(Padua, 1963)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2013
Grazia Toderi, (curated by M. Moore e C.Malcolm), John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
2012
Grazia Toderi. Mirabilia Urbis, (curated by M. Trombetta), MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Roma. Catalogue.
Grazia Toderi, Atlante Rosso, Galleria Vistamare, Pescara.
2011
Grazia Toderi, (curated by K. Gordon), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.
Grazia Toderi, Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt am Main.
2010
Grazia Toderi, (curated by J. Fernandes), Fundaçao de Serralves, Porto. Catalogue.
Grazia Toderi, Orbite Rosse, Giò Marconi, Milano.
2008
Fantasia, Base/Progetti per l’arte, Firenze.
Grazia Toderi – Tobias Rehberger, (curated by J. Blüher, L. Pratesi), Accademia Tedesca Villa Massimo, Roma. Catalogue.
2007
Grazia Toderi, Galleria S.A.L.E.S., Roma.
Grazia Toderi. Babel Red, f a projects, London.
2006
Grazia Toderi, (curated by F. Pasini), Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milano. Catalogue
Grazia Toderi, Rendez-vous, (curated by P. Boswell, R. Morales), Miami Art Museum, Miami.
2003
Grazia Toderi. Teatri, (curated by F. Pasini), Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa – Galleria di Piazza San Marco, Venezia.
2002
Grazia Toderi. Olympia /Homo ludens,(curated by G. Quaroni), Fundaciò Joan Mirò, Barcelona.
1999
Grazia Toderi, (curated by S. Bos), De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam. Catalogo.
Grazia Toderi. Projekt Raum, (curated by P. Allmann), Museum Ludwig, Köln. Pieghevole.
1998
Grazia Toderi, (curated by I. Gianelli, M. Beccaria), Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea,
Rivoli-Torino. Catalogue.
Grazia Toderi. Centro (curated by S. Legrandjaques, E. Lunghi), Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg; Galerie des Franciscains, Saint-Nazaire, Francia. Catalogue.
Grazia Toderi, (curated by E. Latreille), Frac Bourgogne, Dijon.
1995
Grazia Toderi. Potage éternel et clarté soudaine, (curated byA. Barak), Galerie de l’Eole, Frac Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpellier. Catalogue.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2013
Metropolis: Reflections on the modern city, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Waterhall, Birmingham.
Between appropriation and interventions, (curated by H.Theiss), Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin.
2012
Futbol, arte y pasion, (curated by P. Charpenel e M. Maillé)Marco, Museo de arte contemporaneo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico. Catalogue
The Giuliana and Tommaso Setari collection, behind closed doors again, la maison rouge,Paris. Catalogue.
Kaleidoscope, C24 Gallery, New York (curated by K. Lynn Johnston).
2011
Prospect.2 BiennialNew Orleans, (curated by D. Cameron), Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. Catalogue.
Between appropriation and interventions, (curated by H.Theiss), Christianssands Kunstforening, Kristiansand.
2010
Pùblicos y contrapùblicos, (curated by J. A. Alvarez Reyes), Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville. Catalogue.
Metropolis, (curated by D. Robinson), The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall.
Spazio, dalle collezioni d’artee d’architettura del Maxxi,(curated by B. Pietromarchi e G. Scardi), MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo,Roma. Catalogue.
Elogio della semplicità. Un carattere dell’arte contemporanea, (curated by G. Verzotti), Fondazione Stelline, Milano. Catalogue.
2009
Fare Mondi / Making Worlds…,(curated by D.Birnbaum), 53° Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte La Biennale di Venezia, Arsenale, Venezia. Catalogue.
2007
Space for your future, (curated by Y. Hasegawa), Museum of Contemporary of Art, Tokyo. Catalogue.
Vertigo. Il secolo di arte off-media dal Futurismo al web, (curated by G. Celant e G. Maraniello), M.A.M.bo., Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna.
2006
Out of Place,(curated by D. Robinson), New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall. Catalogue.
2005
La Danza delle Avanguardie,(curated by G. Belli, E. Vaccarino), Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto. Catalogue.
2002
Slow Motion. Positions of Contemporary Video Art,(curated by A. Kolossa), Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen. CD-Catalogue.
2001
Squatters, (curated by V. Todoli, J. Fernandes, B. Mari, M. von Hafe Perez), Casa de Serralves, Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Serralves, Porto. Catalogue.
Subject Plural: Crowds in Contemporary Art,(a cura di P. Morsiani), Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. Catalogue.
2000
Leaving the island, (curated by Y. C. Lee, R. Martinez, H. Hanru), Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Pusan, Corea del Sud. Catalogue.
Quotidiana, (curated by I. Gianelli, D. Ross, N. Serota, J. Watkins, G. Verzotti), Castello di Rivoli
Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino. Catalogue.
1999
48ª Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte La Biennale di Venezia.DAPERTutto, (curated by H. Szeemann), Giardini di Castello, Venezia. Catalogue.
1998
11th Biennale of Sidney.Every Day, (curated by J. Watkins), Australian Centre for Photography, Paddington-New South Wales. Catalogue.
1997
5th International Istanbul Biennial,(curated by R. Martinez), Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts,Istanbul. Catalogue.
Rooms with a View,(curated by N. Spector, J. Hanhardt), Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York.
1995
Tradition & Innovation: Italian Art since 1945, (curated by F. Bonami), National Museum of
Contemporary Art, Seoul. Catalogue.
1993
XLV Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte La Biennale di Venezia.Aperto’93, (curated by A. Bonito Oliva,
H. Kontova), Corderie dell’Arsenale, Venezia. Catalogue.

