Sarenco, Isaia Mabellini, was born in Vobarno (Brescia), in 1945. After studying philosophy at the University of Milan, he began his artistic activity as a linear poet in 1961 (see The unstable condition, Archivio Denza 1974), for then quickly move on to the verbo-visual search. Read the full biography
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Sarenco, Isaia Mabellini, was born in Vobarno (Brescia), in 1945. After studying philosophy at the University of Milan, he began his artistic activity as a linear poet in 1961 (see The unstable condition, Archivio Denza 1974), for then quickly move on to the verbo-visual search. Starting from 1963 he came into contact with the Florentine Gruppo 70 and formed a personal friendship with Eugenio Miccini. Also in 1963 he founded and directed the first of many self-publishing magazines of which he would be the creator in his career, Il Tarlo Valsabbino. Since these first years of militancy in the artistic world he has carried out an intense editorial and organizational activity, and exhibited his works in Italy and abroad, coming into contact with artists such as Ugo Carrega, Julien Blaine, Jean-François Bory, Jochen Gerz , Paul De Vree, Jean-Claude Moineau and critics such as Gillo Dorfles. In 1968 he founded the Gallery-Bookshop La Comune di Brescia with Enrico Pedrotti and shortly thereafter inaugurated the publications of the magazine «Amodulo» and the Edizioni of the same name. Also in the Lombard city, Sarenco opened important exhibition spaces over the years such as the Amodulo gallery (1970) and the Studio Brescia (1972). In 1971 he founded the magazine «Lotta Poetica» with Paul De Vree, attempting to combine the work of the Amodulo publishing house with that of the Belgian De Taffelronde. Under the direction of the two, the magazine will have a rather long life and will be published in three series (1971/1975; 1982/1984 and 1987). In 1972 Sarenco exhibited for the first time at the Venice Biennale (he returned twice more, in 1986 and 2001). In the same year he founded the SAR.MIC publishing house with Eugenio Miccini with the main aim of promoting the work of numerous Italian and international visual poets. In 1977, again with Miccini, he created the publishing house Factotum Art and the resulting magazine «Factotum» (1977/1979). In these years he also actively participated in the programming of Paolo Berardelli's Centro gallery in Brescia and was personally involved in the development of the Denza Archive of visual poetry with which he has collaborated since 1970. In the 1980s he founded the record magazine «RadioTaxi» (1982 /1984), with which he published important authors of avant-garde and experimental poetry in audio versions. In the same period he opened the Domus Jani, a cultural research center, in Illasi (Vr) and founded Verona Voce with Miccini. The intelligent monthly magazine of Verona. In 1984 he made his first short film, Collage, and the following year he was invited to the XLII Venice Film Festival. In the following years he made five more films: Waiting for the Third World War in 1985, Benvenuto grande cinema in 1987, Pagana in 1988, Safari in 1990 and Performance in 1993. From 1982 Sarenco undertook numerous trips to Africa which led him to establish a bond profound with this land, so much so that he decided to move to Kenya for a long period and to dedicate himself with great enthusiasm to the promotion of African art and photography. From this moment on, Africa becomes the protagonist in his artistic production: the most emblematic work of his new path is undoubtedly the installation La stalla dell'Umanità, presented at the 2001 Venice Biennale. The work it is composed of an assemblage of over 300 works: paintings, drawings, engraved plates, large sculptures made in Malindi, Kenya, by local artists and artisans. An undoubtedly eclectic character, Sarenco has also dedicated himself over the years to video and sound experimentation; in his feature films he takes up the idea of collage by assembling, without an apparent narrative intent, scenes of different settings and themes. He wrote his first film story in 1968, which he then shot in 1984 with the title Collage. An art gallery therefore opens in Malindi and publishes poetic and poetic-visual collections, such as Malindi dias, Malindi and MALINDI, and organizes important exhibitions such as the First Biennial of Contemporary Art in Malindi. The following year he was invited to present the film at the Venice Film Festival. This was followed by another five: Waiting for the Third World War in 1985, Benvenuto grande cinema in 1987, Pagana in 1988, Safari in 1990 and Performance in 1993. Even in recent years, between Italy and Kenya, Sarenco perseveres in own action as promoter, cultural organizer and visual artist. Among the latest undertakings we remember the foundation of the magazine «Sarenco's», the new series of «Lotta Poetica» (The New Lotta Poetica), the establishment of the Sarenco Club Gallery and of some centers such as the European Film and Video Archive Artist. Sarenco created with Sergio Dangelo Bella come la bella Blanzesmano, Edizioni Rare 1988; with Paul de Vree, Il libro 1968-71, Amodulo 1976; with Richard Onyango MALINDI, Parise 1991. Much more numerous and relevant are the artist's books, or the books of visual poems published individually by Sarenco, among which one cannot fail to mention Achtung Dichter published by the publisher Sampietro as "out of numbering" in the series «Underground/A» (1972).
