Bolcandarte Art Duo.
Gianluca Bolchi poet and Walter Candeloro sculptor began their collaboration in 2014 within the Seriate Association of Visual Arts (ASAV), a partnership that continues to this day through both solo and group exhibitions.
The artistic trajectory of this working duo, initially exploring the combination of poetic language and installation art, has increasingly shifted towards a participatory, even bodily, engagement with the audience. The viewers are invited to move through and immerse themselves in the exhibition space, becoming an integral part of it not merely interpreting the artwork, but representing it with their own presence, thus transforming the work itself.
Through numerous exhibitions (ASAV 2016-2024; Civico 104 Bergamo 2022-2023; Mutual Aid Association Bergamo 2023), an ever-expanding openness has developed—aligned with the concept of the "open work" (U. Eco, 1962/1979)—not only between poetry and visual art, but also between the public and the artwork. The work does not end with its exhibition, however participatory it may be (starting from The Nest of Gazes in 2014, to Joint View in 2021), but extends into open spaces beyond the gallery, as seen in Way Out (2018-2024): this project continues its "diaspora/navigation" of small human sculptures, placed in distant and unusual locations. The artwork spreads beyond its own limits of time and space, where the public spontaneously is formed, often unwittingly.
The intersection between poetry and visual-performative art has deepened in recent years, particularly in the solo exhibitions of 2022, 2023, and 2024 in Bergamo exhibition halls (see CV).
The artistic forms through their analogy and contrast within the space, offer participants a connection between poetry and sculpture, thought and action: a bridge and a space inbetween image and reality. Public is invited to animate live spaces where the artworks try to represent the gap and discontinuity of our world experience.
By 2024, with the Trans Inside exhibition, the artists explored the idea of traversing an inner space, symbolizing both an internal journey and a passage inbetween human beings. The gap and the edge between things is like the fissure inbetween us, the subtile space where meanings can arise (looking back to Ducamp's theory of inframince). Here poems express the anticipation of crossing and transformation, as a poetics of the marginal.
Link
https://sites.google.com/view/bolcandarte?usp=sharing
Gianluca Bolchi CV
Born on August 13th 1964, poet.
Profession: Psychoanalyst
Director of the Milano-Brianza Children Mental health Service (2019-2021)
Adjunct Professor of Linguistics and Language Development, Faculty of Medicine, University of Milano-Bicocca (since 2022)
Published poetry collections:
Impronte, Ed. Pagine, 2014
Glocalizzati, Ed. deComporre, 2014
La vita sostenibile, Ed. Lietocolle, 2015
Soglie III, Ed. Limina Mentis, 2016
Doppia canzone, Ed. Limina Mentis, 2017
Awarded with Mentions at the Lorenzo Montano Prize in Verona:
Honorable Mention in 2016
Special Mention in 2017
Winner of the Le Occasioni Prize (Lerici Tellaro) in 2021.
Featured in the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Poetry, Vol. 5 (2014), "È poco, d'altro non vi sono segni", published by Fondazione Mario Luzi for the Centenary of the Mario Luzi’s birth.
Collaboration with the sculptor Walter Candeloro
Since 2014, Gianluca Bolchi has collaborated with the sculptor Walter Candeloro on visual art and poetry installations, participating in collective exhibitions at the gallery of the Seriate Visual Arts Association (ASAV):
Il nido degli sguardi (The Nest of Gazes), 2014
Ventre nuovo (New Womb), 2015
Art like water, 2017
Way out, 2018
Water open, 2019
Joint view, 2021
SPQeer, 2022
Memories of the Upcoming Season, 2023
Est Modus Immundis, 2024
Way Out – Ongoing Project, 2018-2024 (traveling artwork exhibited in Seriate, Bergamo, Agrigento, Florence, Venice, Taranto, London, Matsuyama Japan)
Solo Exhibitions (Gianluca Bolchi & Walter Candeloro)
The Inside Soul, May 28th – June 5th, 2022, Civico104 Association, Bergamo
Memories of the upcoming Season, June 17th – 25th, 2023, Mutual Aid Society, Bergamo – City of Culture
Trans Inside, October 13th – November 2nd, 2024, Municipality of Seriate (BG), Virgilio Carbonari Exhibition Hall
Walter Candeloro CV
Born in Punta Cardon, Venezuela, on April 5th 1958.
