Marco Nereo Rotelli

Marco Nereo Rotelli, Venezia 14 Maggio 1955, is an italian artist. For years he has been pursuing a research on light and on the poetic dimension that Harald Szeemann defined as "an expansion of the artistic context". Over the years, Marco Nereo Rotelli has created an interrelationship between art and the different disciplines of knowledge. Hence his involvement in his research of philosophers, musicians, photographers, directors, but mainly his relationship is with poetry that, with time, has become a constant reference for his work.
== Biography ==
{He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of Venice in 1982, and then followed the courses of Emilio Vedova at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. In 1982 he won the Jugend Triennale at the Kunsthalle in Nuremberg. His pictorial research on light and color that he presented in 1986 at the Venice Biennale in the "open" section leads to large light installations that he presents in the capitals of the world, from the Petit Palais in Paris to the Field Museum in Chicago, at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela; dozens of works in which poetic words illuminate museums, palaces and nature. He exhibited in 1992 at the XII Quadriennale Nazionale d'Arte in Rome[1][2]. In 1998, for Mondadori, he illustrated the book "In the Museum of Reims", which the writer Antonio Tabucchi defined as "splendid". Thus he begins a close relationship with writing that will become the focal point of his research.
Marco Nereo Rotelli, moved to Milan, involves in his works philosophers, musicians, photographers and poets aiming at the idea of a total work of art. In 2000, on the occasion of the 49th Venice Visual Art Biennale, he founded the Art Project group, now directed by Elena Lombardi and composed of young artists and architects, with whom he realizes numerous interventions and urban installation projects.
His works are present in museums and important private collections around the world. Some of the most important art critics have written about him, as well as poets, writers, philosophers and personalities of international culture, feeding an important bibliographical collection on his work.
His research earned him the invitation to nine different editions of the Biennale:
- in 1986 at the XLII exhibition[3], section "Open" arsenal, edited by Marisa Vescovo and Claudio Spadoni;
- in 2001 at the XLIX exhibition, "Poetic Bunker", curated by Harald Szeemann, the artist created an installation with 500 poets from all races and nations; 
- in 2001 for the Biennale Teatro he created the "Teatro delle parole" with Fernanda Pivano;
- in 2005 at the LI exhibition the collateral project "Island of poetry", Island of San Secondo edited by Achille Bonito Oliva. It is awarded the "Plate of the Presidency of the Republic" for art and territory;
- in 2009 at the LIII exhibition[4] "Save the Poetry", a side project, Isola di San Servolo;
- in 2011 at the LIV exhibition[5], "Lo stato poetico", Italian Pavilion curated by Vittorio Sgarbi;
- in 2012 at the LV exhibition, "The Words of the Cinema" light installation at the Palace of Cinema;
- in 2017 at the LX exhibition, "Lux Luxsus luxuria" Venice Pavilion curated by Stefano Zecchi;
- in 2021 at the XVII exhibition of the Architecture Biennale, "Proximity" San Marino Pavilion.
In 2001 Marco Nereo Rotelli presented the "Poetic Bunker" at the 49th Venice Biennale, celebrating with over 500 poets from all over the world the link between art and poetry. The project is born from the conflict between art and power created by Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film "La ricotta", the subject of the hardest process for vilification in post-war history, and is divided into three phases: 1) "Orsogrill", a thousand poems donated by poets artists and not poets from all over the world that are posted or transcribed on the iron fence placed between the Corderie area and the Arsenale militare, 'creating a mobile and mental wall of poetry'; 2) "Bunker", which reports on the surface of a bunker, in fact, next to a poem by Pasolini, the judgments of the Court of Rome against the author, accused of contempt for the film Ro.Go.Pa. G; 3) "Meetings", in which Rotelli proposes a 'space for voice and thought' in three meetings at the gardens of the Tese delle Vergini with the participation of Mario Luzi, Andrea Zanzotto and Massimo Cacciari.
From 2006 to 2010 in the work "Porte d'oro" Marco Nereo Rotelli gives a short trip grafted into a labyrinthine path, of which the doors in gold leaf represent the points of articulation, on which emerge geometric symbols and fluid thoughts in multiple languages. Each door, recovered in the abandoned places, is an invitation to reflection, a time to stop and explore. Concept-places that imprison visual metaphors. "What are you looking for?" the artist asks the viewer in front of a door, "c'est la maison de tout le monde", he says on another. The author’s poems crystallize on different surfaces, which express the vision of a poem as a composition, the possibility that the planets of language are moving. The installation was performed in 2009 at the Champs-Élysées in Paris, in 2010 at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, in 2012 at the Ca' Pesaro Museum in Venice.
