Another great work by Antonio Pio Saracino (Read more at www.antoniopiosaracino.com)

To coincide with the 2009 Swimming and Diving World Championship in Rome and highlighting the
participation of Australian Matt Mitcham (gold medallist in the 10-metre platform event at the 2008
Beijing Olympic Games) LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea – Roma presents MATT DIVE GOLD.
Art meets sport in an exhibition curated by Jonathan Turner, featuring 20 artists from four continents:
Australia, Canada, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Macedonia, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain and United States.
Patrons of this event include FIN (Italian Federation of Swimming), the Australian Embassy, the
Royal Netherlands Embassy and Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Matt Mitcham, with the highest scoring single dive in Olympic history (the now famous Matt 10 Gold)
thus becomes an unexpected icon for the diverse artists involved. Their portraits and imagery
reflects on the figure of the diver and the act of intense concentration. Diving is one of the most
highly aesthetic and artistically charged sports; it can be considered a conceptual activity requiring a
neat and centred thought, and a considerable mental discipline.
In the past, such icons as Marilyn Monroe, Lady Diana, Kate Moss and David Beckham have been
the subjects of exhibitions dedicated to them, so why not an “outsider” such as Matt Mitcham, a
champion athlete and source of inspiration for many. Australia Post even released a postage stamp
reproducing his portrait. The works featured in this exhibition include portraits by such Australian
artists as John McRae, Renato Grome, William Yang and Maree Azzopardi, a version of the
aerodynamic diving costume reinterpreted in “Ikea tartan” by Antonio Riello, a video installation
produced by Francesca Martí when Mitcham visited her studio in Mallorca last year, paintings on
canvas by Dutchman Jasper Krabbé and Iranian Mehran Elminia, a bronze sculpture of by
Francesca Tulli, works by such New York artists as Michele Chiossi (an Olympic wreath made from
marble and neon), Matt Marello (a film of the diver performing a madcap “dance”) and Antonio Pio
Saracino (blueprints for the design of a house for Mitcham), classical photos of the archetypal
swimming pool diver by American Tom Bianchi, underwater imagery by Canada’s infamous music
video director Floria Sigismondi, and surreal colour photographs by Fritz Kok, Mataro da Vergato
and Robert Gligorov, who was at one stage the diving champion of Macedonia.

LIPANJEPUNTIN artecontemporanea
via di Montoro 10 – 00186 Roma
Tel. + 39 06 68307780 Fax + 39 06 68216758
www.lipanjepuntin.com
roma@lipuarte.it
Gallery hours: Monday - Friday, 2 - 8 pm or by appointment

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