Italian Journal 06: Contemporary

Strapline 1

Italian Journal volume 20. number Vi. 2011

Contemporary

Giacamo Puccini. Courtesy Puccini Foundation.

2 Strapline

on the cover Alberto di Fabio. sinapsi e galassie [synapses and galaxies] (Detail), 2009. acrylic on canvas. 75x59 cm. courtesy gagosian gallery

Like having an orchestra at your fingertips.

The legendary Bechstein piano. A voice so lyrical, so distinctly expressive, it has inspired some of the world’s most legendary composers.

Johannes Brahms and Claude Debussy.

Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner.

Franz Liszt and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Own the piano that inspires legends.

Bechstein. The largest selection of pianos offering European quality and value: W. Hoffmann Vision • W. Hoffmann Tradition Bechstein Academy • C. Bechstein Professional Visit the Bechstein Piano Centre in New York, or call 877-NYPIANO for the retailer nearest you.

Bechstein America • 207 West 58th Street • New York, NY 10019 • Open Mon-Sat 10-6 info@bechstein-america.com • www.bechstein-america.com

4

Italian Journal

IN THIS ISSUE

Editor’s journal contributors NOTABLE

5 7 10

Contemporary Claudia Palmira Acunto Editor Laura Giacalone Contributing Editor Mauro benedetti Vito Catalone Photography Genny di Bert Columnist Amanda K. Romero Editorial Assistant

Notes on Italian Art Two Remarkable Shows, NY Interviews with Young Artists Reading two Contemporary Works* Venice: Exhibitionist City An Interview with Bice Curiger Many Instutions, Few Artists vogue patronage

*Italian language article.

Literature: clash of civilizations Photography: Light on Rome Social journal Face file: Violante placido

Printed in the United States.

Stefano ACUNTO Chairman The Italian Academy Foundation, Inc. (IAF), established in 1947, is a non-for profit 501Š(3), tax-exempt corporation that pursues a unique form of cultural diplomacy, presenting Italian realities to U.S. audiences. The Italian Academy Foundation, Inc. produces concerts, symposia and special events year-round in the United States and Italy.

page 50

page 23

page 47

Hudson Cliff House 131 Alta Avenue Yonkers, NY 10705 914 966 3180 ext.110 Via Marcantonio Colonna 60 Rome 00193 +39 06 325 05 490 www.italianjournal.it

16 18 23 24 30 32 35 37 39

page 48

page 10

43 44 46 50

5

EDITOR’S journal

masters of the day I

taly, art – the terms are almost inextricable. The historic “greats” come to mind immediately, conjuring images of paintings and sculptures deeply embedded in our collective visual memory. But insert the word “contemporary” between the two, and the references diminish exponentially.

Artist Lucilla Caporilli Ferro puts it best when she suggests that Italian artists now must “turn the heavy legacy of our rich heritage into a valuable resource for the future, without any rhetoric or commonplaces, but through profound insights and interactions between our identity and the contemporary world.”

(Article on page 24.)

Despite the fact that some of the world’s most renowned artists are mainstays at museums across the world, such as Maurizio Cattelan whose solo retrospective is on view at the Guggenheim, and despite the fact that some of the major contemporary art movements like Arte Povera continue to inspire, the Italian contemporary art scene lacks the ubiquity of its Classic precedent.

Curator of the Italian Pavilion of the 2011 Venice Biennale, art critic Vittorio Sgarbi involved the regions of Italy and the Italian cultural institutions worldwide in the diffusion of contemporary art by Italian artists during this Biennale year. Concurrent with the exposition in Venice, participating institutions displayed works local to their city made by Italian-born artists. This clever curatorial stroke brought both new and familiar artists to light, but highlighted just how many Italian artists have moved abroad to realize their artistic careers.

Amidst articles and interviews reflecting on the contemporary art world on (and off) the peninsula, there are the works themselves displayed throughout this issue, which perhaps tell the greater story.

Mimmo Jodice. Demetra d’Ercolano (1999).

6 advertisement

Join the

With your tax-deductible membership contribution, receive tickets to all events at no charge, a one year subscription to Italian Journal magazine and private event invitations.

Join online using your credit card or Paypal

www.italianacademyfoundation.org or call

914 966 3180 ext. 126 or email

rsvp@italianacademyfoundation.org

contributors

Contributors Genny DI BERT

A graduate of Art History, art critic Genny Di Bert is Professor of Modern Art for RUFA Academy in Rome. She has been lecturer on “The Phenomenology of Contemorary Art” and “Art History” for the Accademia Brera of Milan, Accademia Belle Arti of Palermo, NABA of Milan and Catholic University of Milan. She is curator of the Eleutheria Art Foundation in Prague. In Italy, she is Tribunal expert on Modern Art and a member of the National Association of Journalists. She has authored several non-fiction books and has published several articles about art, costume and society. She is also columnist in Progetto Repubblica Ceca and Il Domani d’Italia. She collaborates with museums, galleries, publishing houses and international institutions. Among the exhibitions she has curated: The New Europe in Biennal of Venice 1995, Unimplosive Art in Biennal of Venice 1997 and many initiatives within the European Mediterranean Cultural Exchanges. Most recently, she has collaborated with Vittorio Sgarbi for the Biennale of Venice 2011 and for all Special Art Events for Italian Pavillon, in occasion of the Century Italy’s Unity.

Laura GIACALONE

Laura Giacalone is a journalist and editor-in-chief of the Italian quarterly Filmaker’s Magazine, and works as a contributing editor and editorial consultant for a number of bilingual art magazines and publishing houses. In London she has worked as a writer and editorial assistant for Phaidon Press, contributing to the three-volume book Phaidon Design Classics (2006). She has translated into Italian the American novels Paper Fish (Pesci di carta, 2006) by Tina De Rosa and Shattered (La finestra sul bosco, 2010) by Karen Robards, and a variety of academic papers, screenplays and feature articles for international publications. Her world is made of words, and she loves it.

Gianluca MARZIANI

Critic and curator based in Rome, Italy, Marziani focuses on the visual arts. He is the artistic director of the Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive in Spoleto and the artistic driector of the Rocco Guglielmo foundation. He is the curator of the Terna award and participates in the Rai5 television program “Personal Shopper.” For the IED Roma, he runs a visual arts program. He has curated many shows in both galleries and museums, is the author of two theoretical books and numerous catalogs. He writes about art for all media imaginable. His website is www.gianlucamarziani.com.

Proud of our heritage and its articulation in the Italian Journal.

77 MacDougal Street New York, NY 10012-2504 (212) 254-2500

7

8 Advertisement

John Cabot University the first

U.S. regionally accredited university in Italy undergraduate degrees study abroad program

For more information or to apply, email admissions@johncabot.edu

contributors

Contributors Walter SANTAGATA

Walter Santagata, Professor of Economy of Culture at the University of Turin, is the author of many essays published in international journals. Among his books are: White Paper on Creativity: Towards an Italian Model of Development (downloadable at www.css-ebla.it) (Università Bocconi Editore, 2009), Intanglible Heritage of Humanity: The cultural significance of the Neopolitan crèche (2008), The Culture Factory (Springer, 2009), La Mode. Une économie de la Créativité et du patrimoine (La Documentation Française, Paris, 2005) and Indagine sull’arte contemporanea italiana nel mondo (DARC, 2005 SKIRA, Milano).

Veronica Maria WHITE

Veronica Maria White is currently a Core Lecturer at Columbia University as well as a Lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She received her B.A. from Princeton University and her Ph.D from Columbia University, where her dissertation, “Serio Ludere: Baroque Invenzione and the Development of the Capriccio,” focused on the visual and critical components of 17th-century Italian drawings and prints known as capricci. Her academic awards include the Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Columbia University Starr Fellowship, the Swann Foundation Fellowship from the Library of Congress, and the Princeton Pettoranello Foundation Research Grant. She has also taught at Rutgers University and Vassar College, and has worked at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, where she assisted with the exhibition of “The Timeless Eye: Master Drawings from the Jan and Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski Collection” in 1999. She has contributed to several exhibition catalogues, including Playing with Fire: Neoclassical Terracotta Models (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003), and Peter Paul Rubens: The Drawings (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004). Her lectures and publications have included papers on Gianlorenzo Bernini, Guercino, Rubens and Stefano della Bella. She is currently working on a book on the capriccio, as well as an article focusing on Guercino’s role as a collector of drawings and prints.

Rome Photography Workshop • • • •

sunrise monument walk the streets: ancient / modern night scenes “eternal” portraits

Dedicated to provide photographic experiences to those who want to deepen their creative process while discovering the secrets of the “Eternal City.”

Native Roman Photographers will lead amateurs and professionals alike to the most beautiful vantage points at the best times of day. In between shoots, experience local flavor and the insider places unlisted in the average tour guide.

www.romephotographyworkshop.com

9

10 notable

Notable NY Designer Renovates Naples Metro Stop S

ubway stations are usually transitory spaces but, thanks to designer Karim Rashid, the University of Naples metro station has visitors who linger; patrons can’t help but stop and marvel at this brightly-designed stop.

“This is a changing Italy, and the station is a metaphor of this new, wired global condition,” Karim Rashid said, in an interview with Dezeen magazine. “It integrates the station with its surroundings, as well as provides a platform for an innovative, cutting-edge design strategy.”

The renovation combines form and function. Arriving trains’ shadows contrast digital patterns stenciled on the walls. Huge columns with neon, oversized profiles of Dante and Beatrice climb to the ceiling, while abstract sculptures line the stairs. The walls, floors and escalators are decorated with curvy graphic shapes in hot pink, bright yellow and cyan, while reflective surfaces blur and transform them. The design represents the physical descent from piazza to platform, and from a frenetic state of mind to a purposeful one.

“Our concept focuses on the commuter experience within the train station,” Rashid said. “How the surrounding environment can serve as a respite in a day’s schedule.”

Upon entry into the station, the commuter is greeted by frosted glass tiles with words either created or redefined within the last century, like simulation, navigation, memory.

Stylized Italian fermate (metro stops) are not a new idea—but Rashid’s interpretation of the concept is.

The University of Naples metro station has joined a dozen Metro Napoli “Art Stations.”

Other stations have been renovated and curated by Italian architects like Alessandro Mendini and Gae Aulenti. But, rather than design a station with artwork placed on the walls as its centerpiece, Rashid transformed the entire 36,000-square-foot metro stop into a glowing, original work.

“So much of the world is gray or beige and very generic,” Rashid said. “A lack of stimuli creates lethargy, routine breeds boredom, and conformity creates complacency.”

The station affects the busy, multicultural clientele it harbors—Rashid hopes visitors receive a sense of the animation and energy from this environment.

“I would love to witness this kind of atThe metro stop Università in Naples, remade in the designer Karim tention and passion in our New York subRashid’s futuristic, colorful style. A nod to Italian history appears ways,” Rashid said. “Then maybe I would throughout in details like the oversized, vivid portraits of dante ride them again.” n and Beatrice covering the station staircases.

notable

11

Notable NYC Welcomes Natalia Quintavalle in the Consul General’s Office: An Interview with Italian Journal The first woman to be appointed as Italian Consul General in New York, Minister Plenipotentiary Natalia Quintavalle took her seat at the Park Avenue Consulate in September 2011. The prestigious assignment is only the last of a series of important achievements in her diplomatic career, which has seen her actively work in the defense of human rights and in the promotion of Italian culture and interests in the world.

