MONOPOLI .- ITALICS is the first consortium in Italy to bring together over sixty of the most authoritative galleries of ancient, modern and contemporary art throughout Italy. From Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 September 2022 in Monopoli (Bari), it is presenting the second edition of the city-wide exhibition “Panorama”, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis, Director, Fairs and Exhibition Platforms of Art Basel and Curator and Associate Director of Programs, Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
“Panorama”, the special story that ITALICS dedicates periodically to some of the most extraordinary places in the Italian landscape, launched its first edition last year on the wonderful island of Procida, offering a new itinerary of ancient and contemporary art and architecture, accompanied by a schedule of informative side events, performances and special projects open to the public.
The exhibition itinerary encompasses the ancient historic center of the Adriatic town and entails twenty exhibition venues, including palaces, churches, piazzas, and votive aedicules hidden in alleyways and lanes. It will host 70 works ranging from the 15th century to today and includes 7 performance pieces, created by 60 international artists of different nationalities and from different eras and generations: Mario Airò (Pavia, Italy, 1961), Francesco Arena (Torre Santa Susanna, Brindisi, Italy, 1978), Stefano Arienti (Asola, Mantua, Italy, 1961), Gianfranco Baruchello (Livorno, Italy, 1924), Luca Bertolo (Milan, Italy, 1968), Paolo Bini (Battipaglia, Salerno, Italy, 1984), Alighiero Boetti (Turin, Italy, 1940 – Rome, Italy, 1994), Pier Paolo Calzolari (Bologna, Italy, 1943), Duilio Cambellotti (Rome, Italy, 1876 – 1960), Mariana Castillo Deball (Mexico City, Mexico, 1975), Adelaide Cioni (Bologna, Italy, 1976), Pietro Consagra (Mazara del Vallo, Trapani, 1920 – Milan, Italy, 2005), Maria Adele Del Vecchio (Caserta, Italy, 1976), Gaia Di Lorenzo (Rome, Italy, 1991), Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg (Lysekil, Sweden, 1978 / Rättvik, Sweden, 1978), Mimosa Echard (Alès, France, 1986), Sam Falls (San Diego, CA, United States, 1984), Matteo Fato (Pescara, Italy, 1979), Cesare Fracanzano (Bisceglie, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Italy, 1605 – Barletta, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Italia, 1651), Massimo Grimaldi (Taranto, Italy, 1974), Edi Hila (Shkodra, Albania, 1944), Judith Hopf (Karlsruhe, Germany, 1969), Adelita Husni-Bey (Milan, Italy, 1985), Alfredo Jaar (Santiago del Chile, Chile, 1956), Ann Veronica Janssens (Folkestone, United Kingdom, 1956), Runo Lagomarsino (Lund, Sweden, 1977), Giovanni Lanfranco (Parma, Italy, 1582 – Rome, Italy, 1647), Francesco Laurana e Nicola Samorì (Vrana, Croatia, 1430 – Avignon, France, 1502 / Forlì, 1977), Jieun Lim (Seoul, South Korea, 1983), Lorenzo Lippi (Florence, Italy, 1606 – 1665), Carlo Manieri (Taranto, Italy, 1633 – Rome, Italy, 1702), Franca Maranò (Bari, Italy, 1920 – Bari, Italy, 2015), Richard Marquis & Johanna Nitzke Marquis (Bumble Bee, AZ, United States, 1945 / Northern Wisconsin, WI, United States, 1947), Mario Merz (Milan, Italy, 1925 – 2003), Marisa Merz (Turin, Italy, 1926 – 2019), Luzie Meyer (Tübingen, Germany, 1990), Diego Miguel Mirabella (Enna, Italy, 1988), François Morellet (Cholet, France, 1926 – 2016), Valerio Nicolai (Gorizia, Italy, 1988), Alessandro Piangiamore (Enna, Italy, 1976), Michelangelo Pistoletto (Biella, Italy, 1933), Gianni Politi (Rome, Italy,1986), Nathlie Provosty (Cincinnati, OH, United States, 1981), Giangiacomo Rossetti (Milan, Italy, 1989), Medardo Rosso (Turin, Italy, 1858 – Milan, Italy, 1928), Mimmo Rotella (Catanzaro, Italy, 1918 – Milan, Italy, 2006), Antonio Sanfilippo (Partanna, Trapani, Italy, 1923 – Rome, Italy, 1980), Alberto Savinio (Athens, Greece, 1891 – Rome, Italy, 1952), Aviva Silverman (New York, NY, United States, 1986), Carl-August-Wilhelm Sommer (Coburg, Germany, 1839 – 1921), Eugenio Tibaldi (Alba, Cuneo, Italy, 1977), Patrick Tuttofuoco (Milan, Italy, 1974), Massimo Vitali (Como, Italy, 1944), Luca Vitone (Genoa, Italy, 1964), Stanley Whitney (Philadelphia, PA, United States, 1946), Antonio Zanchi (Padua, Italy, 1631 – Venice, Italy, 1722).