After obtaining a diploma in applied arts from the "G. Palizzi" State Institute of Art in Lanciano (Chieti), he graduated in architecture and passed the professional qualification exam, although he never pursued the profession. Instead, he dedicated his career to teaching drawing and art history, a profession he maintained throughout his life.
At the same time, he cultivated his passion for art, searching for a way to bridge the gap between pure art and applied art. In this, he followed the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris but, over time, turned his focus to the evolution of contemporary artistic languages. However, his work does not rigidly adhere to any particular school; rather, he seeks to extract methodological aspects from different artistic approaches, ultimately presenting himself as an artist without a specific style.
Despite working with various techniques, Walter Candeloro is not a specialist in any one field. His goal is to reflect on the meaning of the experiences that reality presents to him. His work follows a cultural nomadism, moving between abstraction and figuration, the symbolic and the functional, always striving to connect rather than divide. His artworks are marks of a collective soul, embedding themselves in the environments they inhabit. They act as traps that capture memories, triggers for possible stories—not aspiring to eternity, but instead serving as mediators in the search for a sense of time and space to which they belong.
In 2014, Candeloro began a collaborative artistic journey with poet Gianluca Bolchi, a partnership that continues nowaday.
EXHIBITIONS & PARTICIPATIONS
From 1975 to 1990
Abruzzo Region – Participation in various collective painting exhibitions.
1992
Bergamo – Rosa Luxemburg Cooperative
Installation: "LA BOTTEGA DELL'ARTE-GIANO" (The Art-isan’s Workshop)
2000
Bergamo – Effedue Gallery
Solo exhibition: "FORME MUTANTI" (Mutant Forms)
2002
Bergamo – Archaeological Museum
Group exhibition: "L'ARTISTA INTERPRETA IL MUSEO" (The Artist Interprets the Museum)
2003
Ponte San Pietro (BG) – L'Ariete Gallery
Solo exhibition: "LA PIETRA E L'ACQUA" (The Stone and the Water)
2004
Milan Trade Fair
Exhibition: L'Artigiano in Fiera (The Artisan at the Fair)
2005
Monza – M.I.A. (Intersectoral Furniture Exhibition)
3rd Place Winner – L'apparenza inganna (Appearances Deceive)
2006
Exhibition: Artisanal Excellence of the Lombardy Region – Between Tradition and Design
Bucharest, National Theatre – Group exhibition: Velo Svelo
2007
Bergamo – Bergamo Arte Fiera
2008
Bergamo – Installation at the Salone del Mobile (Furniture Fair)
2009
Bergamo – Bergamo Arte Fiera
2001-2013
Seriate (BG) – Collective exhibitions at A.S.A.V. (Seriate Visual Arts Association)
2014
Bergamo – Urban Center
Group exhibition: "VERSO LA LUCE" (Towards the Light)
Associazione Aiuto Donna (Women's Aid Association)
Artwork: "Venus dalle Bende" (Venus in Bandages)
EXHIBITIONS IN COLLABORATION WITH POET GIANLUCA BOLCHI
2014-2024
Seriate (BG) – Beginning of artistic collaboration with poet Gianluca Bolchi
2022
Bergamo – Associazione Civico 104
Exhibition: THE INSIDE SOUL
2023
Bergamo – General Mutual Aid Association
Exhibition: MEMORIES OF THE UPCOMING SEASON
2024
Seriate (BG) – ASAV (Seriate Visual Arts Association)
Exhibition: TRANS INSIDE
