The sixth catalogue of the Avvistamenti | Sightings series is dedicated to Mario Airò, artist of the space, both physical and mental, who shapes the air through sound with his work and contains it building architecture. 

The catalogue, that narrates throughoutfully the artistic personality of Airò, both through his work and the biographical writings that accompany some of it, opens with the images of his work created for the GAM exposition The room where Marsilio would dream to sleep in inspired by the De vita coelitus comparanda by Marsilio Ficino, which consists of an imaginary room with a bed, a writing desk and seven pillars where the sky would rest upon. 

Among the other works in the catalogue, those accompanied by the artist’s writings, starting from the work inspired by a screenplay of the movie “Soigne ta droite” by Jean Luc Godard (1986), called Quel pomeriggio qui sulla terra (1998), Ninna-Nanna per barriques e archi (1999), a project fully centered on sound, the work Aurora (1999), introduced by the speech to Chile by Salvador Allende, Springadela (2000), which appears together with the artist’s text on the work of Giordano Bruno, and Raise up the roof beam, carpenters, work of 1999, which is called like a short story by author J.D. Salinger. 

The monographic catalogue, already published in the italian/french edition for the exhibition at Carré d'Art Musée d'Art Contemporain of Nîmes, is now published in the german/english edition on the occasion of the exhibition's setup at Museum Kurhaus Kleve in Germany from January 28th to April 1st 2001.

The catalogue collects 70 unpublished drawings by the artist, showed at the exhibition, sheets of drawing and tracing paper on which marks and colours sketch igloos, cones, animals, various shapes that animate Mario Merz imaginary universe.

The monographic catalogue is published on the occasion of the huge exhibition dedicated to the austrian artist, setup at Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Bologna from January 25th to April 1st 2001.

The retrospective exhibition collects about 200 works by Rainer, of which 140 in the catalogue, from the drawings of the Fifties, to the Übermalung, to the photographic works Automatenphotos of 1960, to the religious themes, to angels, leaves’ paintings, to the Schleierbild and actors’ portraits, all made from 1990, up to the recent years, to which belongs the series of Traumland.

The monography has been organized on the chronological order of the images, that follow one other assembled in groups, each of them underlined by the autograph texts, that tell Rainer’s work from the Fifties up to the present day.

The book is the unusual catalogue of the exhibition, curated by Dede Auregli and Peter Weiermair, held at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Bologna from 26 January to 18 March 2001. The exhibition included the works of eight young artists presented by eight critics, interpreting the rooms of the Villa delle Rose and allowing each work a significant presence. Eight agile booklets make up the whole catalogue, placed in a box that holds and collates them. The pairs of artists/critics involved in the project are: Davide Bertocchi and Claudia Zanfi, Piero Cattani and Fabriano Fabbri, Andrea Chiesi and Valeria Tassinari, Flavio Favelli and Stefano Gualdi, Stefania Galegati and Serena Simoni, Luca Piovaccari and Sabina Ghinassi, Stefano Scheda and Alice Rubbini, Italo Zuffi and Silvia Grandi. Each volume includes images, a list of works and a detailed biography.

The fifth catalogue of the series Avvistamenti/Sightings is dedicated to the portuguese artist Pedro Cabrita Reis, eclectic personality who expresses himself through sculptures, installations, drawings and paintings.

The catalogue is planned by a temporal route that begins from the current exhibition at the GAM, to which the works of the most recent years follow, going back in time with the images from his archive's works.

The book opens with the complete photographic documentation of the works expressly done for the GAM, with both individual works and exhibition's views , to which other two images sections follow, intercalated by the pages of the text by Doris Von Drathen, Giving Heed to Silence, which describes Pedro Cabrita Reis' works as occupied by silence and light. The author mentions the Cidades Cegas, 1998, sheds and huts stuck together, hang up and closed that let feel the choking interior that prevents breathing, the Wrapping Tape Landscape # 1, 1999, where the sealing up landscape doesn't breath and stand in the silence, and the Cathedral # 2, 1999, made by red bricks lined up and covered with light that create a space suitable for "giving heed to silence".

Pedro Cabrita Reis was born in Lisbon in 1956. His first works are paintings of everyday objects placed in mysterious settings, but by the 1980s his production had already turned towards sculpture and installations. Starting from the architectural space that surrounds him, he uses everyday objects (chairs and tables) that he binds with industrial materials (neon lamps and bricks) to create abstract creations; his aim is to make the viewer interact with the new spaces he has organised. He has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including Documenta IX (1992), the 45th Venice Biennale as part of the Portuguese pavilion (1995) and as a soloist (1997). In 2003 he represented Portugal at the 50th Venice Biennale exhibiting two installations; in 2006 he presented a site-specific installation at the Macro in Rome. In 2009, he participated in the 10th Lyon Biennale and, in the same year, the Hamburger Kunsthalle presented a major retrospective with a selection of his work from 1985 onwards. In January 2012, the first monographic exhibition dedicated to him in Spain, Los Rojos, was completed at the Ivorypress gallery in Madrid.

The Dignitaries of Destiny get together to decide a birth: a new life will be soon assigned to a woman who wishes to be a mother. But the decision is taking too long, and the person who's going to be born decides to ask whether to choose their destiny. Here begins the exciting adventure of their birth, full of hopes and expectations, but also of unexpected events that run the risk to prejudice the Call to Life. But finally the miracle is made and what they have just imagined becomes true... From the synergy between Miguel Angel Mendo's words and Chen Zhen's images, a tender and fun fable telling children the mystery of birth through a simple and poetic language, that goes with the colours and shapes of Art.

Chen Zhen (Shangai, 1955 - Paris, 2000). His artistic style had as its basis the encounter between Western and Chinese culture. The artist drew from Taoism, as well as Buddhist religion and philosophy, re-elaborating their meanings, and using them to represent an alternative to the negative influence exercised by the consumer society. The artistic value of his sculptures and installations lies in his constant striving for harmony between body and spirit, which leads to the enriching of one’s inner life.

Miguel Angel Mendo (Madrid, 1949). A graduate in psychology, he began working as a psychotherapist in close contact with the world of children and alternative pedagogy. He has written books for children, but also for the theatre, and in the past has been a teacher of cinema, a contributor to various periodicals and an editor for television and radio programmes. The following have been translated into Italian by Edizioni Piemme Junior: Per un maledetto spot which won the Lazarillo Award in 1989, one of Spain's most prestigious prizes for books for the young, and also Un museo sinistro e Che i morti stiano zitti!