Filippo Panseca (1940)
Italy

"Filippo Panseca was born in Palermo in 1940. A multifaceted artist and researcher, together with Laurence Gartel he is considered one of the two fathers of computer art. Founder in Italy of the first chair of Computer Art at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in 1991. Animator of artistic life in Palermo, he founded and directed the art galleries “Il Chiodo” with Ciro Li Vigni and subsequently “Il Paladino” in 1963 ”.
With Francesco Carbone he is the founder of the experimental research group "Tempo Sud", with which he presents artistic experiences in all the events to which the group is invited.
In 1965, together with Renato Guttuso, he was the only young Sicilian artist invited to the Quadrennial in Rome.
In 1968 he moved to Milan and with Jacopo Gardella, the MID group (Antonio Barrese, Alfonso Grassi, Gianfranco Laminarca and Alberto Marangoni) and Studio DIPPI (Sandra Delfino, Filippo Panseca, Michele Platania) won the competition for the design of the Italian Pavilion of the Milan Triennale.
In 1969, curated by Gillo Dorfles, he exhibited i Fluidi Itineranti in the Lucio Amelio gallery and in the L'Obelisco gallery.
In 1970 he created Lili which he presented at the Apollinaire gallery in Milan, an exhibition curated by Guido Ballo and Pierre Restany: an infinitely modular module, with double intermittent switching, which has a life of three years. And subsequently he Mata a rolling radio-controlled sphere also at the Apollinaire Gallery.
In 1970 he directed his research towards biodegradable art, critics of this new artistic movement were Pierre Restany and Guido Ballo.
In 1971 he participated in Videobelisco, a review of the first examples of Italian video art at the Galleria l'Obelisco in Rome with Vincenzo Agnetti, Gianni Colombo, Balla-Strawinski-Diaghilev, Franco Berdini, Cristoforo, Luca Maria Patella, Attilio Pirelli, Giovanni Valentini, curated by Francesco Carlo Crispolti.
In 1972 he created the scenography for the ballet Rorogigasos for the Teatro alla Scala with music by Maestro Girolamo Arrigo and exhibited “Degradable Sphere” at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan.
He returned to the XV Triennale of Milan in 1973 for the “Habitat” themed exhibition, exhibiting some housing modules with applications of photosensitive plastics.
He also boasts exhibitions at an international level, among which the Salon International d'Art Contemporain stands out: a pendulum with stroboscopic light and holds a solo exhibition at the Lara Vincy Gallery presented by Pierre Restany.
In 1975 he carried out the experiment of simultaneously transmitting works via satellite to every part of the world with Pierre Restany at Rank Xerox in Milan.
On 17 and 18 January 1976 the newspaper La Repubblica offered readers a work published in 330,000 copies for £150,000 which it would repeat with the weekly ABC and the monthly Prova Radicale. The same year he exhibited himself at Art Basel at the most important participating galleries and the following year the same gesture was repeated in all the pavilions of the countries participating in the Venice Biennale.
In 1979 in San Francisco (USA) he exhibited “Computer Pictures of San Francisco” and began new research on the possibility of using computers as tools for making art.
In 1980 in Milan, he created digital works with the use of a camera, video recorder, needle printer for thermal transfer on paper and canvas.
In 1981 he created the installation of an ephemeral Winged Victory biodegradable in 30 days on the hand of Canova's Napoleon in the courtyard of the Brera Academy.
In 1982, invited to the XL Venice Biennale at the Italian Pavilion, he exhibited a biodegradable sphere in 60 days and twenty works on "Photodegradability or Aesthetic Pollution?" with critical text by Tommaso Trini. The same year, invited to Art Basel 6, he projected the film “Degradable sphere”.
In 1983 Milan, he created for Le Scimmie, “Schermo d’acqua e Piramide Liquid Luminoso sul Naviglio”, and in the Quartiere Isola, “Street Art” with Paolo Buggiani and Robin Van Arsdol.
At the Galleria Il Naviglio in 1984 he held a solo show entitled "A research exhibition for research" - the proceeds from the works sold were paid in full to the Italian Association for Cancer Research.
In 1986 he presented “Filippo Panseca's place of work” at the Milan Triennale, a suitcase containing all his dreams and the tools to implement them. The same year at the Venice Biennale the video "Fotodegradable digital images" 5' 52" music by Augusto Martelli.
1988 Personal exhibition at Galleria del Naviglio, “Panseca 5000 A.C. Genesis of the Invisible Sphere” presented by Guido Ballo.
In 1990 he exhibited "The Berlin Wall in Milan" at the Brera Academy, Church of San Carpoforo.
He became known as the creator of innovative sets for the congresses of the Italian Socialist Party, inventor of the red carnation in the electoral symbol.
Personal Space Perspectives “Computer Painting and Swart” critical text Pierre Restany.
In the early nineties, he patented and created Swart Art O Mat, an automatic dispenser of works of art that can be programmed remotely and can be used with banknotes or credit cards.
In 1992 in Milan at the Doctor Art Gallery Portraits Digital Works Snapshots taken by a camera and transmitted to the printer with a background of random fractals.
In 1994 at the Mudima Foundation “Alluvione” When News Becomes Art. The exhibited works will be sold at the television auction in the Rete A studios, the proceeds to the Cesare Pavese Study Center for the Library devastated by the flood.
In 1998, Personal Burgundy Art Gallery “Codex Media” critical text by Lorenzo Bonini.
In 2002 he presented “2Be Ono” Island Car Italo-Chinese and “DNA Digital New Art Realismo Digitale” critical text by Pierre Restany at the Accademia Belle Arti di Brera, Chiesa di San Carpoforo.
In 2007 Managua, Nicaragua. Masapa Beach "Helio urbs" General project for the construction of a self-sustainable, ecological settlement of 3000 people, exploiting compatible renewable energies such as wind, solar and biomass.
In 2012 in Milan at the Fuori Salone Savona 33, he presented “Genesis of Impossible Sculptures and Pollution”. The same year in Palermo, Personal Gallery Rizzuto Arte, presents "Genesis of Impossible Sculptures" and the "Transmission of a work through thought" perfectly successful and documented by Tele Sicilia.
In Milan, in 2013, “Digital Mural Frescoes” carried out with FPA Ferrari Pubblicità Esterna s.p.a.
Milan, “Luminosa” Luminous transparent methacrylate chair and tables with remote-controlled LEDs for switching on and changing colors.
In 2015 a new solo show at the Adalberto Catanzaro Gallery (Bagheria), "Art marks time, time marks art". In this context he exhibits for the first time the biodynamic photocatalytic works, natural air purifiers through applications of nanotechnology which, with light, reduce pollutants in the air, eliminate odors, and destroy harmful pathogens, making environments more hygienic and comfortable, which are subsequently presented at the Riso Museum in Palermo with a Technical Scientific Conference by Dr. Pietro Polini and Prof. Luigi Allegra together with the Monograph published by the publisher Aberto Peruzzo presented by the critic Valentino Catricalà.
In the same year he exhibited his first solo show with photocatalytic biodynamic works at the CONTACT Gallery in Rome and then at the BAD Gallery in Milan, presenting for the occasion the Forest Sphere, a micro-perforated stainless steel sculpture, which is automatically activated in the home in the presence of pollution to turn off after having reclaimed and purified the environment."

(Source, artist's website)

Work :

• Luce (1971)