Exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of Acquabiografia, Fabrizio Plessi's solo exhibition at Centro / Galleria d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin, inaugurated 22 January 1975. Bilingual Italian and German text.
The catalogue documents 200 collages made under the title Acquabiografia, in which Plessi treats water not as a natural element but as an unstable system of images, tools, absurd functions, and poetic substitutions. Works from 1972–74 are reproduced throughout, including Analogie Sostitutive (1973), Maschera antiacqua (1974), A bordo della Carnegie (1974), Canotto da deserto (1974), Stiraonde dall'acquabiografico (1973), and Mare classico (1974) — all acrylic on emulsioned canvas, format 125 × 81 cm. Each work is reproduced as a full spread, with title, date, and medium listed on the facing page.
Venice is central to the project: flooding, cleaning, drains, sponges, soap, aquariums, and machines become imaginary solutions to a real civic and environmental condition. The text places Plessi in dialogue with — and against — Klaus Rinke, whose use of elemental materials is cited as a counterpoint. References to Giorgione, Leonardo, Géricault, and Duchamp are also present.
The catalogue essay positions Acquabiografia as a precise emancipation from the rationalization of nature: water is paradoxically removed from its usual state as object, transformed through equipment into useless material, and made available as metaphor. Plessi's humour — grotesque, absurdist, and civic — runs throughout.
Acrylic on emulsioned canvas works reproduced throughout. Bilingual Italian/German critical text. Square format. Condition: Fine.
