Farid Rahimi
Farid Rahimi is a contemporary artist born in Lausanne and currently living in Milan. His research expresses a constant interest in the landscape as a mental space for experimentation through the use of various media: from video to painting, from drawing to photography. Нis paintings, drawings, videos and sounds are contemplations of an image, achieving suspension. Each single work, in fact, could be an attempt to focus on a landscape, to capture a detail; be it natural, urban, or emotional. Farid has held solo exhibitions in renowned Italian galleries, such as Studio Guenzani (Milan, 2006), Zero…, (Milan, 2007), Fabio Tiboni (Bologna, 2009), as well as in independent spaces, such as MARS (Milan, 2011) and CLER (Milan, 2018). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions both in Italy and abroad. In 2005 he edited the Italian edition of the book *Bruce Nauman. Inventa e Muori*, published by A + M Bookstore and Gian Enzo Sperone.
Empty Walls is an ongoing series of paintings, that the artist has been working on since 2011 — an investigation into the potential of spatiality in painting rooted in controlled improvisation and the repetition of a single subject, which in some cases can become elusive and impalpable. The motif at the centre of the work is therefore a corner — “a slight depression” — in the artist’s words, which suggests the hypothesis of space if not the presence of actual rooms: a sparse, essential image, never too defined or definitive. Thus, the corner is covered by lines and backgrounds that cancel its presence, for the corner is an energy centre, not a concrete space. Each painting appears as a scene of a struggle. An assertive encounter between forces defines the potential of an environment, while another representation complicates and fragments it, manifesting itself through tremors, deletions, hesitations, and regrets. The arrangement of certain elements (mostly openings) may subvert the essential perspective framework, underpinning the image and escaping the organic nature of vision. The room opens onto a boundless landscape (a portion of blue) or closes into black rectangles that makes it recede towards the first floor.
