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Alessandro Kokocinski

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Kokocinski in his studio in Tuscania
Works by Kokocinski

Alessandro Kokocinski (born Alejandro Kokocinski, on 3 April 1948, Porto Recanati) is a painter, sculptor and set designer, of Polish-Russian origin.[1][2]

Early life

Born in the refugee camp at Porto Recanati, to a mother who had escaped Nazi deportation and a father who had fought with the Anglo-Polish forces,[3] in late 1948 he and his family moved to South America. He spent the first few years of his life in the Misioneras and Iguazù forests, and in Paraguay and the Chaco region. In Buenos Aires he witnessed the bombing of the Casa Rosada, and the fall of Perón (1955).

Career

As a very young man, he joined the circus in the Argentine capital.[4] He soon moved into theatre, having studied set design at the school of Saulo Benavente.[5] He designed the sets for “El Guapo del Novecento”.[6] After being filed on police record by the military regime, he was forced to take refuge in Santiago de Chile. His drawings of political protest were exhibited at various universities in Chile. His works were presented by the art critic Mario Pedrosa, and by writers Enrique Araya and Delia del Carril.

He worked on the Allende government’s agrarian reform, in partnership with the Catholic University of Santiago de Chile. Kokocinski was already in Europe by the time Allende fell from government. He exhibited first in Hamburg and later in Rome, presented by Rafael Alberti (who dedicated a poem to him, entitled “Alejandro Kokocinski 1971, pintor”.[7] He settled in Rome and became a pupil of Riccardo Tomassi Ferroni, with whom he shared a studio in Trastevere, together with Carlo Quattrucci.[8][9]

In 1986 he moved to the Far East and lived there for a few years, travelling between South East Asia and China . In the late 1980s he moved to Germany, where he lived for four years.

He then returned to Italy for good, and there founded the “Kosa” theatre company with the actress and singer Lina Sastri. He designed lighting, costumes and sets for six of the company’s shows, all directed by and starring Sastri.[10][11] In 2003 he moved to Tuscania (Lazio), where he moved his studio into an ancient, deconsecrated church.[4][12][13] He set up the Fondazione Alessandro Kokocinski[14] in the town, an organization aimed at supporting the creativity of young artists (from Italy and all over the world), through training and specialization courses, residential training programmes and exhibitions and events.[15][16]

Past Exhibition Highlights

Kokocinski staged his second solo show in Buenos Aires in 1969. The exhibition included a series of dramatically stylized black and white pencil drawings. The subject matter was: the difficulty of a life in poverty; work; and suffering in general .

In 1979 he took part in a group show at the Printshop Gallery in Amsterdam. The title of the exhibition was “L'immagine dell'uomo dal 1945 ad oggi” (“The image of man from 1945 to the present”). The selection of works was intended to illustrate how artistic creativity had reinterpreted the vision of humanity since the end of the Second World War .

1987, Hong Kong Arts Festival. Ten of Kokocinski’s pieces went on display during the festival, which grouped together artists from all over the world. These works mainly focused on images from the circus tradition, with acrobats and dancers moving across canvases, accompanied by impetuously leaping horses .

1999, Rome, three exhibitions running almost simultaneously at the Istituto Italo-latinoamericano, Palazzo della Pigna and the Galleria Italarte celebrated Kokocinski as a “World pilgrim”. His portraits of men and women were “loaded with pathos and pain”, according to La Stampa,[17] and painted using superimpositions and faded colours/elements of pain to accentuate their dramatic impact.

Palazzo Venezia in Rome staged a remarkably extensive one-man exhibition on Kokocinski in 2003. The exhibition comprised more than sixty works from various takes of his long creative career. One of the most important of these was the “Trasfigurazione”, a polyptych measuring more than 4 metres high and 14 metres long, made up of five polychrome fiberglass sculptures mounted on wooden panels resting on iron joists.[18]

In Milan, in 2013, the Artespressione gallery presented a series of Alessandro Kokocinski’s drawings, made using mixed media on books and antique paper. The theme was the circus, that magical and mysterious environment in which the artist lived and worked when living in Buenos Aires as a young man[19].

A full list of Kokocinski's solo and group shows can be found on the artist's personal website.

References

  1. ^ "Alessandro Kokocinski biografia". Corriere della Sera. Corriere della Sera. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  2. ^ Fanti, Mario. "Kokocinski - L'uomo e l'artista" (PDF). Centrostudiportorecanati.it. Centro Studi Portorecanatesi. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  3. ^ Grasso, Sebastiano (12 May 2003). "L' acrobata di cavalli al circo dell' arte". Corriere della Sera. Corriere della Sera. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  4. ^ a b Vivante, Lucy. "A CONVERSATION WITH ALESSANDRO KOKOCINSKI ABOUT ERIC HEBBORN". http://lucyvivante.net/. Retrieved 13 June 2014. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  5. ^ Roca, Cora (2013). Saulo Benavente escritos sobre escenografía (PDF). Buenos Aires: INTeatro. pp. 7, 11, 20, 29. ISBN 978-987-28375-5-6. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  6. ^ "Carlos Antón y su participación en Un guapo del 900 (1969)". http://carlos-anton.idoneos.com/ (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 June 2014. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  7. ^ Marin Urena, Francisco Javier (2003). La Figura del Angél en la Generación del 27 (PDF) (PhD). Universidad de Murcia. p. 303.)
  8. ^ Sassi, Edoardo (7 November 2011). ""Rissa a Trastevere" la storia di un quadro". Corriere della Sera. Corriere della Sera. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  9. ^ "A Roma in mostra una "Rissa d'autore" in un quadro di Carlo Quattrucci". www.adnkronos.com (in Italian). Adnkronos. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  10. ^ "Lina". http://www.linasastri.it. Retrieved 13 June 2014. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  11. ^ Tricomi, Antonio (10 October 2002). "Lina Sastri in scena la donna, l'eroina e la santa". La Repubblica (in Italian). p. 14. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  12. ^ Sica, Gabriella (5 February 2009). "Tuscania, gli strati della Storia terra di draghi, frati e pellegrini". La Repubblica (in Italian). LaRepubblica.it. p. 14. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  13. ^ "XXI GIORNATA FAI DI PRIMAVERA Luoghi aperti in Lazio" (PDF). www.culturalazio.it (in Italian). 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  14. ^ "fuori roma". La Repubblica (in Italian). laRepubblica.it. 9 September 2012. p. 17. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  15. ^ "Concerto Banda musicale R. Eusepi Chiesa di S. Silvestro 09.09.2012". http://www.comune.tuscania.vt.it/. Comune di Tuscania. Retrieved 13 June 2014. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  16. ^ "Tuscania-Shanghai a passo di arte". Viterbo News 24 (in Italian). Viterbo News 24. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  17. ^ Fabiani, Rossella (8 April 1999). "Kokocinski, pellegrino nel mondo". La Stampa (in Italian). p. 54. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  18. ^ Grasso, Sebastiano (12 May 2003). "L'acrobato dei cavalli al circo dell'arte". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). p. 29. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  19. ^ "Alessandro Kokocinski. Cyrk". La Stampa. 18 February 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2015.

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