Grazia Toderi was born in the northern Italian city of Padua in 1963. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, the artist moved to Milan in 1992 and has divided her time between Milan and Turin since 2005.

The artist first gained critical attention in part as a result of her participation in Aperto ’93 at the 45th Venice Biennale, where she exhibited, in addition to photographs, the video Notiscordardime (Forget-me-not). In this work, Toderi used a fixed video camera to film a small plant assailed by a violent and continuous jet of water from a shower. In these early years, Toderi tended to make detached recordings of actions that often unfold in an everyday environment, and her deliberately elementary use of video as an expressive means emphasizes her desire to concentrate on the subject and the action taking place, distancing herself from pure and simple creative will. All shot with a fixed video camera, the subjects of these early works are, in fact, very simple. One video, for example, shows the head of a large doll being beaten by the windshield wiper of a car (Mia testa, mio cuore [My head, my heart], 1993), while the same doll is again shot in Soap, 1993, this time visible through the window of a front-loading washing machine, revolving in circular motion. While showing quotidian objects in domestic contexts, Grazia Toderi’s works do not hide a sense of unease, and her subjects, in reality, are often subjected to concealed violence. In 1995, invited to exhibit at Frac Languedoc-Roussillon in Montpellier, France, the artist herself became the protagonist of a video, Zuppa dell’eternità e luce improvvisa (Soup of Eternity and Improvised Light), 1994, where, negating the force of gravity, she attempted – while completely submerged in a swimming pool – to carry out normal actions, such as walking, or opening an umbrella. The slowness of the action seems to unfold following the rhythm of her breathing that, through the image, reveals all the exertion of the hostile situation to which her body is subjected.

From the absence of gravity and the orbit of washing machine windows, the artist’s everyday microcosm developed to become a means of conveying the sentiments of an entire generation – one that grew up through images broadcast on television. Nata nel ’63 (Born in ’63) and Prove per la luna (Attempts for the Moon), both made in 1996, describe the emotion of the first moon landing, seen through the eyes of those who followed it, mediated by a screen that unified millions of people throughout the world. Her focus on the disseminative capacity of this means and its communicative potential, are also evident in works such as Il decollo (The Takeoff), 1998, where the image – again extracted from the world of television – of a stadium shot from above, is made to turn slowly, to a background accompaniment of the babble and chorus of voices, once again emphasizing the unifying power, not only of the televisual image, but also of the spectacle in and of itself. Toderi examines this means of communication in positive terms, not interpreting it as a vehicle that encourages the standardization of sentiments, but rather, capturing its unifying aspect and its symbolic value for an entire generation.

Always fascinated by the use of extant images and the dynamics of spectacle – which she understands as an occasion for encounter and coming together – Toderi works on images of stadiums, arenas and large historical theatres. In Eclissi (Eclipses), 1999, Random, 2001, and Orchestra, 2003,the audiences in various Italian theatres become an occasion for reflection on the relationship between container and contents, use and user, in a play of parts that, in the end, turns the public into protagonist. The realisation of the audience, recreated with the help of digitally manipulated images – to which applause, background babble and bursts of flashes are added – serves only to underscore the artist’s focus on the public, which she considers the real protagonist of performance.

During this same period, Toderi also made a series of videos using aerial images, that recreate night-time views of cities such as Rome, Florence and London. These works explore the cities, following a viewpoint completely different from the usual one, where the artist – thinking of author Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities – conceives of the city as a mirroring between sky and earth. La pista degli angeli (The Trail of Angels), 2000, Firenze, stelle di terra (Florence, Stars of Earth), 2000, Mirabilia Urbis, 2001, Città invisibile (Invisible City),2003 and London, 2001, are all works where the view from above of known places, transforms them into magical and mysterious territories.

In addition to her participation in numerous group exhibitions, Toderi has created various special projects, such as the collaboration with Virgilio Sieni’s Dance Company, creating the sets for the performance Il fiore delle 1001 notte (The Flower of 1001 Nights), 1998, which was one of the winners of the Golden Lion award at the 1999 Venice Biennale, as well as the installation Audience, presented on the occasion of the opening of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in the Mole Antonelliana in Turin in 2000. In 2001, Grazia Toderi was awarded a fellowship from the Supporting Friends of Castello di Rivoli, Italy, enabling her to spend a period of time in the United States, resulting in the creation of works that focus on large American stadiums (Subway Series, 2001, Diamante [Diamond], 2001, Super Tuesday, 2001), and on an image of the United States seen from above (Empire, 2002). In 2004 she created the video Semper eadem for the reopening of the Teatro La Fenice Opera House in Venice.

In 2009 she was invited to participate in the exhibition Fare Mondi / Making Worlds…, at the Venice Biennale, for which she created Orbite Rosse (Red Orbits) 2009. This is a large scale double video projection in which lights of distant cities appear in continuous transformation, with the now distinctive form of two large ovals, in homage to both the ancient tradition of terrestrial and celestial mapping – the planisphere – and to the sockets of our eyes, optical tools that convey images to our head/world.

In recent years, as well as being invited to participate in many group exhibitions around the world, Toderi has held several major international solo exhibitions. These include a major solo show at the Museu de Arte Contemporanea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal– creating several new large-scale works including Atlante and Diaframma in 2010. The following year in 2011, Toderi was invited to present a solo exhibition at the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA and in 2012, she was invited to exhibit at the Maxxi National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome, Italy. In 2013 Grazia Toderi was invited to participate in the 2013 Perth International Arts Festival where she will present her first solo exhibition in Australia at the John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University, Perth.

Chiara Oliveri Bertola & Chris Malcolm