru launches its first show: “BINARY CODEX -

Opening Saturday 10 at 5pm. The show will run till October 8, in the galleries of the historical Karnakata Chitrakala Parishath. 

The exhibition, by the title of Binary Codex, is a retrospective of the works of Andrea Anastasio, an artist, designer and thinker who has been working between Italy and India for the last 30 years. The show, curated by senior curator of MAXXI Museum-Rome, Domitilla Dardi, relies on pieces borrowed from several museums, cultural institutions and private collections. Artworks are exhibited along with design projects that have been produced by internationally renowned Italian Design companies (Artemide, Danese, Foscarini), some of which have been realized in collaboration with Indian craftsmen. 

Binary Codex has been produced by the Italian Embassy and by the Italian Cultural Centre in New Delhi on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the independence of India: on February 25th it was inaugurated in New Delhi at the presence of the Minister of State of External Affairs and Culture. 

Comparted to the Delhi show, the Bengaluru exhibition will include two new projects, in the form of two jugalbandhis realized in collaboration with established Indian artists Avinash Veeraraghavan and Bhajju Shiam. The exhibition will be accompanied with a series of collateral activities, such as workshops and lectures for the general public and for students of several academic institutions operating in the city. 

After Bengaluru, the retrospective will move to Mumbai, where it will be showcased at the prestigious Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS, formerly known as the Prince of Wales museum).

“I am sure that Bangaloreans will love this show”, says Consul General Alfonso Tagliaferri. “With his work, deeply informed by Indian aesthetics, Anastasio contributes to nourish a dialogue and contamination between Italian and Indian culture, in line with the tradition of some of the most famous Italian scholars of Eastern studies, who have always looked at India with an attentive and fascinated gaze. And blurring the boarders between craftmanship and the so called ‘fine art’ – continues the Italian diplomat – is something that I find very relevant in today’s world; even more so in a Country with such an incredible artisanal tradition as India. To stay updated on our activities – concludes the Consul General – I invite the readers to follow us on Twitter, Fb and Ig: @ItalyInBLR”. 

Anastasio has a background in Eastern studies, holding a MA in Indian philosophy. He is a designer and self-taught artist, and has lived culturally and physically between Italy and India throughout his life. From the two countries, working in close partnership with craftsman communities, he has gathered a vast knowledge about production processes and their cultural implications, often integrating and mingling their linguistic codes.  

“My approach to design is intertwined with my art practice – says the artist – as I am interested in generating linguistic short-circuits. Conceiving a chair or a vase to me it means investigating into the domestic world and into the different cultural meanings contained within the object. Form and function then become the tool to generate new narratives while encouraging the viewer/user to engage with her/ his own understanding of space and daily existence”.

The opening of the show will be from 5pm to 7.30pm on Saturday 10. The artist will be present at the inauguration and will conduct a guided tour of the exhibition. Another public guided tour by the artist has been scheduled for the following day, Sunday 11 at 4pm. The exhibition will then run every day, from 11am to 7pm, until October 8.

A press conference, followed by a private preview of the show for the journalists, will be held at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat on Friday 9 September at 2.30pm. Interested journalists are requested to confirm their attendance before Thursday 8 September 4pm to the Consulate General’s email address: bangalore.segreteria@esteri.it.  

More on Andrea Anastasio

After debuting with Memphis and Artemide in Milan, Anastasio came to India in 1992 to catalogue Islamic architecture for a Unesco project while translating into Italian J. Krishnamurti books and A. Coomaraswamy essays on symbolism of religious classic art. 

He has extensively travelled in India and resided in Chennai, as well as Bengaluru throughout the ’90s, where he has tutored visual art and design. He collaborated with TARA Books, conceiving two books for the Chennai based publishing house while witnessing the rise of a dynamic generation in contemporary art. He has designed Cinnamon in 1999, the first concept store with art gallery in India while working with Rahul Mehrotra to design few private houses in the South. He had two solo shows and few group shows with GallerySke in Bengaluru and New Delhi and at JNKK in Jaipur. With Aradhna Seth he conceived “Space Mates” at the Italian Culture Centre in Delhi in occasion of India Art Fair in 2013. In occasion of the exhibition at KCP in Bengaluru, Anastasio has engaged in two jugalbandhis. With Avinash Veeraraghavan, Bangalorean artist, former student of his, he has made two paper works: Extinctions-2022 and Breach on Untitled (a juxtaposition of Breach 2006 and Untitled 2021). The other collaboration has been coordinated by Biraj Patnaik, executive director of NFI (National Foundation for India) with the Gond artist, recipient of the Padma Shri, Bhajju Shyam with whom Anastasio had already engaged in the past. The works conceived in the occasion of Binary Codex are: Sinopie (a juxtaposition of Anastasio’s Sinopie - 2006 and a painting inspired by Sinopie, by Bhajju in 2022) and Jungle Mall, where the back of consumer goods paper packaging lined with fake fur by Anastasio in 2006 have been painted by Bhajju in 2022. The work addresses issues related to consumer good society and mishandling of nature, as well as the vulnerability of minorities' cultures. 

Anastasio’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in Italian and International main museums as: Grand Palais, Paris - MAXXI, Rome - ISGM, Boston - Yuz Museum, Shanghai - Musee des arts decoratif, Montreal - MANN, Napoli - Hangar Bicocca, Milano - Darat al Funun, Amman - MART, Rovereto - Palazzo Reale, Milano. 

He won the Italian Council in 2020, the Best Light project at Eurolight in 2017 and best light project Design Magazine USA 2017. He has been artist in residence at ISGM in Boston.

“A retrospective is a rare opportunity for the author and for the viewer to see many years of research put together. At the same time it is a venture for the author, since single pieces are extracted from different bodies of work that have been conceived. The emphasis is on the thread that links all researches together rather then showing the methodology behind the researches that have been generated through the years”. 

"Unfortunately the word design is used and often misused in many occasions. My approach to design is mainly anthropological, investigating into the ritualistic processes that are hidden behind our daily unfolding of existence. I also conceive most of my projects in relationship with crafts communities from different cultural backgrounds”. 

"In Western culture, modernity has generated a compartmentalization of disciplines, separating craftsmanship from art, from design and from architecture. Although I see and understand the different takes into reality that these fields do imply, I feel that art is not made just by non functional works, as well handcraft is not defined just by skill, etc. What is stated through these different languages matters, rather than placing them into a hierarchical structure”.