In 2010, on the occasion of his solo exhibition at Palazzo Reale, he created the sculptural installation "Le pietre sono Parole" in Piazza Duomo in Milan, by the poet Adonis, overturning the title of a famous book by Carlo Levi. Rotelli’s stones are 12 monoliths in cloudy Carrara marble with carved the words that great poets have given him on the concept of identity. The foundation stone for identity is therefore the poetic word.
His research is extensive and rich in collaborations with large groups. In 2011 for the fashion company Louis Vuitton he created a project in defense of the culture of Easter Island with the exhibition "Silent writing" at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton. In 2013 for the Italian food industry Ferrero Rocherhe illuminated for 20 days the Palazzo Reale in Milan with a work dedicated to the poet Mario Luzi. In 2014, for the Northwest University of Chicago, where he is “artist-in-residence”, he realised the illumination at the Evaston's library. In 2015 for the Veneto Region "Via Pasubio", a project that combines art and poetry on the paths of World War I[6]. In 2016, for the Mediolanum group, he created a large installation in mosaic and permanent marble in Piazza Bussolin in Padua.
"The secret of Venice" is the large stained glass window that Marco Nereo Rotelli realized in 2018 for the new Caffè Florian at Shinkong Mitsukoshi in Taipei. The permanent work consists of stained glass windows Grassi, a historic glassworks in Milan, and is inspired by the water and light of Venice rendered by the chromatic and luminous effect of blown glass. 
The new book "Quasi" 71 thoughts by Oscar Farinetti, published by "La nave di Teseo" is illustrated by 71 paintings by Marco Nereo Rotelli and a text by Massimo Donà.
Also in 2018 "Poetry: a Glass Garden", the project that the Venetian artist has realized for Ca' Sagredo Hotel with the patronage of the Municipality of Venice together with the furnace of Massimiliano Schiavon, with the contribution of four international writers from different continents, the poets Adonis (Syria), Yang Lian (China), Víctor Rodríguez Núñez (Cuba) and the novelist Mark Axelrod (USA). The exhibition was developed with four installations in Campo Santa Sofia and one on the Grand Canal, more than five meters high each, and continued inside Palazzo Sagredo. The bases of the installations are large tripods formed by mooring posts recovered in the Venice Lagoon, where they floated adrift because they were broken by the combined action of brackish water, waves, and oaks. Marco Nereo Rotelli did not want to surrender to the fate of these posts, which accompanied a trait of the history of the city, and wanted to incorporate them in an artistic gesture that has a value not only aesthetic but also ethical, where respect for the environment is combined with the rediscovered dignity of a historic artifact.
In the night between 31 December 2018 and 1 January 2019 Marco Nereo Rotelli is called by the Liguria Region in Genoa to illuminate Piazza De Ferrari [7].
In 2019 "Mondo Terracqueo", a luminous bridge with the "Globo terracqueo", an art installation curated by Roberto Ongaro for Portofino from 13 December 2019 to 6 January 2020[8].
In 2019 Rotelli has been invited at the Chapman University at the John Fowles Center, in Orange California, for some special lectures on "creative writing". 
In 2020 "I sensi del mare" for the municipality of Lerici, he realizes a light installation on the historic castle and a performance on the overhead projector. In addition to the installation with the poet Yang Lian at Galleria La Padula, built in Lerici during World War II having the function of air-raid shelter, which then became a pedestrian gallery, and for the occasion transformed by Marco Nereo Rotelli in a place of art, in a sensitive reality that allows you to perceive how beauty can change the world around us and transmit an important message of peace to all humanity thanks to a creative confrontation between East and West. The meeting was moderated by Guido Andrea Pautasso, scholar of the artistic avant-garde of the twentieth century.
In 2020 he inaugurated the space "Quintiliano 24", the new Milanese atelier, which the artist defines as bright and full of energy, made in a former toy factory. A place dedicated to creativity in an area of Milan in great artistic ferment.
In 2021 he is invited to the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, at the San Marino Pavilion to present a project realized in London with the designer Celia Stefania Centonze, "Timeless books" 24 books in recycled marble powder, which bring the necessary words to stand out for ethics and aesthetics. They are poems about utopias and a promised land, aimed at an imaginary place, yet possible. An invitation to believe in art as the driving force of being.
In 2021 for the Italian cosmetics company That'so he created "The perfume of the world". A work dedicated to smell as a perceptive organ of beauty.
