Deltitnu is the first institutional exhibition of emerging artist Deltitnu, conceived in collaboration with Montecristo Project, Cagliari. Deltitnu is one of the most influential figures of his generation in Sardinia and has been crucial in shaping the island’s cultural life. He openly speaks about the challenges he faces as a young artist living and working in a remote area. By delicately reflecting the unspoken rules of the art world and his positioning within them, Deltitnu offers a pointed account of what it means to produce a work of art in Italy today.
Deltitnu studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. In his powerful works, he references the legacy of modern painting, from uproars in Parisian salons to the radicality of monochromes. Deltitnu challenges these crucial moments in art history by interweaving them with his personal experiences as a young artist, first studio visits, everyday anxieties and aspirations.
Alongside this group of paintings, Deltitnu will show drawings for the first time. For the artist, drawing is a way to witness the absurdities of his surroundings. They are accounts of iconic performances as well as intimate portraits of long-time collaborators. These works on paper will be accompanied by an array of sculptures that represent important figures in Deltitnu’s professional and personal life: fellow artists, curators and directors, collectors, critics, and outstanding friends.
At the core of Deltitnu’s practice stands a profound engagement with his environment. He investigates social dynamics from a historical perspective and traces their formal manifestations in art and architecture. For this exhibition, Deltitnu is researching the development of modern exhibition techniques and will conceive a display system in response to the historic site of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Guarene that was inaugurated almost thirty years ago.
Artist Bio
Deltitnu is the character of a research project by Montecristo Project ongoing since 2022. Under the title Deltitnu (Meta-Exhibitions): Free thoughts of animals on the origin of the work of art and vice versa. Montecristo Project realizes a series of experimental exhibitions that mix visual and narrative elements to address issues such as the origin of the work of art, its relationship with the world of art and the characters that gravitate around it. The project consists of exhibitions whose presentation texts are dialogues between the works that reveal a narrative beginning with a mysterious murder.
Montecristo Project is an artistic-curatorial duo founded by artists Enrico Piras and Alessandro Sau in 2016. Over the years, they created several exhibition spaces around Sardinia as an extension of their artistic and theoretical research. On a small deserted island along the coast, Montecristo Project built a white cube which was initially conceived to host the artworks of Salvatore Moro. In the mountains of southern Sardinia, they set up an open structure for exhibitions. In the town of Cagliari, Montecristo. Project runs a space archive which can be visited upon invitation by the artists.