IJ: In the course of your diplomatic career, you have worked in very different environments, from Toulouse to Riad.

What are your expectations for such a hectic and culturally vibrant city as New York?

NQ: Toulouse was my first post abroad.

The town was and still is culturally and socially rich and the Italian community quite diverse and stimulating. Riad was for me a completely new world where I learned to understand the real meaning of the expression ‘dialogue among religions and civilizations’. I was the first women diplomat in both these posts and my work was an everyday challenge but I survived and it seems that I didn’t do a bad job. What could I say about NY which does not sound hackneyed or stereotyped? In the summer of 2004, a few months after my arrival in New York, I suddenly realized that in spite of spending almost 12 hours in our mission or the UN I had been to more concerts, musical, operas, conferences, exhibitions and performances than in the 4 years just spent in an although international, beautiful and rich town as Geneva. So, I expect to keep up with this trend.

IJ: This will be your second time in New York, having previously worked in the city as First Commercial Counselor of the Permanent Mission to the United Nations. What are the main tasks and activities you are going to perform as the new Italian Consul General?

NQ: The role of Consulates has changed enormously in the last decades, following the changing environment and the evolution of the Italian presence in the world. NY is the prototype of a new way of taking care of the Italian presence, interests and potentialities. My predecessors took care of the social and administrative needs of the Italian residents and assisted them in emergency situations. At the same time they did a lot to promote the image of our country both in the economic and cultural sectors. I will do my best to continue what they started with the aim of further improving exchanges and mutual understanding between the two countries, without forgetting that Italy is part (an important part) of ‘old Europe’, an increasingly integrating region of the world. The protection of Italian interests in New York involves also the promotion of the understanding of what the European Union is and what it represents in the contest of international relations.

IJ: You have been long active in the human rights field. What are your main goals and what is the commitment that Italy is called to fulfill in this respect?

NQ: I am convinced that Human Rights play a crucial role in guaranteeing peace, preventing conflicts and fostering the growth of stable and democratic societies. What happened in North Africa is strictly linked to violation of Human rights and fundamental liberties and a solution to these crises and the Libyan crisis in particular cannot be found without guaranteeing the respect of Human rights. Thanks to our policy of protecting Human Rights through dialogue with States and cooperation in multilateral forums, Italy has been recently elected for the second time in the Human Rights Council with an almost unanimous support by the General Assembly membership. The promotion of freedom

of religion or belief and the protection of religious minorities, together with the promotion of gender equality, the advancement of women and the fight against violence against women are main priorities of our Human Rights foreign policy. In this framework we are promoting an initiative together with other countries, mainly African countries, to stop female genital mutilation.

IJ: What advice would you give to a young person willing to start a diplomatic career today?

NQ: To be a good diplomat today is more difficult than it was at the time when diplomats were for the local authorities and the Italian communities the only representation of the government in a foreign country. The new diplomat is part of a country system where other administrations and non-governmental entities bring their original contributions. A young person willing to start a diplomat-

12 notable

Notable ic career should ask him/herself 3 questions: a) Am I ready to work in a team, sharing tasks and honors and assuming common responsibilities? b) Am I ready to be a ‘generalist’ for the rest of my life, specializing only in facilitating a team work to represent Italy at its best? c) Am I aware that the ‘diplomatic life’ has an unavoidable impact on family relationships? Am I ready to invest a considerable amount of energy in trying to minimize the negative effects and maximize the best part of it? If the answer is Yes to the three questions, then it’s a good start!

IJ: There is so much talking about the current Italian “brain drain” migration. Based on your personal experience, do you think that, in spite of the crisis, Italy is still able to provide the new generations with opportunities for growth and advancement?

NQ: It is undeniable that a certain number of young Italians leave their country looking for better opportunities for research. It is also true that Italy is still able to attract young people from abroad applying to Italian centers of excellence in the field of nuclear physics or in the health sector and many initiatives at different level have been taken to improve the quality and effectiveness of Italian scientific research system.

IJ: You are the first woman to be appointed as Italian Consul General in New York. It is an important personal achievement. Do you think it is also emblematic of a social change that calls for an increasingly active role of women in traditionally male careers?

NQ: I hope so! Thanks also to the efforts of our association DID (Donne Italiane Diplomatiche), our administration is reserving a growing attention to the added value women can bring in a traditionally male career. Still there is a lot to do to achieve the real cultural change we need to ensure that women diplomat find an environment conducive to a full development of their skills and professionalism.n

Young Italian Group at Oxford Brainstorms for their Homeland’s Future

La fondiera group, oxford.

A

group of Italian ex-patriates in Great Britain have an new focus – and it’s not Shakespeare, punk music nor London’s contemporary art scene. This group of 30 Italian post-graduates have formed a collective in one of the top research facilities in the world to probe a more pressing topic: “a better Italy.” Every other week, these individuals meet at the Merton College, University of Oxford to discuss and propose practical ways to improve their homeland. For some, the distance has already begun to help them develop a more appreciative outlook. For others, feelings of disappointment and detachment still remain.

Created only less than a year ago, La Fonderia, or Oxford Foundry, has become a place for these Italian scholars, among them researches, engineers, historians, neurologists, and economists, to hold intense debates over various topics. The group is currently working on projects in several different fields including energy, the environment, education, research, and more. They hope to improve these projects in upcoming months with the support and input of other Italians who share similar views.

One of their more radical ideas is to replace the current employment system,

implementing paid leaves, imposing guaranteed incomes based on the number of people in each household, setting a flat taxation rate of 38%, as well as setting aside a specific amount of money that is not to be taxed. In addition, they are hoping to come up with ways to alleviate the unemployment rate by establishing centers that will provide the unemployed with information on available jobs pertinent to each individual’s occupation.

Although these proposals may seem unrelated to one another, there is one common aspiration that accompanies all: improve the way of life for Italian youth.

While the group understands it may prove difficult to execute these propositions effectively, they believe their ideas will be heard if they spread awareness, relaying a sense of urgency and significance in their beliefs. Through their website Fonderia.org and their Facebook page, these educators are encouraging the recruitment of advocates to build a more substantial foundation. Feeling bound to their country, this growing number of fairly young but highly determined scholars will continue to research possible ways to improve Italy’s political system so it would make them proud to return one day. n

notable

13

Photo by Matthias Creutziger courtesy IMG Artists.

Notable Metropolitan Opera Names Fabio Luisi Principal Conductor F

Arnaldo Pomodoro Sculpture Gifted to Storm King Storm King’s Museum Hill in Mountainville, New York is permanently installing The Piertrarubbia Group: The Foundation, The Use, The Relationship (1975 - 1976) by Italian sculptor Arnoldo Pomodoro. The work was first exhibited at Storm King Art Center in 1977 shortly after completion. The differing components on its sizable and movable bronze doors symbolize the historic beauty of the artist’s birthplace, Pietrarubbia, Italy. n

Photo by Matthias Creutziger courtesy IMG Artists.

or the first time since Arturo Toscanini held the baton, an Italian maestro is the Principal Conductor for the Metropolitan Opera. Genoa-born Fabio Luisi made his Met debut in 2005 leading Verdi’s Don Carlo and has since led performances there of Die Ägyptische Helena, Simon Boccanegra, Turandot, Elektra, Le Nozze di Figaro, Hansel and Gretel, Ariadne auf Naxos, Rigoletto, Tosca, Lulu, and Das Rheingold.

In the 2011-2012 season, Maestro Luisi appears at the Met conducting new productions of Siegfried, Don Giovanni and Massenet’s Manon and a revival of La Traviata. He also leads the Met Orchestra in a concert at Carnegie Hall with mezzo-soprano Christine Rice and pianist Richard Goode.

Maestro Luisi is currently chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony and artistic director of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. n

14 Strapline

La Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi The only Italian/American school in Northern America.

Scuola Materna - PreK and K Scuola Elementare - Grades 1-5 Scuola Media - Grades 6-8 Liceo Scientifico - Grades 9-12

La Scuola is an English/Italian bilingual school, offering an international education to a diverse student body.

The academically rigorous curriculum provides a strong foundation in liberal arts, mathematics and science; total immersion in foreign languages from the outset; in-depth study and appreciation of American, European and Italian civilizations and cultures.

La Scuola d’Italia 12 East 96th Street, New York, NY 10128 Tel: (212) 369.3290 Fax: (212) 369.1164 E-mail: secretary@lascuoladitalia.org

www.lascuoladitalia.org

Strapline

In the best Italian, all-natural* tradition

www.brioschi-usa.com

*Brioschi is the only FDA-recognized all natural effervescent antacid.

15

16 Strapline

Contemporary 17

On the occasion of the 2011 Venice Biennale, Italian Journal looks at contemporary Italian art, artists and ambience.

Contemporary.

Notes on Italian Art, by Gianluca Marziani, page 18 Two Remarkable Shows, NY, by Amanda K. Romero, page 23 Interviews with Young Artists, by Laura Giacolone, page 24 Reading Contemporary Works in Two Examples,* by Genny Di Bert, page 30 Venice: Exhibitionist City, Then and Now, by Veronica Marie White, page 32 An Interview with Bice Curiger, by Laura Giacalone, page 35 Many Instutions, Few Artists, by Walter Santaga and Salvatore Cominu, page 37 Vogue Patronage, by Laura Giacolone, page 39

* Italian Language article

18 Contemporary

Notes on

New Italian

by Gianluca MARZIANI The knot Italian Contemporary Art: Three words suggesting such a tangle of opposing considerations, cultural and commercial developments and widespread interests that it is quite difficult to have a comprehensive picture of it.

For historical reasons and recent twisted events, the Italian art world embodies an anomalous reality, both for its wellacknowledged qualities and its congenital faults. We have a great tradition of art that the world much appreciates – this goes without saying. From Giotto to Mario Schifano, enviable talents and universal geniuses have come one after the other, producing new expressive modes and groundbreaking innovations.

The problem lies in the relationship between the quality of history and the spirit of the present age. It is enough to look back at the last 20 years to notice how we have lost the pulse of the pres-

ent. It is a fault, however, that does not affect the quality of creative projects. In this respect, we are still able to compete with other countries. Our limit lies in the overwhelming individualism, in the detachment between generations, in the lack of a collective culture that makes it possible to pour all energies into the same reservoir. The Italian cultural world

has established itself as a medley of contradictions. We foster tolerance and open-mindedness, but we don’t protect our most excellent artists. We interact with a diversity of realities, but the political forces are still not opening up to a courageous laicism. Our backwardness in the world scene comes from a political ethics that is too far from the present. It is a social limit that goes along with an extreme individualism, as already said, and acts as a detonator that drains the most promising energies and hinders a long-range strategic vision.

