Image: DIE GALERIE, Frankfurt am Main
Italian artist Fabrizio Plessi, a pioneer of video art whose installations combined moving images with sculptural forms and large arrays of screens, died on Sunday, 23 August, at a hospital in Dolo near Venice, according to an announcement from Frankfurt gallery DIE GALERIE. He was 86.
The gallery said Plessi’s death came as it was preparing a major exhibition of his work at its Frankfurt premises. The announcement did not provide exhibition dates or indicate whether the project would proceed. Instead, DIE GALERIE described the planned presentation as an occasion it had looked forward to sharing with the artist, who was expected to attend before his death.
Plessi was born on 3 April 1940, in Reggio Emilia, Italy. DIE GALERIE characterised him as one of the pioneers of video art, describing his practice as a transformation of the television screen from a simple device displaying moving images into a vehicle for a poetic view of the world.
His work extended beyond the screen as a discrete technological object. The gallery’s statement referred to installations and sculptures that used, at times, hundreds of screens. Through these environments, video became part of an architectural and spatial experience, with moving images integrated into large-scale visual compositions.
According to the gallery, Plessi’s installations were presented over many years at the Venice Biennale, as well as in museums, theatres and public spaces. The statement also cited a project involving St Mark’s Square in Venice during the pandemic, identifying it as another setting in which his work created an intense visual experience. No details about the specific project were given in the announcement.
The news was issued by Peter Femfert and the DIE GALERIE team, who expressed their condolences to Plessi’s wife, Carla, and his children, Maria Stella and Rocco. The gallery’s Frankfurt address is listed as Grüneburgweg 123; its announcement focused on the artist’s death and on the exhibition preparations that had been under way when the news arrived.