== Main works ==
•	in 1996 the opera as a tribute to the theater La Fenice in Venice just destroyed by a fire, and presented at the Quadriennale in Rome;
•	in 2000 the lighting with verses taken from L’horloge by Baudelaire on the facade of the Petit Palais in Paris;
•	in 2001 the involvement of a thousand of the greatest contemporary poets, expression of all trends and of all continents, for the installation Poetic Bunker , created for the 49th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, strongly desired by Harald Szeeman;
•	in 2002 the recovery, in Carrara, of a quarry abandoned and transformed, on the occasion of the 11th Biennale of Sculpture, in a large marble book, sculpting poetic verses on its walls;
•	in 2002 the large environmental installation Poetry for Peace in Seoul;
•	in 2005 at he 51st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, the recovery of the island of San Secondo, in the Venetian lagoon, for which he was awarded a silver plaque of the Presidency of the Republic;
•	in 2007 the permanent installation for the Living Theatre in New York, commissioned by Judith Malina and dedicated to the Beat Generation;
•	in 2008 in Jinan, China, he was invited to participate in the International Biennial of Art and Design of Shandog University, an installation with a tragic and poetic dimension, in the year of the Sichuan earthquake, which he was then awarded with the Academy Award.
•	in 2008 in Paris, the work made with one hundred gold doors along the Champs Élysées The Golden Wood;
•	in 2009 the great work Save the Poetry was exhibited in the windows of the Espace culturel Louis Vuitton in Paris;
•	in 2009 the bright installation on the facade of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela for the Fiesta del Apóstol;
•	in 2010 in Milan the project Poetry. "Word of Artist" with an important retrospective at the Rotonda di Via Besana, an exhibition with the Arab poet Adonis at the Royal Palace, the sculptural installation Le pietre sono Parole in Piazza Duomo;
•	in 2010 the project Genoa is illuminated with poetry, homage to Edoardo Sanguineti, with the light installation in Strada Nuova;
•	in 2011 in Venice his bright installation at the Palazzo Ducale that inaugurates the Italian Pavilion at 54. International Art Exhibition the Venice Biennale;
•	in 2011 at the Lido of Venice light installation The words of the cinema for the 68. Venice Biennale International Film Festival;
•	in 2011 the artistic direction of the project "Art Explosion" and the realization of a series of light installations for the enhancement of the territory of the Campi Flegrei (Naples);
•	in 2012 the light installation tribute to Wisława Szymborska at Ca' Foscari in Venice;
•	in 2013 the light installation at the Field Museum in Chicago for the celebrations of the Year of Italian Culture in the United States;
•	In 2013, the light installation at the Porto Antico in Genoa for the inauguration of the new Cetacean Pavilion by Renzo Piano and Assapora la Bellezza at Palazzo Reale in Milan;
•	in 2014 the creation of an artist’s palace in Padua, Casa Lux;
•	in 2015 the lighting of the Five Pavillion Bridge for the Slander West Lake International Poetry Festival in Yangzhou, China;
•	in 2015 "Via Pasubio". A project that combines art and poetry on the paths of World War I[6];
•	in 2016 the bright installations for the inauguration of the new Palestine Museum in Birzeit, and for the twentieth anniversary of Pienza UNESCO World Heritage Site;
•	in 2017 the great exhibition with Adonis and the light installation at MACRO in Rome;
•	in 2018 the important work of light for the Millennium of San Miniato al Monte in Florence;
•	in 2018 "Grass Gadern" Ca' Sagredo Venezia[9];
•	In the night between 31 December 2018 and 1 January 2019 in Genoa to illuminate Piazza De Ferrari [7];
•	in 2019 "Mondo Terracqueo". Cultural experiential and artistic event;
•	in 2019 "Il Globo terracqueo" for Portofino from 13 December 2019 to 6 January 2020[8];
•	in 2020 "The senses of the sea" for the Municipality of Lerici;
•	in 2021 to the 17th. exhibition of the Architecture Biennale, "Proximity" San Marino Pavilion;