Evolution This overview of the Italian art world allows us to highlight not only the limits, but also the potential of another Italy, the one that supports proactive heterogeneity, excellence of details, profound insights and, in general, high-quality iconographic imagination and ethical clear-headedness in addressing critical issues. How is it possible to turn this dimension into an organic process? With a serious integration into global dynamics combined with a fair protectionism; with a visionary courage mixed with organizational pragmatism; with a multilingual culture imbued with respect for our collective roots. All these factors, combined with an absence of individualism and with the support of more courageous and visionary institutions, would be the only formula for a widespread “renaissance.”

A few answers…

There are many ways to provide a well-balanced overview of the Italian art scene.

Personally, I have chosen a formula that takes account of the following values: iconographic qualities of works, longrange vision and institutional results of exhibition activities. Besides, I wanted to select artists representing some sorts of

archetypes, forerunners that allow us to map out the main ways to Italian contemporary art.

Humanistic Technology The inescapable value of technology is something that everybody agrees on. We also know that computer, since the midNineties, has become the only innovative tool for creativity. Combined with preexisting tools, digital language has therefore carved out a decisive role among creative codes. Two excellent examples: One is Matteo Basilè, who focuses on front portraits and develops them with highly epic photographic (and video) materials, exploring different types of gender. The other is Vanessa Beecroft, whose feminine performances t the edge of fashion and sculptural shapes, turn into color pictures or, recently, into Canova-like marble sculptures.

Topicality of Elementary Matter The evidence of the world can be portrayed in a variety of ways, even with elementary means and materials, as proved by the Arte Povera masters, from Jannis Kounellis to Giuseppe Penone, as well as

by Ettore Spalletti and his monochrome depictions of ancient landscapes. Among their youngest “heirs,” I’d like to mention the poetic sensitivity of Eva Marisaldi and Sabrina Mezzaqui, artists who love powerless, minimal materials employed with feminine grace and literary culture, so as to create visual metaphors resounding of a narrative consciousness.

The Firmness of The Mobile Gaze Within a photography that confirms the Italian excellence, I’d like to mention the Mediterranean talent of Mimmo Jodice, a master of black-and-white pictures combing pictorial fascination and density of

Contemporary 19

Art matteo basilè. THISHUMANITY SERIES - CIRCLE OF SINNERS, INCIPIT, 2010. Cprint on paper mounted on double plexiglass. diameter 40 inches.

Courtesy Galleria PACK, Milan.

opposite: Francesco Mernini. Untitled, 2011. Oil on canvas. 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches, courtesy CO2. top: Francesco Mernini. Untitled, 2010, Oil on canvas, 27 1/2 x 24 inches, private collection.

Marco Neri. Chiaro di Luna, 2010. Acrylic on linen. cm 27 1/2 x 30 1/2 inches. Courtesy Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples.

20 Contemporary

all works this page by Alberto Di fabio. top: wepping neuron, 2009. acrylic on canvas. 55 x 55 inches. courtesy Gagosian gallery left: a sea of atoms, 2007. installation view. courtesy galleria pack milan opposite page, top: Carlo Gavazzeni. Puglia Paesaggi from Teatri d’invenzioni, 2010. ink jet on kodak plus finishing. 118 x 59 inches.

Courtesy Galleria Valentina Moncada.

Contemporary 21

memory. Massimo Vitali distinguishes himself for his open-space views that insert real humanity in world landscapes.

Olivo Barbieri also chooses wide angles, and stands out for the aesthetic harmony of miniaturized places, portrayed with stunning, highly pictorial results. Not to mention the talent of Carlo Gavazzeni, the author of archeological and natural landscapes that have the ancient taste of painting, of alchemical colors, of a light that becomes a mystery. Among the youngest artists, Simone Bergantini distinguishes himself for his visionary pictures of people, animals and objects, his chilling and cosmic snaps, his obscure visions, which give a mystic and supernatural aura to his shapes.

Multiple languages, openings

multiple

There are also artists who choose a multiplicity of styles and tools, just like Thorsten Kirchhoff. His refined paintings include design objects, recycled materials, tools and household items, car engines and room corners. In the same way, painting is part of his movies and enhances the fetishist passion for an old-fashioned design imbued with dramatic pathos, with the protagonists’ emotions, and with surreal notes that accompany the development of his stories. The multiplicity of Luca Pancrazzi instead favors the plurality of pictorial design, which finds its roots in Alighiero Boetti’s art. From panoramic

Above: Matteo Basilè. THISHUMANITY SERIES – CIRCLE OF SINNERS#02, 2010. lambda print on aluminium and plexiglass. 59 x 94 1/2 cm. Courtesy Galleria PACK, Milan. left: Marco Neri. Scarpa, 2011.

Acrylic on linen. 20 x 18 inches. courtesy Galleria Pack, Milan.

22 Strapline

above: Simone Bergantini. untitled (No horizon on the horizon), 2010.carbon inkjet photography on cotton paper mounted on aluminium, ed. of 7. courtesy CO2. below: Carlo Gavazzeni. from Teatri d’invenzioni, 2010. ink jet on kodak plus finishing. 118 x 59 inches. Courtesy Galleria Valentina Moncada.

landscapes to small details, the artist constantly reinvents his vision with minimal, inimitable gestures. The work of Stefano Arienti is equally essential and creative.

He has a passion for paper and for the endless creative possibilities that it allows: Creases, erasures, additions, subtractions.

Thanks to his manual skills, he modifies posters, comic strips or pictures to recreate the existing reality through minimal formal adjustments.

Painting, No Matter What As we finally come to painting, we evoke an eternal language that still distinguish-

es us for methods and results. Cristiano Pintaldi has coded a language of his own, using pixels as the constitutive elements of his media pictures. Daniele Galliano instead starts from the photographic nature of pictures. With his paintbrush he creates a sort of emotional album of lived experiences. Marco Neri does the opposite, depicting the real world with few geometrical traits and anti-naturalistic colors, confirming how open the boundaries of figurative art are. For Andrea Chiesi, industrial landscapes and the outer fringes of the city are at the center of a very detailed paint-

ing, whose perfectionist vertigo is almost hypnotic. The figurative art sometimes interacts with the codes of abstraction, as in the case of Alberto Di Fabio, who portrays cellular organisms or cosmological scenes inspired by Oriental mandala patterns. Finally, I’d like to mention Francesco Mernini, who is very young but already stunning for his technical talent and conceptual strength. His works evoke the aesthetics of videos and go beyond the digital grain, recalling Gerhard Richter’s cerebral quality, but with an “Italian” touch in the profound spirit of the work. n

23

Photos courtesy i-Italy

two remarkable shows, ny

by Amanda Romero Italian Cultural Institute

T

here are 89 Italian Cultural Institutes in the world – and they all participated in “Venice Biennale In The World,” a project led by renowned Italian art critic Vittorio Sgarbi to promote Italian artists internationally. In collaboration with museums, universities, organizations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, prominent art critics and scholars served as the judges for the 217 Italian artists nominated to show around the world. These artists’ works were also included in a video documentary presented at the 2012 Venice Biennale.

Gaetano Pesce and Angelo Filomeno were selected to show in New York’s Italian Cultural Institute in the October 2011 exhibit honoring the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.

Icon of Italian design, Gaetano Pesce presented a site specific installation at the Institute. Italian artist Angelo Filomeno, mainly known for his strikingly beautiful embroideries, also had a series of his work arranged at the exhibit. As a child, the artist was taught how to sew by his mother, a traditional practice that has developed into well-appreciated talent utilized in many of Filomeno’s pieces throughout his life-long career. The juxtaposition of delicate materials and portrayals of death in Filomeno’s work has effectively landed the creative artist a distinct role in the world of art. n

Top: Gaetano Pesce. L’Italia in Croce, 2011.Below: Angelo Filmono. philosopher’s woman, 2007. embroidery on silk.

Maurizio Cattelan. Installation view of the exhibition Maurizio Cattelan at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Guggenheim Museum

U

ntil January 22, 2011, the oeuvre of Padova-born contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan is on display at the Guggenheim Museum (New York) in a retrospective exhibit entitled “Maurizio Cattelan: All.” In addition to an array of over 130 pieces spanning his artistic career since the 1980s, organized for the first time in a sequence, Cattelan installed a site-specific piece in the museum’s rotunda encapsulating his works to date.

Though he never formally studied art, the now internationally-renowned sculptor unbegan his career in the 1980’s when he veered from furniture design and started making “functional furniture with art meaning,” which caught the attention of the Italian design press and manufacturers. Cattelan’s unconventional pieces are marked by irony and humor, subtly challenging the viewer’s tolerance in an often perplexing and contradictory manner. Bold, anti-establishment messages are folded into hyperreal, clay-like figures in his sculptures.

“I produce things that interact with the public and with the media. I do not like a work that does not get a response. If the thing is good, it must be able to make friends and also enemies,” said Cattelan.

With this installation appearing in New York, his work is surely interacting with a major public – some of whom will be exposed to his provocative humor for the first time. n

Photo David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Contemporary

24 Contemporary

Italian Journal interviews emerging talents

Five Questions,

1. What word, symbol or object, in your view, captures the essence of this moment for artists, especially Italian artists?

ARTURO CASANOVA: Since in contemporary art – both in Italy and abroad – philosophical speculations about new languages are rapidly evolving, I don’t believe in the most advanced trends very much and I would add that the word “contemporary” – prior to the most commonly-used expressions like installation, performance or video-projection, does not mean a lot in the artistic sense tout court.

Lucilla Caporilli Ferro: Contrary to many “young” countries, where it is possible to have a clear image of the contemporary art landscape, in Italy it is difficult to find something, apart from our classical tradition, able to convey with equal effectiveness the state of contemporary art. Unless we want to take Lambretta and Ferrari as works of art....

What happens in Italy today, I suppose, also happens in the rest of the world, especially if we think about the most successful art exhibitions (performances, installations, acts of information and denunciation). If we want to find something really Italian, which reminds us of our great painting tradition, of our national identity and contemporary culture, I think we should turn to the well-established, but always effective, “Made in Italy”, a synonym for creative authenticity and quality.

Davide Dormino: Contemporary art has a vocation for questioning symbols, objects and words concerning both the individual and his/her relationships. Contemporary experimentations change according to the countries, codes and settings where artists operate, challenging the very idea of “being”.

FRANCO SAVIGNANO: I think one word could be “mystery”, which refers to the enigmatic aspect of a work of art, implied in the code or in the message conveyed, regardless of its formal evidence. There is a sort of magical relationship between what is portrayed and an attentive observer willing to investigate this mystery and find out the very essence of a work of art. Art, especially in Italy, could actually be regarded as a sort of visual philosophy: while investigating the world and the contemporary human thought, it inevitably gets entangled in a labyrinthine philosophical mystery. Among Italian artists, the conceptual research is in fact a well-established trend, even though my work tries to go beyond that.

Arturo Casanova. Fieramosca, 2011.

Bronze. 26.25 x 19.7 feet, 15 Tons.

