Cesare Viel (Chivasso, Turin, 1964) has exhibited in Italy and abroad since the late 1980s, in private galleries, museums, and foundations. He lives and works in Genoa and teaches at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti.
His artistic practice, grounded in conceptual and performative approaches, focuses on subjectivity, relationships, and gender identity, as well as on the relationship between the language of communication, literature, and images. His practice moves between performance and installation and employs a variety of media, including sound, voice, writing, photography, video, and drawing. During the 1990s, he was invited to participate in major exhibitions and group shows, including Molteplici Culture, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Ludovico Pratesi, Convento Sant’Egidio/Museo del Folklore, Rome, 1992; Soggetto/Soggetto, curated by Francesca Pasini and Giorgio Verzotti, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, 1994; Ultime generazioni, XII Quadriennale d’Arte, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1996; Officina Italia, curated by Renato Barilli, GAM, Bologna, and other venues, 1997; Subway, curated by Roberto Pinto, Metropolitana Milanese, Milan, 1998; La Ville, le Jardin, la Mémoire, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Villa Medici, Rome, 1998; and Disidentico, maschile femminile e oltre, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, Palazzo Branciforte, Palermo, 1998.
In 1998, he won the Francesca Alinovi Prize in Bologna. That same year, he was among the organisers of the conference Come spiegare a mia madre che ciò che faccio serve a qualcosa, held at Link in Bologna.
In 1999, together with Cesare Pietroiusti, Luca Vitone, Eva Marisaldi, and others, he participated in the collective project Oreste alla Biennale, presented on the occasion of the 48th Venice Biennale, curated by Harald Szeemann.
In 2008, a monograph dedicated to his performative practice, Cesare Viel. Azioni 1996–2007, edited by Carla Subrizi, was published by Silvana Editoriale and Fondazione Baruchello, Milan–Rome. Also in 2008, the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce in Genoa hosted his retrospective exhibition Mi gioco fino in fondo. Performance e installazioni, accompanied by a catalogue featuring contributions by Emanuela De Cecco, Chiara Oliveri Bertola, and Sandra Solimano. In October 2019, PAC in Milan dedicated a retrospective to his work, curated by Diego Sileo.