== Prizes and awards ==
•	2019 Amilcare Rambaldi Prize for Art and Poetry Barcelona;
•	2015 Lifetime Achievement Award "Open" Venice;
•	2013 "Art Water Cube" Beijing Award;
•	2012 "Isola Poesia" Award, Catania;
•	2012 OFA Award, London;
•	2011 Capri Prize (special art-poetry prize);
•	2011 Beauty Prize, Forte dei Marmi;
•	2008 Silver Plaque ARTOUR-O, Florence;
•	2008 Academy Award prize of Art and Design, Shandong University international Biennal of Art and Design;
•	2005 Silver plaque of the Presidency of the Italian Republic for the project "Island of Poetry" at the 51st Venice Biennale, Venice;
•	2005 Mediterranean Award Gattopardo, Santa Margherita del Belice;
•	2003 Signalling for artistic research, 1st Bejing Biennale, Beijing;
•	2002 Poetry for Peace Proze, Flag Art Festival, Seoul;
•	2002 Award Fondazione mare nostrum, Isola Palmaria, Portovenere;
•	1997 Award Art for Peace TRG, Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb;
•	1997 Gallarate Prize, Gallarate Museum, Gallarate;
•	1982 International Jungentriennale, Kunsthalle, Nurberg (1º prize);
•	1980 O.B.L.M. prize, Venice;
== Biennals ==
•	in 1986 at the XLII exhibition[3], section "Open" arsenal, edited by Marisa Bishop and Claudio Spadoni;
•	in 2001 at the XLIX exhibition, "Poetic Bunker" edited by Harald Szeemann, the artist realizes an installation with 500 poets of all races and nations;
•	in 2001 for the Biennale Teatro created the "Teatro delle parole" with Fernanda Pivano;
•	In 2005 at the LI exhibition the collateral project "Island of poetry", Island of San Secondo edited by Achille Bonito Oliva. It is awarded the "Plate of the Presidency of the Republic" for art and territory;
•	in 2009 at the LIII exhibition "Save the Poetry", a side project, Isola di San Servolo;
•	in 2011 at the LIV exhibition, "Lo stato poetico", Italian Pavilion curated by Vittorio Sgarbi;
•	in 2012 at the LV exhibition, "Le parole del cinema" light installation at the Palazzo del Cinema;
•	in 2017 at the LX exhibition, "Lux Luxsus luxuria" Venice Pavilion curated by Stefano Zecchi;
•	in 2021 at the XVII exhibition of the Architecture Biennale, "Proximity" San Marino Pavilion.
== Bibliography ==
•	"Light Theorem in Destruction", Catalogue of the exhibition Broché, 1994;
•	"Marco Rotelli" edited by Becattini Montanari Zanetti, Danilo Montanari editions, 1995;
•	"I colori della Parola", 1995: Colors of word: Accardi, Barni, Boero, De Filippi, Krypton, Montesano, Mustica, Pinelli, Rotelli meet Luzi, Bigongiari, Ceni, Mussapi, Carifi, Rafanelli, Sebregondi, Pes, Spaziani - Authors: Mario Luzi, Piero Bigongiari, Alessandro Ceni, Roberto Mussapi, Roberto Carifi, Loretto Rafanelli, Maria Sebregondi, Aurelio Pes, Maria Luisa Spaziani - Curator: Marco Nereo Rotelli - Illustrated by: Marco Nereo Rotelli, Carla Accardi, Roberto Barni, Renata Boero, Fernando De Filippi, Gianmarco Montesano, Nino Mustica, Pino Pinelli, Teatro Studio Krypton - Collaborator: Laura Cherubini - Editor: Maschietto & Musolini, 1995;
•	"Places of poetry", Danilo Montanari editore, 1996;[11]
•	"Via della poesia" "Promenade der poesie", Corraini Edizioni, 1997 Published in collaboration with the Merano Library;
•	"La storia dello zio tonto o del Barba Zhucon", Marco Nereo Rotelli and Andrea Zanzotto, Corraini Edizioni, 1997;
•	"Rotelli. From the Petit Palais to the Venice Biennale", curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, Gabriele Mazzotta Editore, 2001;
•	"Sculpting the Word": Poets' Quarry", 2003;
•	"Isola della poesia" by Achille Bonito Oliva, 2003: Fondazione Mare nostrum, during the 51° International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia;
•	"Poetry", Centro Italiano Edizioni d'Arte, 2007;
•	"Linguaggi del mare", Maschietto editore, 2012;[17]
•	"A-mare", Catalogue of the exhibition, Sillabe editore, 2017;
•	"Poetry: a glass garden", Adonis, Mark Axelrod, Yang Lian, Victor Rodríguez Núñez, curator Massimo Donà and Emanuele Severivo, 2019;
•	"I sensi del mare", a project for Lerici, C&P Adver Effigi edizioni, 2020;
•	"Marco Nereo Rotelli 2000-2020", Illustrated edition, C&P Adver Effigi publisher, 2021;