CAMeC centro arte moderna e contemporanea La Spezia Small Size, small masterpieces from the CAMeC collections & Vitamins, energy tablets from the Carlo Palli Archive La Spezia. There are numerous small works among the over 2000 works in the CAMeC collections. The idea of this exhibition and its proposed layout is in fact to highlight these great small works which come from the various groups of donations. Especially in the collections acquired by bequest (Cozzani and Battolini), a marked trait of the collecting passion emerges: the desire to possess great numbers and great names of art, to enjoy them in the intimacy of one’s own home, to put them next to one another and make them interact, shuffling them around a lot and keeping a watchful eye on them. Smallness is particularly interesting territory for artists, who condense or develop an idea or an intention within a restricted space, conceiving it as a starting point or as a destination of the creative process. It is a binding element, a favoured testing ground for many artists, approached in the most various ways as they search for efficacy of composition and balance of material. Distributed along the exhibition itinerary are 196 works by 119 artists; the criterion of chronological order has been associated with linguistic and aesthetic affinity, also considering materials and colour-schemes, in a sort of tribute to the collector’s modus operandi. It is a particularly rich journey, which expresses both the complexity of contemporary research and the omnivorous curiosity of the collector. Starting with a step backwards, a first-edition engraving by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, we move through the oldest group of works in the collection, encountering the 19th-century ferment of the Caffé Michelangelo in Florence with an anthology of precious caricatures, and crossing the threshold into the 20th century with some very small oils by Boldini, Cassioli and Signorini and the La Spezia artists Del Santo and Brandolisio. A digression into the art of engraving is dedicated to a fine collection of woodcuts in the renewed interpretation of Italian and French artists, focussing on 40 small woodcuts by Emilio Mantelli, authentic jewels of book illustration. The historical avant-garde movements accompany us to the second postwar period, and the various poetic stances and currents are expressed here in their small format: the various types of abstraction, nouveau réalisme, conceptual minimalism, and many other different expressions which have punctuated the last 50 years of art, encompassing also Fluxus and performance art and a selection of sculptures. The exhibition includes works by the following artists: Marina Abramović, Afro, Giuseppe Ajmone, Carlo Alfano, Claudio Ambrogetti, Fernando Andolcetti, Arman, Robert Barry, Jean Bazaine, Aubrey Beardsley, Gino Bellani, Miguel Ortiz Berrocal, Joseph Beuys, Max Bill, Mel Bochner, Giovanni Boldini, Christian Boltanski, Agostino Bonalumi, Arturo Bonfanti, Pier Giulio Bonifacio, Odoardo Borrani, Eugenio Brandolisio, Victor Brauner, Antonio Calderara, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Amos Cassioli, César, Giuseppe Chiari, Alfredo Chighine, Hsiao Chin, Cosimo Cimino, Jean Cocteau, Pietro Consagra, James Cumming, Hanne Darboven, Giorgio de Chirico, Nicola De Maria, Filippo de Pisis, Felice Del Santo, Agnes Denes, Fortunato Depero, Jan Dibbets, Jim Dine, Piero Dorazio, Jean Dubuffet, François Dufrêne, Max Ernst, Luciano Fabro, Giovanni Fattori, Lyonel Feininger, Agostino Fossati, Keith Haring, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Béla Kádár, Zoltán Kemény, Alison Knowles, Jiří Kolář, František Kupka, Julio Le Parc, Sol LeWitt, Markus Lüpertz, Heinz Mack, August Macke, Mauro Manfredi, Emilio Mantelli, Piero Manzoni, Franz Marc, Gerhard Marcks, Elio Marchegiani, Enzo Mari, Marcello Mascherini, Galliano Mazzon, Fausto Melotti, Eduard Leon Theodore Mesens, Annette Messager, Mirko, Aldo Mondino, Ennio Morlotti, Emil Nolde, Roman Opałka, Gina Pane, Giulio Paolini, Gianfranco Pardi, Otto Piene, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Enrico Prampolini, Enzo Pregno, Mario Radice, Man Ray, Mauro Reggiani, Edda Renouf, Hans Richter, Bridget Riley, Takako Saito, Diet Sayler, Emilio Scanavino, Paolo Scheggi, Gustav Seitz, Telemaco Signorini, Mario Sironi, Rik Slabbinck, Atanasio Soldati, Francesco Somaini, Jesús Rafael Soto, Curt Stenvert, Graham Sutherland, Orfeo Tamburi, George Tappert, Nino Tirinnanzi, Angiolo Tricca, Günther Uecker, Francesco Vaccarone, Victor Vasarely, Luigi Veronesi, Lorenzo Viani, Jacques Villeglé, Fritz Wotruba. From 7 February until its closing date, the exhibition Small Size, small masterpieces from the CAMeC collection will be amplified with the addition of a large number of small-size works. Over 