The Art Relations project, inaugurated in June 2024 with the exhibitions of Serse and Manuela Sedmach, is completed with the two exhibition points dedicated to the artists Elisa Vladilo and Antonio Sofianopulo set up in two different UniTS locations in the San Giovanni Campus on Via Weiss 6.

The two exhibitions, curated by Lorenzo Michelli, are the final point of a collaboration agreement signed on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the University of Trieste with ERPAC – Friuli Venezia Giulia Cultural Heritage Agency, which has given rise to a series of exhibition initiatives culminating in Art Relations.

Elisa Vladilo has come into contact with the structure of the San Giovanni Theatre, reinterpreting it in its historical, identity and architectural components to offer a contemporary reinterpretation of a positive nature. The installation Funny Reflections finds its place on the facade of the building, in particular in the glass parts of the windows and doors that are reinterpreted thanks to warm block colours.

‘Imagining that these coloured panes of glass could ideally project the light, obviously of the same colour, onto the asphalt in front, we can create a further imaginary game, where skewed rectangles and ovoid circles are created on the ground that precisely reflect what exists on the facade – explains Vladilo herself – All this is part of the usual path of Public Art, in particular of Ambient Painting, that I have been carrying forward for years, where colour relates to space in a dialogue that enhances and reanimates places.’

Antonio Sofianopulo, on the other hand, exhibits an apparently light painting and sarcastic in which elements of the natural appear in extremely complex counterpoints.

The collection of his paintings ‘RiConoscenza’ is exhibited in the Museum of Mineralogy and Petrography of the University of Trieste, in Building O of the San Giovanni Campus.

 ‘The salient features of the narrative poetics of Sofianopulo's paintings are discretion, gentleness, tact, subtlety, readiness, elegance, diplomacy, irony. Implied Irony is an obvious value, since the combinations on the canvases can not only hide a criticism and generate a smile, but invite us to think of a craftsman/carver who carries out his work with an infinite series of small touches in order to make it full of indecipherable details and not recognizable at first glance,’ we read in The ethics of the image by Roberto Vidali.

The four exhibition points inaugurated between June and October have allowed these spaces to be regenerated thanks to the artists who, through their works, have expanded themes and suggestions linked to the university institution.

More info at https://100anni.units.it/index.php/home/relazioni-darte/ 

Art Relations is an initiative organized on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the University of Trieste in collaboration with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, ERPAC FVG, ARDIS and SMATS – University Museum Services.

Biography Elisa Vladilo

She studied at the Art Institute of Trieste, and at the Academy of Fine Arts, Scenography, in Venice and Milan.

Her work is based on installations and site specifics in public and private spaces, through the use of colour in various modalities.

She has held various exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and has created various permanent and temporary projects in various spaces including public spaces, gardens, schools, streets, squares, and train stations.

She collaborates with various cultural associations and professional studios.

She lived in London for 3 years (1997-2000), where she came into contact with some aspects of Public Art; During that period she also participated in Whitechapel Open in London, and the Billboard Site Project in Belfast.

She won a grant from the Pollock- Krasner Foundation in New York in 1998, and participated in a residency in Berlin as part of a European project (2001).

Echo Surrounding, The Old Port, Trieste (2020), Rhyme of Origin, Cambridge – UK (2014), Melting Street, Pula – Croatia (2013), Melting tower, Villach – Austria (2011), I take the landscape and bring it with me, Nervesa della Battaglia (2010).

Biography Antonio Sofianopulo

Antonio Sofianopulo was born in Trieste in 1955, the city where he lives and works. 
He studied art, but his education mainly took place in the family with his mother Renata, a painter and advertiser, and with his great-uncle Cesare, a symbolist painter and student of von Stuck. He 
began exhibiting in 1977. Among his solo exhibitions, we will remember those held at the ‘M. Merkouri’ in Athens in 1997, in Trieste at the ‘Palazzo Gopcevich’ for the Revoltella museum in 2003, at the Juliet space in Casier, at the Galleria Victor Saavedra in Barcelona in 2006 and at the Franco Toselli gallery in Milan in 2008 and at the Duetart in Varese in 2009, Bocconi University, Milan in 2010, at the Maniero gallery in Rome in 2011, and at the Revoltella Museum in Trieste in 2015, in 2021 at the Duetart in Varese, in 2022 at the Medusa gallery in Koper and in 2023 at the Studio Vigato in Alessandria.

Among the collective exhibitions we will remember in 1993 ‘La montagna Dipinta’ at Castel Tevlana and Raffaelli gallery in Trento, ’Equinozio’ at Rivara Castle in 1994, ‘Va' pensiero…’ at the Promotrice alle Belle Arti in Turin in 1997, ‘Bel tempo’ Ludwig ,museum in Budapest in 1999, ‘Mediterranea’ in Dubrovnik in 2001, ‘Da de Chirico a Leonor Fini’ at the Museo Revoltella in Trieste in 2002, ‘A ruota libera’ in the spaces of the Fiera di Milano in 2004, in 2016 ‘Corrispondenze d'Arte’ at the Revoltella museum in Trieste, in 2017 Sala 1 – Rome, in 2018 ‘Soft Revolution ‘ at the Triennale – Milan/ in 2019 Hotel Aquerello Toselli Museo city Milan.

The main reference galleries in Italy are: Studio Vigato in Alessandria, Toselli in Milan and in Spain the Galeria Saavedra in Barcelona. 
His work appears in Germano Celant's latest book +Spazi. One of his works was featured on the 
Luc Orient music CD ‘La Vie À Grand Vitesse’ from 2012

Among others, the following have written about him: Roberto Vidali, Maria Masau Dan, Valerio Dehò, Vittorio Sgarbi, Alessandra Tiddia, Elena Pontiggia and Franco Toselli, Ivan Quaroni, and Francesca Liotta.

Antonio Sofianopulo was among the founders of the international contemporary art magazine Juliet, and is the curator of the ‘Costantino e Mafalda Pisani’ museum of the Eastern Greek Community of Trieste. His works are found at the Paolo Pini museum in Milan, at the ‘P. Revoltella’ museum in Trieste and in various private collections in Italy and abroad.