Fabrizio Plessi biography

Fabrizio Plessi, born in 1940 in Reggio Emilia, is a renowned Italian artist with an extensive production in the field of video installations. After graduating from the art high school of Reggio Emilia, he continued his training at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, where he earned his degree in 1962. Since his beginnings, Fabrizio Plessi's artwork has had as its central theme water and fire, represented on large screens that enhance their majesty and beauty. Throughout his career, Fabrizio Plessi has created numerous artworks with great visual impact, exhibiting mainly in Italy and Germany.
In 2000, he created the Italian pavilion for the Hannover Expo, with a monumental installation 44 meters high called Vertical Sea. This artwork represented a continuous flow of blue water flowing uninterruptedly, capturing visitors' attention with its grandeur and suggestion. In 2011, Fabrizio Plessi curated the Venice Pavilion for the 54th Venice Biennale, maintaining the same theme of water, but on a smaller scale. On this occasion, he installed screens projecting water flows onto vertically displayed boats, creating a unique and immersive atmosphere.
One of the artist's most famous artworks is the Casa Cadente, located in Piazza Bonini in Soveria Mannelli, in the province of Catanzaro. This installation represents the facade of a tilted house, as if it were about to collapse forward. The two windows of the house are screens that, although now non-functional, projected images of water and fire. This artwork was installed in 2007 on the occasion of the municipality's bicentennial, during the construction works of the square itself.
Fabrizio Plessi's fame has crossed Italian borders, bringing his artworks to numerous international exhibitions. He has held many solo shows worldwide, from the Canale Gallery in Venice in 1962 to the retrospective exhibition at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan in 1985. His artworks have been exhibited in important cities such as Madrid, Zaragoza, Cologne, Palma de Mallorca, Ferrara, Denmark, Japan, Berlin, Valencia, Bologna, Bilbao, Vienna, and many others.
Fabrizio Plessi's artwork spans various creative fields, including installations, videos, films, performances, scenographies, and costumes for shows. For the artist, artwork represents a fundamental foundation for the human spirit, especially in the arid contemporary landscape.
The central element characterizing his artworks is water, represented virtually through videos. Fabrizio Plessi considers video as a contemporary element, while water is an ancient and primordial element. Both are fluid, mobile, and unstable, emitting a blue glow that fascinates the artist. Water in Fabrizio Plessi's artworks becomes a place of reflection and imagination, devoid of life but a metaphor for the infinity of the human mind.
Besides water, fire is another element present in Fabrizio Plessi's artworks. For the artist, fire represents a fascinating attraction, a fire that does not burn. Fire is also represented virtually through videos, always in motion and full of meanings and emotions.
Fabrizio Plessi has received recognitions and awards for his career. He has participated in numerous editions of the Venice Biennale, the Documenta Kassel, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Rome Quadriennale, also receiving an award. He taught at the Kunsthochschule in Cologne as a professor of humanization of technologies from 1990 to 2000. Fabrizio Plessi continues to live and work between Venice and Mallorca, carrying forward his artistic research and leaving a mark in the world of contemporary art with his fascinating video installations.