Contemporary 25

by Laura GIACALONE

Four Artists

ARTURO CASANOVA Born: 1966, Caserta.

2. What could this present period be named in terms of a movement or theme in art?

ARTURO CASANOVA: More than an artistic movement, I prefer to mention a theme in which I identify myself – the nonmonument cult – or, better said, the new vision of a monumental sculpture getting its inspiration from a urban-poetic model with the aim of interacting and communicating with the current society.

Lucilla Caporilli Ferro: In the last few years, the various artistic expressions have been imbued with an environmental strain, with themes related to the preservation of nature and the safeguard of species threatened with extinction.

franco savignano. image and body, 2001.

Davide Dormino: If I had to find a common denominator, I’d say that a major trend in contemporary art is the increasing process of dematerialization of the work of art, which intends to highlight its conceptual character, rather than its aesthetic qualities. A common practice is to shift the meanings of the objects by de-contextualizing and re-contextualizing them, a habit inherited by the ready-made. Personally, I think this attitude is likely to compromise the possibility for the work of art to reach a poetic, sublime level. As an artist, I am still sensitive to “beauty”, with all that this implies.

FRANCO SAVIGNANO: Due to the huge explosion of contaminations in the art field, it is not easy today to clearly define a contemporary art movement and, therefore, a leading theme. The variety of expressive languages used by artists today makes it quite difficult to identify collective reference themes. Among contemporary artists, a leading motive could probably be the human self-investigation, or the human insight into the world and the things that surround us. What is quite clear to me is that art has opened up to increasingly individual experimentations, where artists absorb, in their research, all the different languages and expressive means at their disposal. So, if I had to name the present artistic movement, I’d probably label it “full contamination art”.

26 Contemporary

Lucilla Caporilli Ferro Born: Rome

3. How can contemporary Italian artists cope with the great Italian art heritage?

What does it mean to make art today in Italy, after Michelangelo or Botticelli?

CASANOVA: There is a scene in the movie Good Morning Babylonia (1987) by the Taviani Brothers that is a true act of love honoring the great Italian artistic tradition where the pride of two Florentine stonecutters of the 20th century defends the national genetic heritage. The script says, “These hands have restored cathedrals in Pisa, Lucca and Florence. We are Michelangelo and Leonardo’s great, great grand-sons. You, who is your father?”

With this, I would like to say that modern Italian artists continue to keep alive the sense of belonging to an ancient tradition notwithstanding the difficult moment the country is facing. We can only continue to do so.

Caporilli Ferro: Our great artistic tradition is surely a richness for us, but also a heavy burden, which, over the years, has somehow “drugged” whoever tries to venture into the Italian contemporary art. The first artists, and probably the last ones, who tried to get rid of all of this, though replacing it with equally strong and peculiar motives, were the Futurists, who gave a major boost to the development and establishment of contemporary art in the world. Unfortunately, today Italy seems to have forgotten her own fundamental role in the production and diffusion of art, and this has caused a sort of homologation and levelling of taste, in favour of trends coming from abroad that seem far from our identity, but well represent our contemporary world (business, technology, standardization of feelings). I think that making art today in Italy means to bear in mind our roots and our identity, in order to take nourishment from our past and project ourselves into the future. This obviously does not mean to banally reproduce past images and ideas, but to consider what has “nourished” and built our body and soul over time.

Dormino: Today’s imagery transcends the national borders as well as the artistic boundaries. Making art after, and together with, such artists as Richard Serra, Fred Astaire or Tom Waits, is still always making art.

Lucilla Caporilli Ferro.

Domus Lucillae fram 2, 2009. oil on plaster. 18 x 20 inches.

Domus Lucillae fram 1, 2010. oil on canvas. 20 x 21 inches.

SAVIGNANO: As Italian artists, our relationship with tradition is one of respect. We regard it as something well established and known, because that’s where we all come from. The art of our great Renaissance masters, as well as the whole history of our art, is part of our memory, and is brought back to life in our art, in our attempt to carve a different path for ourselves. We aim at having a Renaissance of our own, questionable as it may seem.

We try to preserve a creative freedom that allows us to question, cross and draw on traditional experiences, which we eventually come to manipulate so as to overcome the past and investigate, understand, and interpret our present time, in order to find our own way of making art.

Contemporary 27

4. What are the difficulties and opportunities of making art today in Italy, also in comparison with other countries?

CASANOVA: I prefer not to comment such a long and important topic but would like to use a slogan: DO NOT BEND ART.

Dormino: Those of being Italian.

SAVIGNANO: I think it is not difficult to make art, neither in Italy nor in other countries. What is really difficult is being an artist, because the art world is made up of circuits established by a system that makes it quite hard for an artist to emerge and to let other people know his/her work. Nevertheless, there are many opportunities for an artist here in Italy, even if the mechanism is quite complex. Sometimes you are lucky enough to meet the right persons. It happened to me a few times, even if it is not that easy.

Getting to know the right persons may help an artist make himself/herself known or enter the circuit of the art galleries, which are the main promoters of contemporary artists. I think in other countries, such as America, this mechanism is much easier and there are more opportunities to show one’s work to the art professionals. It is actually widely known that America, contrary to Italy, is a country that pays more attention to the artists’ work, so you have more possibilities to make yourself known.

Photo: Rodolfo Fiorenza

Caporilli Ferro: I think one of the greatest problems for an Italian artist in Italy, today, is not only to make a living with art, but also to turn the heavy legacy of our rich heritage into a valuable resource for the future, without any rhetoric or commonplaces, but through profound insights and interactions between our identity and the contemporary world. As for the opportunities, I think that the most important, and probably the only one available in Italy today, is the chance to be in touch with the great masterpieces of the past. I have the feeling that in other countries there is a more in-depth knowledge of contemporary art, and a deeper awareness in the approach to it. This makes it possible for contemporary artists to be more easily appreciated and perceive themselves as an integral part of their society.

Davide Dormino Born: Udine

franco savignano.

Davide Dormino. SENZA TITOLO (UNTITLED), 2008.

Resin. Variable Dimensions/Room size.

Courtesy C.I.A.C Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Castello Colonna, Genazzano (RM).

28 Contemporary

Franco Savignano Born: 1959 Gesualdo, Avellino

5. Among your works of art, what do you think is your most representative piece, and why?

CASANOVA: It is almost impossible for a polyhedral artist to chose a work that best represents its philosophy. As an effect, I usually prefer the latest. However, there is a work – in particular for its sizes and complexity of design and carrying out able to unify different themes and disciplines. It’s the Fieramosca project, the big bronze helmet dedicated to the hero of the famous ‘Barletta’s battle’ that you can see at the 54th Biennial Art in Venice in front of the Italian pavilion where the work will be installed serving the purpose of a technological center of communication and memory transmissions of our current days.

I think that making art today in Italy means to bear in mind our roots and our identity, in order to take nourishment from our past and project ourselves into the future.

This obviously does not mean to banally reproduce past images and ideas, but to consider what has “nourished” and built our body and soul over time.

Caporilli Ferro: It is very difficult for a painter to decide what his/her most representative works are. It’s just like asking a mother what her favorite child is... However, I could identify more than a work able to represent, in different periods of my research activity, my own way of making art. One of the constants of my work, both at a conceptual and formal level, is probably the search for “transparency”, for a deeper level of “profundity” below the surface. If you don’t have an overall idea of how my paintings have developed over the years, it is hard to understand it. Anyway, today, my paintings are the result and the expression of a number of transitions, each encompassing the conditions for the next one. In particular, the stratification of red shades and materials represents the sense of an “ancient” thought that finds its contemporary value and significance through its scientific “repetition”.

Dormino: With the work Senza Titolo (Untitled), 2008, I managed to reproduce the silence that invades space and time. There are 33 sheets of paper, just like our spinal vertebrae, which support us in the same way as memory does. The blank sheet of paper therefore becomes the place for an active projection of the personal world of whoever comes in contact with it.

SAVIGNANO: There are many works of mine that could well represent my art. My experimentations draw on a variety of expressive means, ranging from painting to sculpture, multimedia installations and videos. I try to intertwine them, to make them coexist in a conscious and effective balance. I have chosen two pictures, which are particularly representative of my work: the first is the pictorial work Body Mind. It portrays an unidentified figure dominated by a sense of infinite, which can’t be categorized into academic classes, and lives in a suspended world belonging to our mind and memory. The other is a digital picture of a video titled Image and Body, a journey into the human mind, with a suspended shape of a head in the foreground. On the inside, there is a convergence of multiple perceptions, signs, numbers, remains of visions and findings that allude to the indecipherable paths of our thinking.

Lucia Caporilli Ferro Francesco Savignano. body mind, 2001.

Contemporary 29

30 Contemporary

An Italian language article.

reading contemporary works In two examples

by Genny Di BERT 1. Seeing performance art

Q

uella che osserviamo è la fotografa di una scena, di un momento d’espressione artistica in cui l’ambiente e l’uomo interagiscono, che viene, durante la realizzazione, con uno “scatto” resa opera d’arte apparentemente bidimensionale. L’immagine riprodotta valorizza l’irripetibilità dell’azione ed ogni scena diventa opera d’arte unica. La rappresentazione, come la realtà osservata e dipinta, viene studiata, immaginata, riprodotta attraverso l’occhio fotografico attento a cogliere l’istante creativo.

Progettazione, performance, descrizione: lo spazio diventa elemento fondamentale della messa in relazione tra figure ed oggetti, vuoto e pieno, buio e luci, linee e forme. Nasce la composizione.

L’arte contemporanea è contaminazione, alla ricerca di nuove espressioni, in bilico tra lezioni del passato ed esigenze-dimensioni del futuro. Pittura, architettura, scenografia, danza e quindi …. corpo, fotografia, ambientazione, azione-performance. Ed ecco che si manifesta la creatività di Benedetta Tagliabue Miralles.

L’immagine-opera diventa elemento unico, rimane ciò che la vista dell’osservatore guarda e memorizza. Anche questo quadromomento vive di equilibri e dissonanze, una composizione strutturata.

Linee e colori giocano all’interno dell’impianto scenico e lo dividono in due parti. La parte sinistra è piena: masse e vuoti, luci e piani intersecati. Nella parte destra prevale la zona scura, le muscolature diventano forme, il vuoto diventa pieno-materia.

La scena è suddivisa anche in due piani paralleli: sopra e sotto, separati da una ipotetica linea d’orizzonte centrale. Quello sovrastante ha la parte sinistra, di chi osserva, riempita da una narrazione architettonica che si esplica nella verticalità e che suggerisce l’intento di una aspirazione verso l’alto senza complicare, come accadeva nella elevazioni architettoniche mistiche del Medioevo, i rapporti tra i piani. E’ una iconografia che richiama le grandi simbologie di importanti edifici, forse di cattedrali gotiche. La figura centrale, illuminata, entra a far parte della costruzione, il corpo si distingue, illumina e, per assonanza, conduce la nostra vista verso le immagini in primo piano.