500 items will leave the Carlo Palli Archive of Prato and be transferred to the CAMeC. The exhibition itinerary will thus be enriched with a singular collection, the fruit of Carlo Palli’s collecting passion and curiosity and of his innumerable contacts with the world of contemporary art. Despite the obligatory format, in this case minimum (10x15 cm.), Vitamins offers an all-round view of contemporary creativity. It is a composite group of works reflecting trends, traditions and innovations, theoretical practices and extemporaneous inspirations, passion and love for the creative universe itself. The collection deliberately places emerging artists besides historicised ones, highlighting some of the international trends in contemporary art, but also includes contributions from musicians, performers, curators, museum directors. The collection started as a quotation/imitation of Cesare Zavattini’s famous one, composed of about 1500 8x10cm. paintings, and also as a tribute to Mail Art, both for the similar format to the postcard, and for the character of libertarian open-mindedness and of free circulation which distinguishes it. In fact Vitamins began as an itinerant installation to be exhibited for a single day in different museums, accompanied by the intervention of special guests paying homage to it with a performance. The collection is continually being added to, and for the first time it will be available to the public for an extended period of time. Authors: Andrea Abati, Olga Agostini, Demosthene Agrafiotis, Loriano Aiazzi, Aiku (Donato Landi), Marcello Aitiani, Francesco Alarico, Paolo Albani, Luca Alinari, Resmi Al Kafaji, Aurelio Amendola, Paolo Amerini, Roya Amini, Silvia Ancillotti, Fernando Andolcetti, Gianni Antenucci, Alfio Antognetti, Alain Arias- Misson, Emiliano Bacci, Silvia Bacci, Nora Bachel, Luciano Baglioni, Claudio Balducci, Stefania Balestri, Nanni Balestrini, Cristina Balsotti, Federica Balucani, Anna Banana, Antonio Banci, Lorenzo Banci, Valentina Banci, Calogero Barba, Alessandro Bargellini, Enzo Gualtiero Bargiacchi, Roberto Barni, Vittore Baroni, Massimiliano Barsottelli, Massimo Barzagli, Bastiano (Silvano Vigni), Lisa Batacchi, Carlo Battisti, Eric Bauer, Diana Baylon, Enzo Bearzot, Consuelo Bellini, Gianni Bellini, Stefano Benedetti, Alessandro Benfenati, Mirella Bentivoglio, Riccardo Benvenuti, Maurizio Berlincioni, Simonetta Berruti, Franco Bertini, Carlo Bertocci, Chiara Bettazzi, Rodolfo Betti, Joseph Beuys, Gianni Biagi, Daniela Billi, Giuseppe Billi, Adriano Bimbi, Lapo Binazzi, Julien Blaine, Italo Bolano, Alberto Bolzonella, Selina Bonelli Zondadari, Fabiana Bonucci, Sergio Borrini, Venier Alessandra Borsetti, Jean- François Bory, Anna Boschi, Leonardo Bossio, Antonino Bove, Piero Brachi, Graziano Braschi, Stefano Braschi, Caterina Brezzo, Luca Brocchini, Gianni Broi, Roberto Brunetti, Giovanni Bruscino, Antonio Bueno, Merah Bunga, Berlinghiero Buonarroti, Rinaldo Frank Burattin, Umberto Buscioni, Sylvano Bussotti, Fiorenzo Buti, Giuseppe Calandriello, Paolo Calosi, Edda Campostrini, Gloria Campriani, Carlo Canè, Gaspare Canino, Carlo Cantini, Monty Cantsin, Vito Capone, Myriam Cappelletti, Ivano Cappelli, Emma Caprini, Anna Maria Caracciolo, Francesca Cardini, Franco Cardini, Giancarlo Cardini, Silvia Cardini, Claudio Cargiolli, Fabio Carmignani, Paolo Carradori, Ugo Carrega, Luciano Caruso, Franco Casaglieri, Roberto Casati, Alessandro Casini, Bruno Cassaglia, Dino Castelvecchi, Dino Castrovilli, Antonio Catelani, Giancarlo Cauteruccio, Cinzio Cavallarin, Fabio Cavallucci, Piero Caverni, Duccio Ceccanti, Mauro Ceccanti, Niccolò Ceccanti, Vittorio Ceccanti, Alberto C. Ceccatelli, Stefano Cecchi, Umberto Cecchi, Sergio Cena, Claudio Cerretelli, Maya Cetkovic, Dai Chaoqun, Giulia Chiappi, Andrea Chiarantini, Giuseppe Chiari, Giovanni Chilleri, Francesco Chimienti, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Giuseppe Ciccia, Cosimo Cimino, Vittoria Ciolini, Angelo Ciotti, Lorenzo Cipriani, Mauro Civai, Riccardo Cocchi, Umberto Cocci, Valentina Colella, Luca Colferai, Marta Colombo, Mario Commone, Lido Contemori, Carlo Marcello Conti, Philip Corner, Mello Cristina Corradi, Enzo Correnti, Gilberto Corretti, Giorgio Corsi, Mariella Corsi, Luisa Cortesi, Claudio Cosma/Silvia Noferi, Paolo Coteni, Nando Crippa, Mattia Crisci, Robin Crozier, Gian Luca Cupisti, Daffy, Tola Alda D’Alessio, Marion D’Amburgo, Mauro Dal Fior, Andrea Dami, Andrea Dami, Serena D’Angelis, Betty Danon, Jakob De Chirico, Valerio Dehò, Paolo Della Bella, Elio De Luca, Fabio De Poli, Claudio De Rosa, Lucia De Santis, Giuseppe Desiato, Luca De Silva, Adolfina De Stefani, Kelly Detweiler, Chiara Diamantini, Lino Di Lallo, Gabriele Di Maio, Marcello Diotallevi, Maria Di Pietro, Raffaele Di Vaia, Duccio Dogheria, Raul Ernesto Dominguez, Tamara Donati, Beatrice