Plinio Martelli Biography
Plinio Martelli was born in Turin in 1945. Initially he continued his scientific studies but then went on to attend the Albertina Academy. In 1967 he participated in the Fluxus event alongside renowned artists such as Ben Vautier, Alighiero Boetti, Ugo Nespolo and Arrigo Lora Totino. This event marks his first exposure to the art scene of his city, where two years later he will debut his first solo exhibition in the gallery of Christian Stein, with whom he will collaborate for several years. Alongside this collaboration, he also worked with another important Turin gallery owner, Franz Paludetto, who exhibited Martelli's works in LP 220 in 1971, leading to an ongoing collaboration between the two over the years. One of the pivotal moments of his career was his participation in the 1978 Venice Biennale, where he was invited for his work in experimental cinema, a field he had been exploring since the late 1960s, following the model of New American Cinema. Martelli is an eccentric, ironic and irreverent figure who moves against the current in the Italian Arte Povera movement, standing out for his rigorous and highly original research. Curious artist, attentive to the numerous languages that range from sculpture to drawing, photography, experimental cinema, and, at the end of the 70s, also shows a precocious interest in the culture of tattooing, which he considers anything but superficial and dedicates his work as a writer for it.
