Christian Tagliavini, 1503-Lucrezia. ©Christian Tagliavini. 

BERLIN.- By showing both the world-famous series »1503« and the new series entitled »Carte« the exhibition pays tribute to the unprecedented creative work of the artist Christian Tagliavini. 

»1503«

With his already legendary series »1503« Christian Tagliavini invites the viewer to a time travel to the 16th century. His protagonists bear names such as Cecilia, Lucrezia or Bartolomeo, they are gracile, graceful or mighty and all of them express the pride of the Renaissance. In the style of the Florentine Agnolo di Cosimo, in art history better known as Bronzino, Tagliavini gives the patina of Mannerism to his modern sitters. The title of the series »1503« is also a reference to Bronzino’s year of birth. The artist does not only stages the image space or places the light. The accurate spadework of each portrait is an inalienable foundation for the accomplished work that attracts the recipient. From the casting over the design of the dresses through to the makeup, Tagliavini is the indicatory player in every single operating procedure. The universal artist creates a piece of art that is the result of this creative process – the traces of them meet up in the final work and culminate in something sublime. By doing so, the artist perfectly succeeds in the challenge of citing art history without simply copying it. Finally, with a productive period of more than 13 months the series »1503« has become an impressive testament of the visionary creative richness of the avant-gardist Christian Tagliavini. 

Christian Tagliavini, Carte Regina di Fiore. ©Christian Tagliavini

»Carte«

The world has never seen a card game like this before. Also in the series »Carte«, that was finalized in 2012, Christian Tagliavini plays with symbols from the history of art and visual effects in a technically superb fashion and without any creative borders. In his monumental cards, the artist puts his selected persons in handmade costumes made of paper and cardboard. With their surface structure, thickness and shadow effect, the costumes cause an impressive interaction between them and the three-dimensional portraits. From jack to queen through to ace, every single of the eleven cards owns an individual character that is influenced by visual patterns from cubism, art nouveau, Italian folk art or mythology. The expressional portraits attract the recipient and the interrogative, pleading or simply strong gestures defy the viewer to search for the secret of each character. Christian Tagliavini sends the recipient into a quirky, silent circus full of subtle outlandishness. With »Carte«, the magician has created an incomparable series that is both timeless and unreal. 

Born in 1971, Christian Tagliavini grew up in Italy and Switzerland. He had studied graphic design and worked as an architect and graphic artist before he focused on photography art in 2000. Additional fine arts such as architecture, graphic design or drawing have influenced his art until today. His biographic background also shaped his understanding of art to invent and construct works. His works cannot only be seen as images, they are complex pieces of art, which have their roots in different materials. Tagliavini’s creative work is mostly mirrored in series that tell stories, offer multifaceted quotes or which are the result of an unusual contemporary concept. His works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions and art fairs worldwide. Christian Tagliavini, who was honoured with the Hasselblad Masters Award in 2012, lives and works in Switzerland today.