Galleria Franco Noero is proud to present Lara Favaretto’s first solo show in Turin. At the centre of her work, for which the Italian artist uses drawing, photography, sculpture, video and performance, there is always an urgency of continuous transformation and a need to involve others in the creative process: 'I refer to Favaretto's projects as initiatives rather than works because her practice is distinguished by its orientation toward collaboration', Giorgio Verzotti in Openings: Lara Favaretto, Artforum, May 2004. The contamination and the experiential exchanges, even those outside of the artistic realm, thus became the means of achieving 'open' and potential works in which the role of the artist is seemingly declared to be fragile and marginal. The works shown at the gallery are part of the project 'Giving you a day', that Lara Favaretto has been working on for sometimes. Thus the artist is declaring her intention to 'make a gift of a day', referring to a gift as an object, as a symbol, as the uniting factor showing the awareness of others’ desire, sanctioning and at the same time symbolizing an alliance. In fact Lara Favaretto doesn’t specifically make the artist role central because she includes others in the creative process of her works. She involves groups of persons, normal people, newcomers and amateurs, to achieve the final product drawing from the real world, in the effort to create hybrid situations, trying to change a common saying into a 'real fact', hoping for choral laughter, with the prospect that everything could be subverted and that the artist’s or our dreams could become reality. In the space in via Giolitti 52A, Lara Favaretto presents some black-ink drawings on rubber that are first stretched and then released, obtaining the effect of a compressed image. These go along with the main work which is a big life-size tree with a mechanical device that reacts to weight placed on its base. The branches bend the moment a viewer, interacting with the work, sits on its base. This work is part of the series of 'amusement machines' that the artist has been working on for some years as is the other work included in the show; streamers blown at regular intervals by a compressed air tank synchronised by a timer and an electrovalve. Parallel to the show, a special project by the artist will be hosted at the space in via Mazzini 39A for three weeks. The space will be filled with confetti constantly whirling due to the continuous action of four fans. Born in 1973 in Treviso, Italy, Lara Favaretto lives and works in Torino. Her work has previously appeared in a number of solo and group show both in Europe and United States. Among them her recent solo shows at Art/34/Basel, section Art Statements, Basel, 2003; 'Eldorado', GAMEC, Bergamo, 2002. The group exhibitions at Swiss Institute-Contemporary Art, New York, 2004; 'Forse Italia', S.M.A.K., Gent, 2003; 'Moltitudini-Solitudini', Museion, Bolzano, 2003; 'Studio Program 2002/2003', PS1, New York, 2003; 'As heavy as the heaven', Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz; Kunsthallen Brandts Klæderfabrik, Odense, DK 2003; 'Nuovo Spazio Italiano', Palazzo delle Albere, Trento, 2002; 'Toward Uncertainty', Bell Gallery at Brown University, Providence, USA, 2002; 'Premio Querini Stampalia-Furla per l'Arte, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venezia, 2001; 'Il Dono. The Gift', Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, 2001. Lara Favaretto has recently been assigned the prize Borsa di Studio Amici Sostenitori of Castello di Rivoli for the year 2004.