Unearthed

Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop is proud to present “Unearthed”, the Solo Residency Exhibition by Marco Bizzarri. The exhibition will be shown in the main gallery space from 26 November-5 December 2020. 

Please join us for the digital private view on Instagram on Thursday, 26 November from 6-7pm.

Marco Bizzarri is an explorer, intrepid investigator of territories, people, environments as well as his own interior landscapes. Marco creates intrigue and though his aesthetics are impeccable, they are not easy — you will have to dig. Unearthed is an exhibition of works created by Marco Bizzarri whilst on the three month Solo Residency at Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, that continue in the spirit of Marco’s instinctive relationship to place and the emotions buried within. 

Having spent his life in Chile, Marco started in architecture and swiftly found Fine Art as the better way to explore his creativity and curiosity. This is an artist that wants to expose the depths and layers of experiences. Whether it is creating land art from the wreckage of the mining industry that has left native cultures nearly decimated, or the sincere and sympathetic relationship to the victims of Grenfell through his shared grief of losing his brother in a tragic accident in Peru at the same time. 

Unearthing, excavating, seeking understanding in our most difficult confrontations are the realm of Marco’s work. Our contemporary tendency is to cover up and hide pain or tragedy, or perhaps to hide activities with a human price. This lack of honesty, this hiding is his core interest and Marco finds great symbolic power in the curtain — a flimsy fabric used to pretend something is not there, much like our neighbouring monument covered up, so as not to see the pain of reality. As with his desert works that expose the scars from the mining industry, the communities’ wounds local to our gallery are awaiting healing yet still need exposure. The elusive truth, lies covered up, the pretence facades are the symbols in Marco’s work. As he unearths and explores he makes pieces that ask the same of the viewer: dig deeper to understand. 

Ominous, black hand-dyed fabrics wrapped around towers standing sentry to unknown secrets, a mystery hidden, posing permanent questions. The association to the memorial is unavoidable and the local funeral service has be disturbingly busy in the time of the pandemic. His large, densely painted, vaguely figurative paintings have a distinctive layering of paint that make the viewer fight to comprehend, but it is Marco’s work outside, with performance as well as sculpture, that brings the enormity of his expression to life. Marco has left ‘home’ and moved to London — a huge adjustment and change. To launch himself immediately into a residency was brave. Marco is unearthing his own grief, digging out of the pain, coming back to life and asking us to look underneath ourselves to discover what else can be unearthed. Possibly, hopefully a truth.