Jorge Macchi: False Autumn
Jorge Macchi False Autumn 2024 exhibition view Galleria Continua San Gimignano Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA Photographer: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
GALLERIA CONTINUA, with great pleasure, hosted a new solo exhibition by Jorge Macchi titled “False Autumn.” The work of the Argentine artist is positioned precisely at the turning point between two opposites, in that grey area between the real form and the fictitious form of reality. In a world where art serves as a bridge between the tangible and the intangible, Macchi’s work testifies to the power of visual expression, chance, and the enduring influence of personal experiences. His art captures the ephemeral and the transient, inviting us to reflect on the fragile boundaries that define our existence. The exhibition opened on September 14 .2024, and concluded on January 26th, 2025. There was an opening reception on September the 14th.
Jorge Macchi False Autumn 2024 exhibition view Galleria Continua San Gimignano Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA Photographer: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
The sculptures of various sizes, watercolors, oil paintings, and installations in this exhibition recreate the conditions for a new paradoxical reality that, through the assertion of artifice, upends our certainties and infiltrates the folds of consciousness. “Paradox is the suspension of meaning. It is one form of humor. It is one of Borges’ favorite tools. It is the word that defines much of what I do. The archer and the arrow, Zeno of Elea’s aporia, the scene where an arrow aimed at a target never reaches it because the distance between them is infinitely divisible, it is a paradox that has been with me forever” says the artist.
“False Autumn” is the work that gives its name to the exhibition by Macchi in San Gimignano. In one corner of the gallery, over a thousand leaves are scattered across the floor. As the title (“False Autumn”) suggests, these are not real autumn leaves: they are not yellow or red but green. Each one has a unique shape resembling a puzzle piece. A closer look reveals that these puzzle pieces are made from real leaves, each carefully cut out. This process disrupts the usual harmony between the natural shape of a leaf and its veins, prompting the observer to wonder what possible image could emerge from assembling all the puzzle pieces. Furthermore, ‘false autumn’ is also a term that was coined this summer to describe a phenomenon affecting various parts of Great Britain and many European countries, including Italy: due to severe drought and intense heatwaves, nature has gone into survival mode, bringing forward the autumn foliage by several months. Reddened, dry leaves on the ground, branches already almost bare, and increasingly arid soil have characterized numerous forest landscapes, raising widespread concern.
Jorge Macchi A perfect dream 2024 cotton fabric 150 x 200 cm / 59.05 x 78.74 in 2024 tessuto di cotone 150 x 200 cm Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA
Jorge Macchi’s work creates powerful visual fictions; his pieces are artifacts that explore the functioning of vision and perception. “Rorschach #1” and “Rorschach #2” are site- specific murals painted in the corners of a room in the gallery. They immediately evoke the symmetrical images of Hermann Rorschach’s famous psychodiagnostic test. However, the figures Macchi creates on the wall are not the result of a mere overlay; there is no actual transfer of form and color from one side to another. Instead, the artist makes these images using two symmetrical paper stencils. What remains is the suggestion of a sheet, walls that seem like folded papers, leaving us with the unsettling feeling that the stable and enduring walls of the building could suddenly bend and change their structure. The play between reality and artifice reappears in “Dos banderas” where one element of the diptych consists of four sheets from the same notepad, while the other is made of sheets from different pads. The ribbon, which seems to hold the sheets together, is painted with watercolor and tempera. In “Déjà vu” Macchi intervenes with a restoration and polishing operation on half of a table that has been exposed to the sun and elements for two years. The final assembly is two parts the one exposed outdoors and the one preserved in the studio creating a fictitious and artificial unity. “Confesión” is a cardboard box from a 50-inch Smart TV with all sides carved into a repeated cross pattern, resembling the perforated metal of confessionals. The box no longer contains any object; the perforation has transformed it into a visual tool that offers a fragmented view of its interior and what lies behind it.
Between 1864 and 1933, thousands of glass bottles were thrown into the sea, each containing a document that recorded the exact time and place where the bottle was released into the ocean. This was an experiment to study surface marine currents. In Jorge Macchi’s series “Drift Bottles” the bottles are made of plastic, similar to those widely used by major distributors for mineral water and various beverages. Instead of a message, the artist places a miniature sailing ship, specially crafted by an artisan in Buenos Aires. Macchi’s bottles stimulate our imagination, evoking striking images: the messages in bottles - romantic, scientific, or playful - that have traversed seas and history over time; the world enclosed in a plastic bubble; the hands of an artisan crafting precious objects; and the growing plastic islands in our planet’s oceans.
About the artist:
Jorge Macchi was born in Buenos Aires in 1963, where he lives and works. He won the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2001 and has exhibited at numerous international institutions. Notable solo exhibitions include: Diaspora, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano (2022); The Submerged Cathedral, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland (2020); Portal, Galleria Continua Habana, Cuba (2019); Der Zauberberg, Quartz Studio, Turin (2018); Perspectiva, MALBA, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano Buenos Aires (2016) and CA2M, Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo, Madrid (2017); Lampo, NC ARTE, Bogotá (2015); Prestidigitador, Contemporary Art Universi-ty Museum (MUAC), Mexico (2014); Container, Kunstmuseum Lucerne, Switzerland (2013); Music Stand Still, SMAK, Ghent, Belgium (2011). In 2005, Macchi represented Argentina at the 51st Venice Biennale. His works are included in major international collections such as the Tate Modern (London), MoMA (New York), MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (León), CGAC, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago de Compostela), Fundación Arco (Spain), MUHKA (Antwerp), SMAK (Ghent), MAMAC Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (Nice), and Fundación Banco de la Nación Argentina (Buenos Aires).
About the gallery :
Founded in 1990 in San Gimignano, Italy, GALLERIA CONTINUA has expanded its locations to Beijing, Les Moulins, Havana, São Paulo, Rome, Paris and Dubai.
GALLERIA CONTINUA represents a desire for continuity between times and a desire to write a current history. Thanks to its investment in forgotten and unconventional sites, the gallery has always chosen unexpected locations, developing a strong identity and an original positioning in over thirty years of activity. The home of Galleria Continua, an ex-cinema, it has hosted many prolific exhibitions and installations over the last 34 years. It is a unique and exciting space for artists and the gallery to have to consider when planning and executing exhibitions.
GALLERIA CONTINUA / San Gimignano
Via del Castello 11, 53037 San Gimignano (SI)
+39 0577 943134 | sangimignano@
From Monday to Sunday: 10 AM–1 PM | 2 PM–7 PM;
Starting from 03.11, from Monday to Sunday:
10 AM–1 PM | 2 PM–6 PM
For more information about this exhibition and others at Galleria Continua please visit their site here. Galleria Continua can also be found on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Artsy.