Nella parte inferiore, i quattro corpi dialogano tra loro armonicamente. Sono sculture: due di essi producono, tramite slanci esterni con le gambe tese ad “angelo”, un piano orizzontale, che richiama la base della piattaforma su cui si erige l’immagine illuminata dentro l’edificio-installazione. Questi corpi danzanti aprono, con geometrie, i propri contorni verso lo spazio circostante.

Diverso è il rapporto tra vuoto e pieno realizzato dal movimento degli altri due corpi: il pieno-figura è delineato dal vuoto e ciò si percepisce soprattutto osservando la zona scura all’interno della gamba destra piegata. La perpendicolarità dei corpi non è rigida e si combina con il movimento circolare, dettato dalla posizione delle braccia: le linee segnano, come tratti di matite sui fogli, per riempire lo spazio.

Anche in questa scena, come nei quadri, la prospettiva ha un ruolo importante e cambia il suo fulcro tra il “sopra” ed il “sotto” della fotografia-performance. La luce si amalgama ed interagisce con l’intera composizione, senza sovrastare forme e linee, formando delle geometri ottiche.

Si osserva la messa in scena, attratti da una scenografia di danza nello spazio, coinvolti da una tridimensionalità resa bidimensione per poterla vivere successivamente, quando ormai la performance è finita.

La spazializzazione è elemento fondamentale nell’interpretazione di quest’opera. Ci sono diverse spazialità: la profondità oltre la superficie dettata dalla scena fotografata, la profondità che coinvolge lo spettatore, lo spazio-supercifie della bidimensionalità dell’immagine-esempio riprodotta e “fermata”. I vari spazi, per chi osserva, interagiscono tra loro. Astrazione e figurazione.

contemporary 31

Vittorio Alfieri. nell’atto di farsi legare alla seggiola per impedire a se stesso di fuggire di casa, 1995. acrylic on canvas. 78 x 58 inches.

Nell’immaginare cosa c’è oltre la scena riprodotta e dall’osservatore analizzata, ci si rende conto che la perfomance d’arte vive momenti distinti e separati se si vede durante l’azione o, come spesso accade nell’atto di documentare, guardando un’immagine che la rappresenta (fotografia). Noi, con questa immagine, vediamo il “tempo rappresentato” (ciò che vediamo “ora”) che è diverso dal “tempo della rappresentazione” (il tempo dell’esecuzione). Conseguentemente, destra e sinistra, prima e dopo, ciò che è dentro e ciò che è fuori, sono categorie relative, ancor più che nella lettura di un quadro o di una scultura, anche astratti.

2. Seeing a painting

O

sservando questo quadro di Valerio Adami si nota innanzitutto un impianto scenico decostruzionista, suddiviso in due “racconti”, delineati da una linea orizzontale centrale. L’orizzonte centrale ci obbliga a tagliare il quadro in due primi piani. Dal primo emerge la figura di Alfieri, nel secondo emerge parte del corpo del protagonista ed una carta-figura.

L’effetto visivo è di contrasto più che di contatto. Le due parti si distinguono sia per le tonalità cromatiche, verde e giallo prevalgono in alto e rosa-arancio nella parte sottostante, che per l’azione descritta.

Le scritte suggeriscono due momenti della vita del protagonista raffigurato: Vittorio Alfieri, drammaturgo, poeta e scrittore.

In alto “V.A. nell’atto di”, sicuramente, fare “qualche cosa” , non si sa cosa da quel volto dipinto in ampie inquadrature, in cui gli spazi si alternano in modo armonico, senza troppi contrasti di forme e linee, valorizzando curve e rotondità. Immagini-pensiero che vivono dentro ad un viso privo d’occhi, rivolto verso il davanti e lateralmente (prospettiva emergente).

Cosa sta per fare Alfieri viene definito dalla scritta sottostante “farsi legare alla seggiola”. Ed ecco che lo spazio, in questa inquadratura, è costituito in prevalenza da linee orizzontali, verticali, oblique. Le parti raffigurate producono un triangolo rivolto verso il dentro, centralmente (prospettiva immergente).

Due scene di uno stesso dramma. Mitologia moderna. In alto una sorta di maggiore disciplina nel disegno (illuminismo) con atmosfera malinconica-romantica invece nella parte inferiore più movimento di linee (romanticismo) più razionalità nella sintesi.

La forma ed il movimento, all’interno dell’opera, rappresentano anche due pensieri, due filosofie, due momenti dell’esistenza dell’uomo, non solo di Vittorio Alfieri. Spazi e tempi della vita.

Il racconto di Adami, che ama giocare con rebus, anagrammi, tra psicologia ed intuizione, rappresenta un atto della vita di un artista, anche quella dell’autore (V come Valerio, A come Adami).

E’ come se l’osservatore fosse a teatro, il palco è illuminato da luci, sia nel bordo inferiore che in alto a sinistra, di chi guarda. Una mano, in basso a destra, entra nella scena e propone e s’impossessa di uno spazio, creando una linea virtuale tra esterno ed interno del quadro. Questa relazione di spazi diversi fa sì che la narrazione si attua al meglio proiettandosi fuori dal quadro, guardata dallo spettatore e dal pittore. Il collegamento tra il fuori ed il dentro della tela è suggerita anche dal viso di Alfieri che, attraverso uno sguardo che non è raffigurato ma possiamo immaginare, si proietta fuori dal quadro ed invita lo spettatore a penetrare nell’opera e creare un percorso in prospettiva, circolarità, piani differenti, spazio inglobato e spazio inglobante.

Le forze dei contorni, ben marcati, tolgono omogeneità e, soprattutto, contaminazione tra le parti. La decostruzione non raggiunge il caos ma viene stabilita da regole che dirigono l’impatto visivo. L’occhio si sofferma sull’insieme e poi viene diretto verso singole geometrie. L’alternarsi di numerose linee a volte bloccano la raffigurazione e creano maggiore staticità. Soprattutto la parte inferiore dell’opera, ci dà un senso di pesantezza, fissità, valorizzando l’atto del “legare-bloccare” nonostante le gambe siano dipinte con il tentativo di renderle aperte e dinamiche.

Tra gli assi verticali si notano quelli creati dal rapporto, sulla destra, albero e figura-manichino della carta. I contrasti cromatici sono suddivisi nella parte superiore ed inferiore, ogni piano è orientato da altre relazioni di luci-toni di parti grandi e piccole (peso, massa), opache e luminose. I toni separano il primo dal secondo piano e, nella parte superiore, il lato destro da quello sinistro. Le forme descritte rafforzano la piattezza della tela, rendono

32 Contemporary

venice: exhibitionist city, then and now The location of La Biennale has a precedent

by Veronica Maria WHITE It is always assumed that Venice is the ideal place for a honeymoon. This is a grave error. To live in Venice or even to visit means that you fall in love with the city itself …After your first visit you are destined to return at every possible chance or with every possible excuse. There is no staying away for long. You are inevitably drawn back as though by magic.

Peggy Guggenheim Out of this Century: Confessions of an Art Addict

I

n 1948, Peggy Guggenheim exhibited her collection of avant garde paintings and sculptures at the Venice Biennale. Among the 73 artists featured were Picasso, Ernst, Kandinsky, Pollock and Rothko. The show was revolutionary in its presentation of Cubist, Surrealist and Abstract works to the general European public, as well as to contemporary Italian artists. Soon after the show, Peggy settled in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, where from 1951 onward her collection opened its doors to visitors. The heiress’ choice of Venice as a home and showcase for her works is significant, for she had already experienced the contemporary art scene in Paris, London and New York. Located in a Renaissance palazzo on the Grand Canal, the Peggy Guggenheim collection in fact highlights Venice’s dual identity as a historic maritime city and a protagonist in artistic innovation.

Venice, also named La Serenissima (the most serene), dominated the Mediterranean as a center of commercial and cultural trade from the Middle Ages into the 17th century. The city’s From the top: Claude Monet. The Doge’s Palace Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore, 1908. oil on canvas. 25 3/4 x 36 1/2 inches.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. McVeigh, 1959.

Francesco Guardi. The Grand Canal above the Rialto, c. 1780. Oil on canvas, 21 x 33 3/4 inches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, 1871.

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal). Venice: Santa Maria della Salute, 1730. Oil on canvas, 18 3/4 x 31 1/4 inches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, George T. Delacorte Jr. Gift, 1959.

All images this page © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Contemporary

established contact with the east is evidenced by numerous Byzantine style structures, including the Cathedral of San Marco. Construction of the Cathedral was spurred by the arrival of St. Mark’s relics, which were brought from Alexandria to Rialto in 829 and established the Evangelist as the patron saint of Venice. Local artists were subsequently inspired to paint complex narrative cycles from Mark’s life and to decorate the city with leonine imagery honoring his symbol of the winged lion.

It was Venice herself, however, who would prove to be the greatest muse for her native artists. The unique lighting effects found in the floating city inspired Renaissance painters to search for novel pictorial traditions. Giovanni Bellini, for example, was among the earliest adaptors of the oil medium, a technique that eventually replaced tempera as it allowed artists to layer different colors and to paint more spontaneously. Realizing the potential of oil painting, Giorgione tested its effects on canvas, embracing gestural brushstrokes as part of his signature style. Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese all continued this legacy, emerging as leaders of an innovative manner that challenged the Florentine tradition of disegno — with its emphasis on preparatory drawings and crisp contour — and instead focused on color and light as defining characteristics of a composition. In the 18th century, Venetian interest in lighting effects culminated with the shimmering frescoes of Tiepolo, as well as the luminous vedute of Venice by Guardi and Canaletto.

Multi-faceted as it was, the Venetian tradition was consistent in its celebration of radiant light and saturated color, ultimately lay-

top: Peggy guggenheim collection. Photo courtesy peggy guggenheim foundation. below: Olafur Eliasson. Your Split Second House, 2010. venice biennale. photo courtesy dan welldon.

33

34 Contemporary

Fabrizio Plessi.Waterfire, 2001. installation, Palazzo Correr di Venezia.

Left: Il fuoco; right: L’acqua.

ing the groundwork for future generations of painters who would visit Venice and find themselves forever changed in the face of her incandescent vistas. In 1819, for example, Turner was captivated by the lighting effects found in the city’s lagoon and radically altered his style of painting to consider the dematerializing effects of light on form. His advancements served as an example for later Impressionist artists, including Monet, who engaged Venice’s elusive light in his paintings of Santa Maria della Salute and the Doge’s Palace. Whistler’s artistic vision was also permanently altered by his visit to Venice. Moved by his personal discovery of the city in 1879, the American born painter created a series of innovative etchings (which he later donated to the city) as well as nearly one hundred pastels depicting Venice’s quiet calli (streets) and winding canals. What Whistler captured on paper, John Ruskin immortalized in writing in The Stones of Venice (1851-53), an ode to the magical city’s Gothic and Byzantine structures surrounded by water and worn with age.

