Art City Bologna | Stressed, blessed and coffee obsessed

Coffee is the only place where discourse creates reality, where gigantic plans, utopian dreams and anarchic conspiracies are born without having to leave your chair.

– Montesquieu

Débora Delmar’s solo exhibition at Gallleriapiù, Bologna

 
Stressed, blessed and coffee obsessed is Débora Delmar’s first solo show in Italy, presented by GALLLERIAPIÙ, Bologna from January 31 to March 30, 2019. The opening of the exhibition will take place during Art Week, as a featured event for Art City Bologna.

Cafés are hybrid places between function and leisure, consumption and production, social and personal space. Débora Delmar (1986) attempts to find a link between the function of Cafés and that of galleries, considering to what extent aesthetic choices have an influence on our behavior inside those spaces. Débora Delmar investigates consumer culture, capitalistic lifestyle, and aspirational aesthetics. She is particularly focused on class issues and on the effects of globalization in our daily lives; on cultural hegemony; and on the gendered, racial and classist use of images in advertising.

Stressed, blessed and coffee obsessed is more than a quote; it is a way of being connected to contemporary issues such as the furious pace of our society, and it underlines how social consciousness can be reinforced by consumers’ habits. In this case, the artist explores the influence of European Café Culture on the development of cities, social relationships and interactions, and contemporary lifestyles. The European Café was originally considered a social hub, a place for artists and intellectuals to meet. Nowadays, depending on their context, cafés can become a status symbol, represent a hipster subculture or project an image of tradition. The traditional identity of Cafés as intellectual and artistic hubs of cultural production has shifted. Since the early 1990s, global coffee chains have been appropriating from the original European Café style in terms of architecture, furniture and decor. In doing so, these contemporary consumer spaces fashioned fictional authentic aesthetics and experiences. Cafés have become a brand that keeps a typical specific image.

For her first solo show in Italy, Delmar uses shots from her iPhone photo gallery, taken while traveling around cafés in Mexico City, Vienna, Beijing, Venice and London. She creates a new environment that develops and invades the whole exhibition space through a series of new works and a sound installation. According to her modus operandi, the gallery space changes in relation to logic and mechanism of actual bars’ dynamics.

Droste Effect for Débora Delmar’s Stressed, blessed and coffee obsessed

4 new editions by Droste Effect dedicated to Débora Delmar

 
In occasion of Débora Delmar’s exhibition at GALLLERIAPIÙ, Droste Effect will present a series of dedicated editions. The editiorial project, curated by Vincenzo Estremo, will comprise two printed editions and two online publications. The first publication – a poster – will be presented at the opening of Stressed, blessed and coffee obsessed during Art City Bologna’s White Night on Saturday, February 2nd. The final publication will be released at the end of the exhibition as an issue of Bulletin on paper. The project aims to investigate the entire practice of the Mexican artist, as well as social and political issues connected to the dissemination of Cafés in Europe and Latin America. By relying on a cross-disciplinary attitude and on cultural studies, the artist and the curator piece together different theoretical and iconographical documents in order to share all the different facets of the globalized culture of coffee and Cafés.

Editions’ timeline:

 
February 2nd: Poster presentation at GALLLERIAPIÙ, via del Porto 48 a/b - Bologna at 06:00 pm, in occasion of Art City Bologna White Night, ArteFiera 2019.

March 3rd: Online release of Bulletin #16. Débora Delmar. Narrative Portfolio by Daniel Garza Usabiaga.
Starting from Débora Delmar’s portfolio, Daniel Garza-Usabiaga will narrate the pivotal events and turning points in the artist’s career. Narrative Portfolio is one of three formats in our publication Bulletin. Narrative Portfolios are aimed at investigating the practice and personal taste of international established artists.

March 15th: Online release of Bulletin #17. Stressed, Blessed and Coffee Obsessed. Non Academic Paper, compiled by Vincenzo Estremo and Débora Delmar.
Non Academic Paper is one of three formats in our publication Bulletin. Non Academic Papers aim to investigate what lays beyond the contemporary artwork. For this occasion, Vincenzo Estremo and Débora Delmar compiled a text that expands the discourse around the exhibition.

March 30th: Bulletins for Stressed, Blessed and Coffee Obsessed, paper edition – Presentation at GALLLERIAPIÙ, via del Porto 48 a/b – Bologna at 06:00 pm.
The special edition of Bulletin dedicated to the exhibition wishes to reveal the development of the interdisciplinary approach behind Débora Delmar’s work. The final Bulletin on paper organizes multiple approaches to visual thinking that combine various disciplines into a logical whole. Bulletin is a fluid art publication conveying artistic and cultural contents in order to expand the contemporary art background that contributes to today’s art making.
 

The Bulletins for Stressed, Blessed and Coffee Obsessed are compiled by Vincenzo Estremo and Débora Delmar with Daniel Garza Usabiaga, published by Droste Effect Magazine (Matilde Soligno, Vincenzo Estremo), and supported by GALLLERIAPIÙ, Bologna.

Graphic design by Lucia Nolesini.