Francesco De Prezzo
Liminal Figures
28.04.25-26.05.25
"The combination of the angle of the path, as viewed from the high window, our melancholic general dissatisfaction with tedious reality, and the swaying/overlapping branches of the two willow trees, often leads us, at least momentarily, to see figures that aren’t there.
That is, on numerous occasions, particularly in dusky light, it seems as if someone is rounding our barn and then walking out of sight. To be sure, we always go down, with flashlight in hand, never to find anything. Before you cast us a person more apt to see phantoms than yourself, we ask you to consider the simple question: what is ever really there for us humans? What isn’t a moiré of mood, temperament, memory, hope and expectation? Some kind of rhythm of preference or the irresistibly sweet path of personal logic?
Just think what presumptive apparitions of bias or predilection rise up as someone says “when young I was kidnapped” or “my grandfather was a close friend of Susan Sontag” or “Venice is sinking” or “she’s actually a singer” or “this was an ancient burial site” or “you stand to make a lot of money” or “we’d like to offer you the job” or “the first stegosaurus skeleton was found in Colorado” or “I have a barn and some willow trees…
On the slightest suggestion, something always materializes. But of course it is always wildly incomplete.(...)”
Francesco De Prezzo focuses his research on the transformative potential of the image and the documentary gesture, whether in painting, photography, or sculpture. His practice exists in a constant tension between the creation and erasure of the artistic object, questioning and negotiating the dialectical relationship with the viewer’s gaze.
In this exhibition, documentation establishes a stark division between the way the space is perceived and the individual works, which are set apart, creating a subtle sense of displacement—as if they are awaiting placement or have been removed from the gallery altogether. This act becomes central, subverting the traditional relationship between the artwork and its display.
Francesco De Prezzo continues his research by delving deeper into the historical and theoretical implications of the installation view, drawing from pioneering practices, such as Michael Asher’s or Louise Lawler’s De Prezzo amplifies this discourse by intentionally destabilizing traditional exhibition conventions.
Within this framework, the exhibition questions the implicit neutrality of gallery documentation, highlighting the constructed nature of visibility.
The strategic displacement of works subtly references how the gallery space conditions perception. Simultaneously framing and isolating the art object, the artist consciously places viewers in a state of perceptual uncertainty, recalling Rosalind Krauss’s notion of the "expanded field," in which the boundaries between mediums, space, and the act of viewing itself become fluid and negotiable.
This gesture of visual and spatial removal not only critiques but also revitalizes the modernist discourse surrounding objecthood and presence. By blurring the line between installation and documentation, De Prezzo's practice operates in a state of perpetual tension, continually redefining the artwork’s ontological status, prompting a renewed inquiry into what constitutes presence, absence, and authenticity in the art experience.