Despite Venice’s lasting attraction for visitors, the city had experienced a gradual cultural and economic downturn since surrendering to Napoleon in the late 18th century. Recognizing her own decline, Venice organized a national exhibition of painting and sculpture in 1887 that was housed in provisional buildings in the Giardini. The exposition established the foundation for the first Biennale that was inaugurated on April, 30th, 1895. The occasion drew over 200,000 visitors and artists and marked Venice’s renewed identity as a cutting edge center for the visual arts. As the critic Ugo Ojetti wrote: “until now, who ever in Italy spoke or wrote about any type of artistic venture, was tolling a death bell…

All those with hope, met elsewhere in Paris or Munich, Barcelona or Vienna, in London or Zurich…[but] today they are relying on Venice.”

A series of public and private purchases related to the Biennale exhibitions also led to the establishment of the Cà Pesaro Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna in 1902. This forward-looking gallery was host to Boccioni’s first one man show in 1910 – the same year that witnessed Marinetti’s scattering of Futurist leaflets from the clock tower of Piazza San Marco. With its Gothic pinnacles and narrow canals, Venice provided the ideal backdrop for the Futurists’ engagement with and rupture from artistic tradition.

Nearly a century later, artists featured in the Biennale would further explore this paradoxical role of Venice as an emblem of tradition and a locus for innovation. In his 2001 Waterfire, Fab-

Multi-faceted as it was, the Venetian tradition was consistent in its celebration of radiant light and saturated color, ultimately laying the groundwork for future generations of painters who would visit Venice and find themselves forever changed in the face of her incandescent vistas. rizio Plessi, a graduate of Venice’s own Accademia delle Belle Arti, created an ode to the importance of water for the aquatic city. With 15 screens placed in the Museo Correr’s windows facing Piazza San Marco, Plessi’s video installation depicted water metamorphosing into fire, and fire into water. In 2010, the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s Your Split Second House featured three water sprays in a dark room briefly illuminated by strobe lighting.

Striking on their own accord, the flickering flames of Plessi and the kinetic water twists of Eliasson proved spectacular against the larger context of Venice’s historic palazzi and expansive lagoon.

Embracing water and light as vital components of their inventions, these contemporary artists’ exhibitions inevitably engaged with the works of Venetian artists of centuries past.

As part of this year’s 54th Biennale, Paolo Ventura’s works will be featured in the Italian national pavilion. Filled with nostalgia, Ventura’s staged photographs recreate bygone eras of Italian history, and have included snapshots from Venice’s ghetto in the 1940s. Ventura’s work seems a fitting choice for the 150th anniversary of Italy’s festa dell’unità, and should prove especially compelling in the context of the Serenissima – a city that will continue to remind visitors of its artistic heritage while ushering in modern modes of representation and abstraction. n

Contemporary

35

Art, visual vehicle of energy Italian Journal interviews 2011 Venice Biennale Visual Arts Director Bice Curiger

by Laura GIACALONE One of the world’s most important forums for the dissemination and illumination of current developments in international art, La Biennale di Venezia can boast a well-reputed personality at the helm. Appointed Director of the Visual Arts sector for the 54th International Art Exhibition (2011), Bice Curiger (pictured) is an art historian, critic and curator of international exhibitions. Her curatorial activity at Kunsthaus Zurich parallels her important work in the publishing sector. In 1984, she co-founded the prestigious art magazine Parkett, of which she is editor-in-chief.

She has been publishing director of London Tate Gallery’s magazine Tate etc since 2004, and is also the author of various publications and catalogues of contemporary art. Her insight into contemporary art surely adds value to an exhibition that, once again, is bound to consolidate its success.

IJ: The 54th International Art Exhibition is titled “ILLUMInations”, a highly evocative title that seems to emphasize the “epiphanic”, almost supernatural, character of art, as well as the strong legacy of the Age of Enlightenment.

Instinct and reason, intuition and intellectual comprehension: how do they coexist in contemporary art?

BC: La Biennale di Venezia is one of the world’s most important forums for the dissemination and illumination of current developments in international art. The title of the 54th International Art Exhibition, ILLUMInations, literally draws attention to the importance of such endeavours in a globalized world. As the biggest and oldest Biennale, la Biennale di Venezia has always been buoyed by an international spirit, and even more so now in an age in which artists themselves have become multifaceted, discerning migrants and cultural tourists. Questions of identity and heritage have long

been crucial to contemporary art and the intensity of artistic inquiry into these issues is unlikely to diminish in the near future. Art is a seedbed for experimentation with new forms of ‘community’ and for studies in differences and affinities that will serve as models for the future.

The title also suggests a wide range of associations, from Arthur Rimbaud’s wildly poetic ‘Illuminations’ and Walter Benjamin’s ‘Profane Illuminations’ on the surrealist experience to the venerable art of mediaeval illuminated manuscripts and the philosophy of illumination in 12th century Persia. ILLUMInations emphasizes the intuitive insight and the illumination of thought that is fostered by an encounter with art and its ability to sharpen the tools of perception. While the last Biennale ‘Making Worlds’ highlighted constructive creativity, ILLUMInations will focus on the ‘light’ of the illuminating experience, on the epiphanies that come with intercommunicative, intellectual comprehension. The Age of Enlightenment also resonates in ILLUMInations, testifying to the enduring vibrancy of its legacy. Despite the fact that, in recent years, the idealization of enlightened reason and a specific brand of European western scholarly practice have come under fire, we cannot help respecting and even defending their value particularly in regard to the debate on human rights.

IJ: The Exhibition is paralleled by 89 national participations: is it possible to identify any common trait among the different national art expressions?

BC: In organizing a Biennale today, it is vital to bear in mind that contemporary art is characterised by collective tendencies and fragmented identities, by temporary alliances and objects in which the transitory is inscribed – even if they are

cast in bronze. The expansive drive that has propelled art since the 1960s has turned inwards. Art no longer cultivates the pathos of anti-art. Perception is now focused on the foundations of culture and art in order to illuminate semantic conventions from within. On one hand, the artefact has given way to an emphasis on process, while, on the other, the revival of ‘classical’ genres like sculpture, painting, photography and film is motivated by an interest in dissecting their codes and activating their dormant potential. These concerns go hand-in-hand with another aspect that is of great relevance today: art strongly engages and commits its viewers.

IJ: How international artists are connected with the Venice local context?

BC: Many of the works presented at the 54th International Art Exhibition have been created especially for the occasion by such artists as Monica Bonvicini, James Turrell, Nicholas Hlobo, Norma Jean, R.H. Quaytman, Haroon Mirza, Loris Gréaud, Carol Bove, Gelitin, Dayanita Singh, and Christopher Wool, often referring directly to the theme of ILLUMInations. In it works by the Venetian painter Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594) will play a prominent role in establishing an artistic, historical and emotional relationship to the local context. These

Photo by Yves Krol

Photo by Def Image

36 Contemporary

Giorgio Andreotta Calò . Scolpire il Tempo, 2010. bronze. installation with water and wax. variable dimensions. installation view Wilfried Lentz Gallery, Rotterdam. courtesy Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam e ZERO…, Milano

paintings exert a special appeal today with their almost febrile, ecstatic lighting and a near reckless approach to composition that overturns the well-defined, classical order of the Renaissance. Although self-reflection is a defining factor of contemporary art, it rarely moves beyond the territory covered by the history of Modernism. The incorporation of Tintoretto’s work from the 16th century into la Biennale di Venezia transmits unexpected, stimulating signals and casts light on the conventions of the art trade regarding both old and contemporary art. The analogies of interest in this juxtaposition are not formal in nature but rather reinforce the significance of works of art as visual vehicles of energy.

IJ: And how artists from different backgrounds are connected with each other?

BC: The 54th International Art Exhibition should emerge and develop in a process of inspired exchange and mutual stimulation with the artists. We asked four artists (Monika Sosnowska, Franz West, Song Dong and Oscar Tuazon) to create so called “parapavilions” to host other artists’ works. Although ILLUMInations is primarily focused on the presentation of younger artists, an older generation will also be represented, whose vibrant, highly contemporary work deserves to be showcased, for instance Llyn Foulkes (1934), Luigi Ghirri (1943-1992), Jack Goldstein (1945-2003), Gedewon (1939-1995) and Jeanne Natalie Wintsch (1871-1944).

Monica Bonvicini.

Light Me Black, 2009 147 fluorescent lights, white metal fixtures, steel structure, electrical cables, 2 breakers, steel chains. approx. 160 x 550 x 140 cm, height variable. Installation view: Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Bet Your Sweet Life, 2010. left: Giulia Piscitelli.

Molteni, 2010. bleach on cloth. 358 x 130 cm Courtesy galleria Fonti, Napoli.

IJ: In this age of global crisis, can art be a vehicle to meet the challenges of the present time, and bring new “illuminations” to the world?

BC: Art is a highly self-reflexive terrain that cultivates a lucid take on the outside world. The communicative aspect is crucial to the ideas underlying ILLUMInazioni, as demonstrated in art that often declares and seeks closeness to the vibrancy of life. This is more important now than ever before, in an age when our sense of reality is profoundly challenged by virtual and simulated worlds. n

Contemporary 37

Many institutions, few artists The business of contemporary art in Italy

by Salvatore Cominu and Walter Santagata

A

s in all worlds of art and culture, even in contemporary art there are two conflicting policies at work: conservation and production of new works of art. Whereas conservation means to safeguard the historical heritage of a country, its most immediate expression being the “museum-ization ” of art, i.e. the entrusting of art to the sacredness of a museum, production means to create new works of art. Conservation is a backward-looking policy dealing with the preservation of the past; production is instead a forwardlooking policy interested in the future and in the development of new works of art. Conservation relies on legal and institutional instruments, such as regulations and laws, whereas production is a policy consisting of many different steps: selection of artists, creation and production of works of art, distribution, modes of consumption.

In Italy, over the last few decades, there has been a momentous shift towards conservation policies, to the detriment of cultural production. This imbalance has also affected contemporary art.

To simplify matters, one can say that we have moved from a scene populated by many artists and few contemporary art institutions to one characterized by the presence of a multitude of institutions and public agencies dedicated to the arts. This is particularly evident today, so much so that there seems to be few young, internationally acclaimed Italian artists around, but a lot of new contemporary art museums, new bank foundations and new private foundations operating in the art field.

It looks like a sort of paradoxical, perverse cycle, where the production capacity is opposed to the institutional capacity of conservation and production. Policies are made to achieve specific goals, of course. Therefore, if production were

clearly set as a national priority, it would be possible to achieve excellent results.

In this sense, in order to have a policy aimed at promoting contemporary art, it is necessary to have a clear idea of the initial settings. In this respect, Turin is a good, emblematic example of the overall Italian context. Due to “historical” factors (relevance of recent art movements, presence of great collectors, intellectual climate, etc) and to the investments made earlier than in other major Italian cities, Turin has always played a leading role in the domestic contemporary art scene, and it is still a good observation point for examining, on a small scale, and in an almost experimental environment, the major trends emerging on a national level. The following comments, although based on the observation of a specific urban area, can therefore be extended to the whole country.

In the last 15 or 20 years, the Turinese (and Italian) system has gone through a profound change. Until the 80s, getting into the art field depended on the local relationship between artists, gallery directors, curators and collectors: it was possible “to conquer the world” starting from proximity relationships. However, the changes occurred on a global scale in the last two decades have deeply affected the local art scene.

