ROOTS. Memory,
identity and change in the art of today
Curated by Eugenio Viola
Marina Abramović, Jota Castro, Sam Durant, Regina Josè
Galindo, Carlos Garaicoa, Alfredo Jaar, Mariangela Levita, Moataz Nasr, Giulia
Piscitelli, Bert Rodriguez, Santiago Sierra.
Castelbasso (TE)
Malvina Menegaz Foundation for Arts and Cultures
De Sanctis Palace
30 June – 2 September
2012
“RADICI”, that means roots, is an exhibition that stems from the place
it has been conceived for, De Sanctis Palace, placed in the heart of
Castelbasso. This project fully symbolizes the sense of the commitment that the
Foundation supports: the rediscovery of Castelbasso’s roots thanks to its
architectural, social and cultural recovery, in order to to put them in
relation with its inhabitants and institutional actors.
Roots, in botany, are in the underground and their function is to
sustain and feed plants. By extension, the term suggests the origin of
something, its beginning and, at the same time, its cause, hence the
expressions “to go to the root of a problem”, or “to go to the rediscovery of
one’s own roots”, that is, of one’s own origins. The metaphor of the roots can be found in all
the occidental philosophy, from Empedocle to Deleuze and Guattari. The first of
them defines ριζώματα (root stock),
"roots" of everything, air, water, earth and fire, the four “
immutable and eternal” elements that create reality and give it stability. In a
radically modified context, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari oppose the root
stock conception of the thought with that of the traditional philosophy, which
proceeds in a hierarchical and linear way, following rigid and binary
categories.
The root stock thought, on the contrary, can establish productive
connections in every direction, outlining “ a system which is not centralized,
hierarchical and significative […], but it is uniquely defined by a circulation
of states”, expression of a linking thought that suggests new hypotheses of
connection among elements, phenomena and data.
A system that is forcefully found in our modern, media and globalised
society.
Today the image that could be immediately associated to the root stock
is undoubtedly that of the network. More and more frequently there is a lot of
talk about the network society to show how horizontal connection could develop
thanks to new technologies, at the expense of hierarchical organizations, which
were necessary, in the past, beyond a certain threshold of complexity.
In the exhibition “RADICI” the tradition with its values, the cultural
background that it witnesses and the past which represents, become fundamental
inside a visual narration that interacts with the present.
Marina Abramović, Jota Castro, Sam Durant, Regina Josè Galindo, Carlos
Garaicoa, Alfredo Jaar, Mariangela Levita, Moataz Nasr, Giulia Piscitelli, Bert
Rodriguez, Santiago Sierra are artists with different sensitivity and research,
interpreters of topical issues and their changes, whose work is the
understanding of the reality and its most significative cruxes, tearing grief
and contradictions.
“RADICI” – says Eugenio Viola – investigates contemporaneity and its
onerous background of social, cultural, political changes. It explores the
richness of culture and the sense of history underlying the change of the value
system, the attachment or uprooting from the territory, the erosion of inheritance,
and, sometimes, the following cultural isolation. Radici presents works of
artists coming from different backgrounds and with the unusual capacity to be
linked to our present; their work go beyond the stereotyped representation of
nostalgia and folklore: it is an attempt
to juxtapose a visual and a cultural experience, between the past and the
present, which invokes, at the same time, the sense of memory, identity and
change.
“RADICI. Memoria,
Identità e Cambiamento nell’arte di oggi”
curated by di Eugenio
Viola
Castelbasso (TE) De
Sanctis Palace
30 June – 2 September 2012. Preview by invitation on Friday 29 June at
19 o’clock
Promoted by Malvina Menegaz Foundation for Arts and Cultures
Under the patronage
of: Regione Abruzzo, Provincia di Teramo, Comune di Castellalto, Comune di
Civitella del Tronto, Consorzio dei Comuni del BIM, Camera di Commercio di
Teramo, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Teramo
Organisation: Malvina Menegaz Foundation for Arts and Cultures
Opening times: everyday from19 to 24, except Mondays
Information tel. 0861 508000 www.fondazionemenegaz.it
Eugenio Viola is an art critic and independent curator. From 2009 to
2012 he was the Project Room Curator at Madre (Donnaregina Contemporary Art
Museum) of Naples. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Salerno. Scholar
of theories and experiences related with performances and bodily poetics, he
published several essays about this topic such as: “Post Human vs Neo-Barocco”
(Ed.Electa, Napoli, Milan, 2009); “Itinerari del Post-Human” (Ed.Modo, Milan,
2005) and he edited the monograph dedicated to Orlan (Ed.Charta, Milan 2007).
He collaborates permanently with “Flash Art” (Italy), “artforum.com” (U.S.A.)
and “Exit Express” (Spain). He is member of the IKT (International Association
of Curators of Contemporary Art) and of different prices and judges. He curated
several catalogues and exhibition in Italy and abroad such as: Marina
Abramović. The Abramović Method, PAC (Contemporary Art Pavilion), Milan, 2012;
Transit, (Madre Museum, Naples / Townhouse, Cairo / PiST, Istanbul / CCA, Tel
Aviv / State Museum, Thessaloniki), 2009-2011; Corpus. Art in Action, festival
presenting, among others, site specific performances of: Ron Athey, Lee Adams,
Kira O’Reilly, Tobias Benrstrup, Jamie Shovlin and Lustfaust, Milica Tomic,
Tania Bruguera, Regina Josè Galindo, Teresa Margolles, Maria Josè Arjona,
Davide Balliano, Luigi Precisse, Crstian Chironi, Jacopo Miliani, Filippo Berta
(Madre Museum, Naples, 2009-2012); Francesco Jodice – Babel (Museum of
Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 2011); Orlan: Le Rècit (Musée d'Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne
Métropole, France, 2007); V.I.P. / Very Important Portraits of David LaChapelle
(Capodimonte Museum, Naples, 2006).
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