TEMPO PERSO

T.S. Eliot wrote that “only through time is time conquered”.
Tempo Perso, shaped as an intervention in the space of the Forum Buonaparte 68 of the Galeria Tempesta, is configured precisely as an attempt to reconquer the present after acknowledging the existence of a timeless time in contemporaneity, that, unable to leave itself, cannot account for the past.

The work, conceived specifically for the gallery space, is an articulation of a “lost time”, a time which cannot be capitalized, which is relational and essentially historical. It is a time for leisure and contemplation, as well as reconsideration and re-evaluation of the past. This time, which is full, saturated, capable of unfolding and accounting for the palimpsest of eras, eventualities and events that the space holds, appears in the room in the form of a net. This structure informs a monumental installation that, designed with light materials, is formally opposed to the features that distinguish traditional monuments. These, often built with heavy materials and erected to commemorate an exceptional event, tend towards concreteness and a strong presence. The installation, whose reflections and shadows create an ethereal atmosphere, does not guide the viewer’s gaze, nor does it translate the memory of a singular event, thus making it impossible to create a linear and resolute temporal narrative. In addition, the public also finds pedestals along the way which, now empty, expect to hold the icons of a potential state of things, which can be intuited among the temporal layers accumulated in the space.
This is how Tempo Perso conveys, at the same time, a disarticulation, and a look into the future, settling in the latency and generating the possibilities for the gestation of an alternative present. December 2023 to March 2024.

Special thanks to Sintesis Digital, 56fili, Pablo Herguedas, Rikyboy, Mace, Gaetano Pullano, recipient.cc and Alessandro Disingrini

Credit photo ©Roberto Conte and ©Giorgio benni Credit video ©Matteo Berardone

TERROIR

Terroir deals with the history of Boulogne-sur-mer, a coastal city in northern France that has become, in recent years and because of its location on the English Channel, a port of arrival for immigrants trying to reach England or to enter Europe.

The mural, which occupies the facades of two houses located on either side of one of the town’s streets, poses a reflection on the essentially displaced condition of the immigrant, of the one who abandons his own land and roots, risking fragmentation. There’s a stress on the exposed body of the immigrant which is jeopardized not only because of the danger involved in boarding a small boat but, especially, because of the vulnerability that comes with the loss of one’s own references and culture.
The dis-location reproduced by one of the murals, in which a head appears separated from the body, alludes to the displaced subjectivity of migrant eyes intending to understand their new reality from the perspective of their native country.
Next to it, a second mural shows a torso pierced by stones, in reference to the rocks that the French government has placed on the beaches of the region, in a clear sign of hostile architecture that seeks to prevent immigrants from staying overnight, or even docking on the beaches.

With the assistance of Pablo Herguedas.

ÚTER

Úter takes shape in one of the industrial warehouses of Konvent PuntZero, a former nuns convent from the late nineteenth century now turned into a multidisciplinary art center.
In Úter, Borondo
The intervention was carried out in one of the abandoned textile factories encompassed by the complex, where the artist rehabilitates the old dyeing room within one of the abandoned warehouses to turn it into a contemporary cathedral which sacralizes the artistic process.

Inside the installation, six huge stained-glass windows are installed, flooding the space with a warm light that changes with sunlight. Establishing a dialogue with the Catalan Gothic tradition and overcoming the convention of using stained glass in a pedagogical manner, these will contribute to create an environment that acts as amniotic fluid. Partial, indefinite, and potentially chaotic, Úter is a living space that’s also saturated by grafting thanks to the plants sprouting inside it and in its agora.
Thus, it is through traditional references such as the cathedral, the agora, or the greenhouse, that the work proposes a new relational ontology, generating a catalytic atmosphere of new, more creative ways of existing and living together. A pregnant uterus, which allows to care for the root of what has not yet been born, to care for what might ever be possible. A refuge which, far from encouraging a runaway or the stasis, is an invitation to movement, thus facilitating dialogue and the encounter with the self, with art and with others always based on care. In contrast to the mercantile and productive past of the building, Borondo proposes a relational architecture conceived well away from machinism. Realigning life with life.

Special thanks to Konvent and all the people who made this possible

Credit photo ©Ana Benet

REJAS

Rejas is the result of a workshop that Gonzalo Borondo carried out through the Art Exchange Festival and in which he involved young artists from La Habana, Cuba.

The initial proposal, to create a site-specific installation in the neighborhood of San Isidro, is conceptualized over several days in which Borondo shares time, conversations and walks with the artists, trying to learn about the political and social reality of the country.
The resulting installation consists of a thin, breathable fabric on which the pattern of a grille is printed, in allusion to the strong presence of grilles in the area. In the same way, this structure draws, at the same time, a limit, and the possibility of transgression, raising a question about isolation and exclusion that alludes to the reality of Cuba and the tense relationship maintained with the United States.
Thus, the negative of the pattern is printed on the floor with black paint through a collective process. The fabric, which, after being used as a stencil, reproduces the contours of a fence, is suspended at a street intersection. The sun can be seen through it, and the shadow it casts on the ground then acquires characteristics opposite to those of a grille: the reflection undulates with the wind, appearing as something mobile and dynamic, which can be crossed. The work also proposes a return to the community when it acts as an awning in an area, La Habana, which is often hit by intense heat waves. Rejas then generates a shaded space, giving the neighborhood’s inhabitants a place to rest.

Credit photo and video ©Nico Chiaravalloti

LINK TO VIDEO

SUBSTRATUM

On the occasion of the Fotografia Europea festival, the artist takes on the photographic language in a planning development that restores an
installation dimension.
The exclusive use of photography in a project is an anomaly in Borondo’s research; a formal and conceptual challenge for someone who sees art more as experience than object. Borondo insists on the concept of identity by collecting images from the personal and collective archive intercepting the echo of history. Artworks printed on semitransparent materials favour a spatial and temporal permeation of the planes, like a diorama capable of restoring a volumetry, an historical and identitary depthness.
A way to rethink and rebuild memory in addition to encouraging the artist and the beholder’s look towards a new horizon.
Text of the exhibition by Veronica Santi
from 29 April to 25 June 2023

In collaboration with 56fili and Studio Luce.
With the assistance of Irene Zottola and Pietro Melchionda from Sintesis digital.

Special thanks to Veronica Santi, 56fili, Irene Zottola, Studio luce, Síntesis digital and Pietro Melchionda

Credit photo ©Fabrizio Cicconi

GESTAZIONE SERIES

PPI & Partners in collaboration with SPAZIOC21

Credit photo ©Fabrizio Cicconi and ©Alessandro Bonori

GALLERY EXHIBITION

These works, as a result of the immersion in an in-depth videographic process, are realized with a new technique developed by the artist. Through the layering of nets and the sole use of black and white, Borondo creates bas-reliefs, illusions of volumes that generate narratives, moving between painting and sculpture.
February to March 2023

Credit photo ©Elena Andreato

DISCESA

“Alla Natura. L’azione artistica come ultimo rito magico e salvifico” , curated by Alessandra Carini and Benedetta Pezzi
Strata of memory. Invented fragments of a time that no longer exists gives a glimpse of other people’s experiences, eternal passages temporarily perpetuated within its walls.
The apparent opulence meets its consequent deterioration. A metaphor of the present.
A presence of the past.
One of the three installations realized for ALLA NATURA, at Palazzo San Giacomo, Russi (Ravenna)- July 2022

Credit photo ©Roberto Conte