First of all, the range of actions performed by the various players has changed. In the ten or fifteen years before the 2008 crisis, global changes have caused a concentration of functions in the world capitals of contemporary art.

The market is increasingly influenced by the trends set by international exhibitions and by the preferences of a closed group of cultural intermediaries of world fame. Collectors mainly turn to major exhibitions and internationally reputed galleries. Conversely, gallery directors have

Michelangelo Pistoletto. the Mirror of judgement, 2011.

Installation view, Serpentine Gallery, London. © 2011 Sebastiano Pellion

long been operating in a mixed market, domestic and foreign. Even artists (as well as curators and critics), in most cases, have an international education.

Contrary to what happened with the international avant-gardes of the 20th century, an internationally shared understanding of the arts no longer exists. In this context, the market is increasingly driven by marketing and networking activities.

Along with the art galleries, in Italy there is a second circuit promoted or supported by almost exclusively public funds or bank foundations. Collective exhibitions, Biennials, local initiatives seem to be created with the aim of compensating for the difficulty of promoting new artists. Practices of self-organization and independent art centers are not adequately developed in Italy (even though there are a few cases of independent organizations, such as Via Farini and Care of in Milan and Diogene in Turin).

The last two decades have been characterized by strong institutional investments in structures dedicated to contemporary art, according to an urban marketing perspective. Turin was the first city to devote huge resources to implement and renovate museums and exhibition centers. The most renowned is the Castle of Rivoli, the first contemporary art museum in Italy, which has been recognized as a UNESCO World

38 Contemporary

The last two decades have been characterized by strong institutional investments in structures dedicated to contemporary art, according to an urban marketing perspective.

Heritage Site since 1997. The Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery, the oldest civic museum in Italy, collects over 45,000 works. Among the most important institutions, there are two private foundations: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, set up in Turin in 2002, and Fondazione Merz, founded in 2005, which holds the collection of works by Mario Merz. In 2008, the PAV Living Art Park, an exhibition center dedicated to art, nature and biotechnologies, was also created. Outside Turin, another important institution is Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, promoted by Michelangelo Pistoletto, and based in Biella. The program of activities that Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino is going to promote in the next few years also includes Officine Grandi Riparazioni delle Ferrovie dello Stato (Carriage Repair Workshop), a multipurpose cultural center. Another international crucial institution in Turin is Fiera Artissima, which is now in its 17th edition. Since 1999, this exhibition has increasingly focused on contemporary art, so much so that it is currently rated among the most important international art exhibitions, excluding the unparalleled Art Basel and Frieze Art Fair. There is also a number of important public art initiatives promoted by local administrations, such as Luci di Artista, an exhibition set up in 1998, and the project Works for the City Rail Link, an open-air collection exploring the great urban changes occurring in the city. Along with these exhibitions, the New Commitments project, promoted by a.Titolo Association, is part of a suburban renovation program, while the MAU Urban Art Museum focuses on art as a factor of urban regeneration in a working-class neighborhood. In this respect, Turin was a forerunner, but in the last ten years the exhibition centers dedi-

cated to contemporary art have spread all over the country: the MAXXI Museum in Rome, designed by Zaha Hadid, and the new project for a contemporary art museum in Milan by Daniel Libeskind are bound to change the hierarchies in a scene dominated by other important centers, such the museums of Rovereto (Mart), Bolzano (Ar/ge Kunst) and Naples (Madre, currently in serious financial straits).

In spite of this seeming dynamic scenario, compared with the 60s and 70s, Italy can boast fewer internationally acclaimed artists today. Whereas in the 20th Century there was a large number of acknowledged names, such as Fontana, Burri, Manzoni, the Arte Povera group (Pistoletto, Merz, Boetti, Penone, etc) and the Transavantgarde, which were appreciated and courted by museum directors and great collectors from all over the world, today the international classifications made by “Kunstkompass”, “Cream 3” or “Art Now” point out a marginal presence of Italian artists in the contemporary art scene, with the sole exception of Maurizio Cattelan, Monica Bonvicini, Vanessa Beecroft and a few others. This does not mean that the art scene is stagnant. Artists such as Christian Frosi, Diego Perrone, Roberto Cuoghi, Masbedo, Patrick Tuttofuoco and others are starting to achieve international recognition. In Turin, Lara Favaretto, Marzia Migliora, Monica Carocci, the Botto & Bruno duo, Luisa Rabbia, Elisa Sighicelli, Paolo Grassino, have gained a certain notoriety, not only in local contexts. The problem of the new Italian art lies in specific faults of the Italian system and in the absence of an institutional setting able to support national productions. The phenomenon of collections funded by private companies is marginal, because Italian entrepreneurs

are not very willing to invest in cultural projects, although a new typology of collectors – former bank foundations – have gained an important role in the art field: in Turin, the CRT Foundation has its own collection of modern and contemporary art, which is entrusted to the two contemporary art museums of the city on a loan-per-use basis.

It is still too early to get a picture of the Italian art of the first decade of the 21st century, but it is nevertheless possible to state that, compared with the previous years, there is a greater presence of institutions and a fewer number of prominent artists. These observations are particularly interesting in a phase of reduction in the public resources devoted to the cultural sector, both on a national and local level, also due to the serious financial difficulties of many local administrations. Such being the case, there are different perspectives of policy emerging from this context. In a first scenario, institutions, despite themselves, would no longer be supporting the art production (due to the lack of “raw material” or by choice), focusing on key projects that allow them to keep playing a notable role.

In this case, the risk is that most of the “cultural workshops” remain public. A second scenario implies a change in the perspective and a more balanced provision of funding for the production of art.

This strategy should be based on three pillars. First, it should promote the internationalization of the art scene, fostering the participation in events, exhibitions, international networks and creating opportunities for meeting. Secondly, it should support self-organized, non-profit spaces, which in the last few years seem to have become more numerous. Lastly, it should support quality-training projects able to favor a better integration in the international art scene. n

Contemporary 39

Vogue patronage Italy’s fashion houses are emerging as contemporary art patrons

by Laura GIACALONE

Besides their worldwide renown for setting the trends of cutting-edge styles, Italian fashion designers have now established themselves as the modern patrons of contemporary art, being the most active supporters of avant-garde art projects and drawing on works of art for inspiration. In the last few

years, many initiatives launched by top luxury brands of fashion have contributed to introduce a new generation of Italian artists to the international scene.

Continued

rotor. ex limbo, 2011. Installation view. courtesy rotor and Giacamo Puccini. Courtesy Puccini Foundation. fondazione prada.

Photo: Ivan Mattioli

40 Contemporary

Clockwise from top left: Matteo Rubbi. Domenica (Ingresso), 2011. Printed fabric in three pieces. 204.7 x 153.5 inches. Courtesy Fondazione Furla.

Christian Boltanski. Pleure qui peut, rit qui veut for 8.Premio Furla, 2011. Courtesy Fondazione Furla.

Ra di Martino. If You See the Object, the Object Sees You, 2010. HD Video, 4’. Courtesy Fondazione Furla. rotor. ex limbo, 2011. Installation view. courtesy rotor and fondazione prada.

Contemporary 41

The role held by wealthy families in the Renaissance now seems to be played by an increasing number of foundations established by top fashion brands

It is enough to recall, among the others, the Furla Art Award, set up in 2000 with the aim of supporting young, talented artists by giving them the opportunity to showcase their work. The artists selected in each edition are called to express themselves in a multiplicity of languages, from videos to photography, painting, installations, performances and sculpture.

In addition to the opportunity to study and work abroad in an artist’s residency program, the winner of the competition – the latest being Matteo Rubbi with his “Viaggio in Italia” – is invited to create a work funded by Fondazione Furla and destined for public exhibition thanks to a special agreement with MAMbo, the Museum of Modern Art of Bologna.

The winning project is also given the opportunity to premiere at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice on the occasion of the Biennale of Visual Arts.

The role held by wealthy families in the Renaissance now seems to be played by an increasing number of foundations established by top fashion houses, such as Cartier, Prada, Fendi and Trussardi, which today sponsor important public works of art. Fondazione Prada, for instance, is actively involved in the renovation of the Venetian Baroque palazzo Ca’ Corner della Regina, which is set to become an important new landmark in Venice’s cultural landscape.

The relationship between art and fashion is however one of mutual exchange, because, while fashion brands help new artists emerge, artists actively contribute to the designers’ creations, and often become part of their staggering and catchy advertisements. That is the case of Ottonella Mocellin, a finalist for the 2002 Furla Art Award, who has recently been selected as the protagonist of Furla’s 2011 Spring/Summer collection launch campaign, which portrays a traveling woman on a journey towards independence.

The phenomenon of artists lending

their name and talent to fashion is not new: during the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli; in the 1930s, futurist painter Lucio Venna drafted sketches for the advertisement of Ferragamo’s shoes. Gianni Versace used to commission works of art from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Liechtenstein for the launches of his collections. More recently, celebrated Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto has signed a limited-edition collection of Furla’s shopping bags in support of “Love Difference”, an association aimed at encouraging the cohabitation between different cultures in the Mediterranean countries, thus acknowledging the role of art in the production of objects undertaking social responsibilities.

Rotor. Ex Limbo, 2011. Embossed sheets covered with pink paint on one side. courtesy rotor and fondazione prada.

Another interesting side of the fruitful relationship between fashion and art has recently been explored by the Brussels-based Rotor collective. In their “Ex limbo” project, exhibited at Fondazione Prada in Milan from April to June 2011, they used the architectural and scenic elements of Prada’s fashion shows to bring forth the “remnants” of a world that, after a moment of meaningful splendor, is discarded and left in a state of limbo, inviting the viewers to cast a second look at the “forgotten”. The result is a labyrinth of elements that bear witness, simultaneously, to the amount of work involved in producing each fashion show, and to the silent existence of its materialization beyond the event.

The connection between artists and fashion brands is bound to become even tighter in the next few years, contributing to enhance the industrialization of both sectors. A new generation of artists will therefore be facing new challenges and new opportunities for growth and visibility. After all, as Sir Peter Ustinov once said, “if Botticelli were alive today, he’d be working for Vogue”.n

42 advertisement

Discover the charm of pescasseroli

www.villamonrepos.it

literature

43

what grows in warravaged soil

by Laura GIACALONE Twice Born

by Margaret Mazzantini (2011, Viking Press)

R

eading Twice Born is like taking a journey that, once started, has no turning back. It is something to be experienced, more than just read. It slowly sinks into your heart and, page by page, leaves you completely helpless, defenceless, as after a storm of mixed emotions.

It is like being revealed the unspoken truth of human condition, with its eternal carousel of joy and sorrow, and turning it into a personal memory. So much so that, once you have finished the book, you can’t help but look around for your fellow travellers – Diego, Gemma, Pietro, Aska, Gojko – as if they were there, flesh and blood, still breathing the dust of war.