As with the previous edition, this year ITALICS also has two special projects: an exhibition celebrating the award of the Italics d'Oro, honoring the career of an artist so fundamental to the local area – Lisetta Carmi (Genoa, 1924 - Cisternino (BA), 2022); and an invitation to the artist Francesco Arena to dream up symbols that will be seen in the multi-site exhibition and on its visitors even after this experience is over.
After the first presentation on the occasion of “Panorama Procida” celebrating Daniel Buren and his close connection with the island, the Italics d'Oro is back: on Thursday 1 September 2022, the award will honor the memory of Lisetta Carmi's extraordinary artistic and life experience and be presented to Gianni Martini, as President of the Lisetta Carmi Estate and Archive. Lisetta Carmi's work will feature in an exhibition developed in conjunction with the international photography and art festival PhEST – See Beyond the Sea, which includes a selection of previously unseen photos taken in 1960 between Puglia and Basilicata and will remain open to the public for the duration of the festival, from 9 September to 1 November 2022.
The project “Panorama Monopoli” is conceived as a vast choral event inspired by the Greek concept of xenia. Each of the selected works will contribute by offering multiple interpretations of universal themes that, from the 15th century to today, have been drivers of creativity for artists from different eras, and have engaged human minds for about seven centuries.
For the Greeks, the term xenia summed up the meaning of hospitality and the relationship with the foreigner, governed by basic rules of behavior, such as the custom of paying homage to the guest with a “farewell gift” to testify that he had enjoyed his visit. In a sense, xenia is a form of ritualized friendship based on reciprocity.
The concept is related to that of the foreigner, from xenos, and the history of Monopoli, similar to many other cities on the Adriatic coast, crossroads of exchanges, interests, peoples and trade. The Egnatini (from the Messapian center of nearby Egnatia), the Byzantines, Bretons, Arabs, Spaniards, and Venetians all contributed in various ways to making the city’s culture a true polychrome mosaic but, at the same time, these menacing presences compelled it to become a powerful fortress watching over the sea.
The curator Vincenzo de Bellis explains: “If we transfer these concepts to today, we can see how our relationship with others has changed. We repudiate the stranger, without realizing that in contemporary society we are all strangers to one another. Our era has completely distorted the meanings of nearness and distance. It has transformed distance into a motive for fear and exclusion, or reduced it to zero in a closeness that is only virtual, experienced and mediated by a screen. So news reaches us but it does not concern us. It doesn’t feel vivid, and yet it’s close, because everything is close today.
The year 2022 has been devastated by a global pandemic and a war, the one in Ukraine, which reminds us of the many other wars that are ongoing, only quieter now due to the outbreak of yet another. This is a year when mass migrations between the various world borders have not ceased, and because of our position overlooking the Mediterranean, we see them coming mainly from the East, the Middle East and North Africa. “Panorama Monopoli” cannot and must not be a political exhibition in the most immediate sense of the term. Many of the artists exhibited make no mention of today’s news, and it could not be otherwise when bringing together works ranging from the 15th century to today. The selection focuses on universal themes that inspire a wide variety of interpretations, sometimes unexpected, especially where works and artists from different eras and backgrounds interact with one another during the exhibition.”
“Panorama Monopoli” once again promises to be a unique exhibition experience. An exhibition designed as the emanation of ITALICS, designed to bring together ancient, modern and contemporary styles, techniques and multiple thoughts in art itineraries that will take the viewer to discover the most authentic and little-known aspects of our country, a live continuation of the extraordinary journey that began in 2020 on the web pages of the Italics.art platform.
The associated galleries adamantly agreed on the Panorama format, formally declaring their commitment, with a view to collaborating with the local energies in the territories involved. Its themes will be expanded with a program and alliances aimed at reaffirming the central role of Italian art galleries in a cultural, local and global system that is quickly evolving.
“Panorama Monopoli” has been realized with the patronage of the UNESCO, the Ministry of Culture, the support of the Department of Tourism, Economy of Culture and Valorization of the Territory of the Puglia Region and the Departments of Culture and Tourism of the Municipality of Monopoli.
Belmond Ltd. is joining ITALICS as main partner to support the Consortium activities and “Panorama Monopoli”. Developing its long and successful hospitality and leisure tradition, Belmond has always devoted attention and care to the heritage and history of the countries where it operates. The partnership with ITALICS will aim at the common objective of promoting Italy and its territory through art, inviting the public to see the culture and beauty spread throughout the country with a different point of view.
