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background and approach

In his early stages, Rovere explores mainly the perception of the image in its evolution over time and the filmic surface as raw material. And as early as the mid-70’s, digital techniques also became one of his creative focuses.

Currently, Rovere’s main focus is the still image on a photographic basis, but in a de-compartmentalized artistic practice: most of the time, his shots are only the raw material of his visual modeling work.

Non-canonical approaches and hybridized processes

Rovere has contemplated numerous artistic disciplines, including video art, experimental film, installations, graphic arts, documentary and plastic photography. Whatever the medium, he has always allowed himself the freedom to use both conventional and non-conventional methods (films made without a camera, non-conforming uses of processes, non-canonical technical approaches). He also does not hesitate to use hybridized artistic methods.

Transcending the visible

In his current creations, he uses hybrid methods that include the photographic tool; however, in this work, he does not have a photographer’s approach but a visual artist’s vision. Thus, he does not seek to reproduce the visible but to reveal that which transcends it. His gaze often takes him to the borderline areas between the tangible and the improbable, the impermanent and the immutable.

His approach is less radically conceptual than that which he may have had in the past, but nevertheless, he does not refrain from certain forms of experimentation in a decompartmentalised artistic practice. Voluntarily going against some trends that make the search for a new theme an end in itself, he prefers to return to the great timeless themes visited throughout the centuries: the coldness of wars, the breath of nature, the light of bodies…

100 cities

Rovere was awarded the Grand Prix du Film Abstrait (1974). Five of his creations are in the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris). His work has been shown in prestigious institutions such as :

Institute of Contemporary Arts [Festival of Expanded Cinema] (Londres, 1976),
XIe Biennale de Paris (1980),    15a & 17a Bienal de São Paulo (1979 et 1983)
XLIIe Biennale de Venise – pavillon du Canada [Arte e Scienza] (1986)
Zentrum für Kunst und medientechnologie [Lichtkunst aus Kunstlicht] (Karlsruhe, 2005)
Kunsthaus [The Expanded Eye] (Zurich, 2006)
Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado [Revolução Cinética] (Lisbonne, 2008)
Schirn Kunsthalle [Zelluloid, Film ohne kamera] (Francfort, 2010)
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona [The Listening Eye] (Barcelone, 2014)

and in 100 cities in Europe, Asia and the Americas (see expO) :    Zürich – Venice – Warsaw – Vancouver – Toronto – Tokyo – Tampere – Stuttgart – Strasbourg – Seville – Seoul – Zaragoza – São Paulo – Rotterdam – Riga – Quebec City – Paris – Palma de Mallorca – Ottawa – New York – Nantes – Montreal – Milan – Marseille – Madrid – Lyon – London – Lisbon – Karlsruhe – Genoa – Frankfurt – Copenhagen – Chicago – Budapest – Bratislava – Bilbao – Bern – Berlin – Barcelona – Antwerp – Amsterdam

Most of the works use either atypical, hybrid or composite processes : click here →