The fifth novel by Italian bestselling author Margaret Mazzantini, the second (after Don’t Move) to be translated into English, Twice Born challenges the traditional genre categorization, being a historical-political novel that brings us back to an almost forgotten chapter in our recent history – the siege of Sarajevo (19921996), during the Bosnian war – but also a powerful romance, centered around the compelling love story between the down-to-earth, resolute Gemma and the scruffy young photographer Diego. It is a story of loss and redemption, of motherhood and birth, of love and despair, which won’t be easy to forget.

After a call from Gojko, a long-lost friend from Sarajevo, Gemma, an Italian woman on her early 50s, boards on a flight from her native Rome to the warscarred city where, 24 years before, she met Diego, the love of her life. On her side there is Pietro, her 16-year old son, who reluctantly accepts to be taken on

a memory trip on the trace to dead father he has never known. Led by Gojko, a rough, kind-hearted Bosnian poet and tourist guide, the two of them go through the wounded landscape of Sarajevo, entering the scene of a great collective tragedy, which holds a captivating secret that concerns them both.

Jumping backwards and forwards in time and place, Margaret Mazzantini masterfully weaves past and present, moving from the lively alleys of Genoa, Diego’s native city, to the quiet chaos of Rome, from the pre-war fascinating landscape and cultural vitality of Sarajevo to the devastation produced by a fratricidal bloodshed. As the narrative goes on, and all events rush toward an unexpected climax, Gemma relives her stormy love affair with Diego, their efforts to cope with the painful evidence of her own infertility, the long ordeal of treatments and testing, adoption and surrogacy attempts, which eventually seem to tear them apart.

While the story unravels, slowly but inexorably, the common destiny that binds all characters to Sarajevo is revealed and the maze of individual stories converges into the tragic, yet hopeful, history of a people.

All characters, and their intricate relationships, are superbly, almost cinematically, portrayed: the passionate, ambiguous friendship between Gemma, Diego and Gojko brings to mind the pure, bohemian relationship between Jules, Jim and Catherine in François Truffaut’s 1962 masterpiece, as frozen in the beautiful, iconic image of the three of them racing along a bridge.

It is no surprise that the book, which won the prestigious Premio Campiello and was a blockbuster success in Italy (selling over 800,000 copies, with rights sold in 15 other countries), will soon become a feature film, directed by Mazzantini’s husband Sergio Castellitto and starring, according to the latest reports, Emile Hirsch and Penelope Cruz.

There is a sort of duplicity, a painful richness of nuances even in the minor characters, which makes it difficult to frame them into preconceived representations. Just like the ex-Yugoslavian territory, all figures are in fact inwardly torn by opposing forces and feelings: through the lens of his camera, Diego powerfully embraces life, but is nevertheless devoured by his own passion; and Gemma, since the beginning of the story, struggles between “a benign life without highs and lows, without sorrows, without desires” and “another life that was bolder and more casual”; Pietro, for his part, with the rebel impatience of his youth and the secret story of how he came to life, embodies the contradictions of all human conflicts, proving that hatred and sorrow can still surrender to love and re-birth.

Because, as the Genoese poet and songwriter Fabrizio De André sang, “Nothing grows out of precious diamonds. Out of dung, the flowers do grow”. n

44 photography

Giacamo Puccini. Courtesy Puccini Foundation.

light on ...

Rome

photography

photography by Mauro Benedetti

Dawn’s rays upon the Roman Forum illuminate a collage of the ages, ancient, baroque, Renaissance and modern.

45

46 Social journal

Social Journal Arriverderci, Francesco Talò Minister Francesco Talò was fêted the evening before his departure for Italy one final time with 40 friends, including leaders of the Italian and Italian American communities. The reception was held at Hudson Cliff House, residence of Mr. & Mrs. Stefano Acunto.

Minister Talò

Ms. L Airos, of i-Italy; Dott. Strano, Dott. Paradiso; Dr. Bilha Chesner Fish, M.D., member of the IAF Board, Loyse Paradiso

1

Hon. Mike Spano, member of Assembly New York State; Dr. Caren Heller, M.D.; Dr. Fabrizio Michelassi, M.D.; Dott. Riccardo Strano, Director of ENIT; Francesco and Ornella Talò; Dott. Berardo Paradiso, President of IACE and Mr. Acunto

3

Mr. Acunto; Mrs. Marco Alberti, Carole Acunto, Ornella and Francesco Talò, Vice Consul Marco Alberti, Dott. Lucio Caputo, Chairman of GEI Mr. Acunto presents a proclamation from New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo to Consul General Talò

Ms. Helen Fioratti, Dott. Paradiso, Cav. Carl Morelli.

2

7

Minister Talò with Carl Morelli, President of the U.S. Chapter of the Savoy Orders 6

4

7

Baritone Lawrence Harris, entertains with arias from the opera and Broadway

8

Social journal

47

Social Journal John Cabot University Student Center Opening The John Cabot University Marc and Peggy Siegel Student Center was officially dedicated on October 3rd, 2011 at a gala party held on the University’s campus to mark the opening.

2

1

3

4

5

9

7

83

10

11

1. JCU Chairman Joseph Hagan 2. The Plaque 3. Mrs. Peggy Spiegel with Hon. Frank 6 Guarini 4.Former Ambassador Frederic Vreeland, Trustee; Mrs. Spiegel; Mrs. Vreeland; Mrs. Pat Hagan, wife of the chairman of the JCU Board; Hon. Frank Guarini 5. Mrs. Spiegel and Mrs. Pavoncello 6. President Pavoncello welcomes guests.

7. JCU Trustees John Dunlap and Hon. Judge William Martini.

8. Hon. Guarini with Ms. Vivian Cardia and Mrs. Siegel 9. JCU administrator Jacqueline Maggi with Trustee Sal Davino 10. Trustee Barbara Ciongoli; JCU Administrative Director Jacqueline Maggi; Claudia Acunto 11. Tom Pecora with Dr. and Mrs. Franco Pavoncello,

48 Social journal

Social Journal Perugia International Film Festival Preview The Italian Academy Foundation assisted in forming the Perugia-Hampton Film Festival cooperative effort, and attended the Perugia Film Festival launch in October.

2 1

4

3

1. Oscar-winning costume designer James Acheson; Claudia Palmira Acunto; Kim Brizzolara, Hamptons Film Festival director, and Stefano Acunto. 2. David Nugent, Perugia International Film Festival (PIFF); Mark Ankner of WME; Emanuele Rossi, President of PIFF; Claudia Palmira Acunto; Karen Arikian, Artistic Director PIFF; Stefano Acunto; Francesca Romana Degl’Innocenti.

3. Jennifern Ahn, Managing Director The Martin Scorsese Film Foundation, Rajendra Roy, Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of the Department of Film MoMA. 4. The Perugia International Film Festival officially launches at the Sala dei Notari, Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia.

4

Social journal

49

Social Journal Radicati paintings on display in Rome Together with the launch of his new book 11 settembre – io C’ero, a show of art works of Giorgio Radicati appear at the prestigious Studio S Gallary near Piazza del Popolo in Rome

1

1. Studio S Gallery (Rome) owner Carmine Siniscalco, Giorgio Radicati, Anna La Bella, Genny Di Bert and Stefano Acunto. 2.

Publisher Gino Iacobelli with Genny Di Bert. 3. A gift from the New York Fire Department to Giorgio Radicati, a helmet worn by a firefighter during the World Trade Center tragedy. 4. One of the Radicati’s mixed media works commemorating the 9/11 disaster.

IAF and ARPA 2

3

4

IAF Chairman met withDott. Franco Mosca in Pisa to further the relationship between his Fondazione ARPA and the IAF. The Italian Academy Foundation and the ARPA Fondazione will collaborate in two medical / media projects in 2012.

50 face file

face file

violante Placido

by Amanda K. Romero

I

love actresses that change a lot, that search always for something new, and try not to stay caught up in just one kind of character,” said Violante Placido in an interview with British radio The Guardian. The eye-catching Roman-born actress, singer and songwriter has certainly lived up to her own ideal.

The daughter of actor and director Michele Placido and actress Simonetta Stefanelli (who is best known for her role in The Godfather), Violante has followed her parent’s starry tracks.

“When I went on stage for the first time, I felt as if I had met my first love,” she has said.

Her passion is evident in her performing. Having made a splash on the international film scene in 2009 alongside George Clooney in The American, Placido appears in another American movie in February 2012 – Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, with Nicholas Cage. She is currently in Italy on the set with her father, who is directing the film Il cecchino (The Sniper), scheduled to be released in Spring 2012.

This past year, her performance in Giovanni Veronesi’s Che Ne Sarà di Noi (What Will Become of Us) won her a nomination for Best Actress in Italy’s equivalent of the Oscars, the David di Donatello Awards.

The 35-year-old beauty started her career as a teenager when she appeared in Quattro Bravi Ragazzi (Four Good Guys). Her next appearance was in Jack Frusciante è Uscito dal Gruppo (Jack

spin on her work with the help of an artistic producer.

In her best-known international role to date, Placido played

“when I went on stage for the first time I felt as if I were at my first love.”

- Violante Placido Frusciante Left the Group). But it wasn’t until in 2002 where she received international recognition for the twisted comedy L’Anima Gemella (Soul Mate).

Despite her lifelong love of acting, prior to being chosen for this role after a series, Placido recalls, she had considered quitting acting. But the gifted actress went on to receive the Wella Prize for the film, which was shared with co-star Valentina Cervi. In 2009, Placido also starred as Kate in the Indian comedy-drama Barah Anna, which was internationally well received as well.

Perhaps Placido reconsidered her career choice because of her passion for singing. “I have never studied music, but I write the music and lyrics of my songs,” says Placido. “The melody comes to me, and I go with it.” In 2006, the modest singer, songwriter and guitarist released her debut album Don’t Be Shy with songs mostly sung in English. “If I’m acting, when I’m on set or in hotels, I’ll always bring my guitar, so I get a chance to write my songs as well. It’s good to alternate for me.”

She is working on a second album, hoping to put a different

the seductive Clara in The American (2010), shot in Pescara (Abruzzo, Italy), a place she calls her second home. Among the thousands of hopeful Italian actresses that lined up for the role, Placido prevailed – she claims it was an improvisation she performed during her audition, when the actress, who had lived in Pescara for a couple months, took a risk and broke out into hard Pescarase dialect, including some off-color idioms.

In an interview, Placido discussed her excitement in receiving the role, as well as working with director Anton Corbijn and American actor George Clooney.

“I loved [Anton’s] background of rock and photography because music is another passion I have,” said Placido. “And then George Clooney as well, who is such a great actor and director. This had huge appeal for me. Once I was chosen, I was very, very happy and I felt very lucky.”

She’s worked with Italian, American, Dutch and Indian actors and directors thus far. Placido is se to become internationally known for her talents – and it seems the world is ready for her. n

Subscribe to the

Italian Journal email: subscribe@italianjournal.it mail: Italian Journal

P.O. Box 9001 Mount Vernon, NY 10552 or online at

www.italianacademyfoundation.org Four issues per year 50 dollars.

Tax deductible contribution to The Italian Academy Foundation, Inc.

52 Strapline