entrare nell’opera Entering the work ACTIONS AND PROCESSES IN ARTE POVERA NOV. 30TH 2019 - MAY 3RD 2020 PRESS KIT PRESS CONTACTS Lucas Martinet [email protected] Tél. + 33 (0)4 77 91 60 40 Agence anne samson communications Federica Forte [email protected] Tel. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 40 Clara Coustillac [email protected] Tél. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 35 USEFUL INFO MAMC+ Saint-étienne Métropole rue Fernand Léger 42270 Saint-Priest-en-Jarez Tél. +33 (0)4 77 79 52 52 mamc.saint-etienne.fr [email protected] Giovanni Anselmo, Entrare nell’opera, 1971, black-and-white print on canvas, 336 x 491 cm, coll. Fundação de Serralves - Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, Portugal. © Giovanni Anselmo, courtesy Archivio Anselmo. the Curator’s foreword entrare nell’opera The exhibition Entrare nell’opera/Entering the work: actions and processes in Arte Povera, explores in depth Entering the work and for the first time the performative dimension intrinsic to the movement – which was more of a collective adventure than a group, one interspersed with multiple actions and events in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s. ACTIONS AND PROCESSES IN ARTE POVERA TH RD NOV. 30 2019 - MAY 3 2020 Beyond the mention of simple materials suggested by its name, the term ‘poor art’ was initially borrowed from Jerzy Grotowski’s theatrical term by the critic and mentor of this group phenomenon, Germano Celant. His legendary exhibition Arte povera più azioni povere, organised in 1968 at Amalfi, from the outset placed the necessity of action at the heart of these young artists’ considerations. Echoing with the social and political needs of that time, they stand for rejection of the traditional value of the artwork and the use of a unique technique for proposing collaborative experiences, gestures and attitudes, rather than objects to be contemplated. PRESS KIT Focused on the early years of Arte Povera, the exhibition Entrare nell’opera reveals the strong commitment of its protagonists to the notion of performance and the intensity of their interest in creating an interaction between object, body, temporality and space. For the purpose of formulating new approaches to art production, each artist in this exhibition worked with a broad range of media in an individual way, exploring new materials and using the simplest means to create poetic statements based on the events of everyday life. Their aim was to integrate as many forms of expression as possible, combining visual arts with movement in space and event-driven dynamics. PRESS CONTACTS Lucas Martinet The exhibition brings together nearly a hundred emblematic works, produced between 1963 and 1978, accompanied by [email protected] Tél. + 33 (0)4 77 91 60 40 almost three hundred photographic and filmic documents, a substantial archive that is partially unpublished. The first two sections, entitled “Theatre” and “Time and place”, present works and visual documentation in a dialogue that contextualizes Agence anne samson communications the actions. The following two sections, “Actions” and “Entering the work”, allow visitors to interact with an entire series Federica Forte of objects and installations, becoming directly involved with them. [email protected] Tel. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 40 The crucial role of participation, essential in Arte Povera, revolutionised the relationship between work, space and Clara Coustillac [email protected] spectator. Referring both to the concepts of the Gesamtkunstwerk [total work of art] and ‘open work’ (the latter formulated Tél. +33 (0)1 40 36 84 35 by Umberto Eco), these experiments make Arte Povera, fifty years after its emergence, an art of the present, an art still vital. USEFUL INFO MAMC+ Saint-étienne Métropole The exhibition, conceived in close collaboration with artists or their successions, is a production of the Kunstmuseum rue Fernand Léger View of the exhibition Entrare nell’opera. Prozesse und Aktionen in der Arte Povera at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Lichtenstein in partnership with the MAMC+, based on the original curation by Christiane Meyer-Stoll, avec Nike Bätzner, 42270 Saint-Priest-en-Jarez Vaduz, 7 June – 1 September 2019. Photo credit: Stefan Altenburger © Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein / © ADAGP, Paris 2019 Maddalena Disch and Valentina Pero. Tél. +33 (0)4 77 79 52 52 From left to right: mamc.saint-etienne.fr Mariza Merz, Scarpette, 1968, copper and nylon thread, each 4 x 22 x 7 cm. Fondazione Merz, Turin. [email protected] Gilberto Zorio, Odio, 1969, rope and swing, varying sizes. Collection Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein. A richly documented illustrated catalogue is published by Walther König editions, with texts by Nike Bätzner, Lara Conte, Giuseppe Penone, Albero di cinque metri, 1973, wood, 470 x 20 x 15 cm. MAMC+ collection. Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mappamondo, 1966-1968, metal wire, newspaper, varying sizes. Maddalena Disch, Pasquale Fameli, Marco Farano, Francesco Guzzetti, Teresa Kittler, Daniela Lancioni, Christiane Meyer- Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella. Stoll, Valentina Pero and Elena Zanichelli. Alexandre Quoi Curator in charge, Chief curator of MAMC+ p. 3 the exhibition circuit Section 1 - The Theater Theatre, the stage, role-play and the question of the distance between the actors and the audience: so many points of reference shared by the protagonists of Arte Povera. The latter work with elements of theatre, they use masks and dress up, adopting a wide range of different roles. Arte Povera artists have an acute sense of sensorial phenomenon and immediacy of PRESS KIT experience. For them, thought and emotion combined lead to knowledge. Their works embody the intellectual forces that encourage us to break down antiquated structures and modes of thought. Their works are about fluids, potential energies, and invisible forces that exist in each space and each thing. They bear witness to a process of transformation, such as the ambient humidity that is transformed into ice in Un flauto dolce per farmi suonare by Pier Paolo Calzolari in the exhibition. This first room also reflects the sense of Michelangelo Pistoletto, Fini del Pistoletto [Mask], 1967, printed paper, Alighiero Boetti, Abito [Dress], 1967, PVC, water, fish, 84 x 50,5 cm. private collection / Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein. Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein , Pierro Derossi.© ADAGP, Paris 2019 time, the confluence of objective and subjective time represented by Alighiero Boetti’s Lampada annuale based on the principle of a random timer. The Piper Pluriclub After a focus on the events of the Piper Pluriclub, a Turin nightclub, display cases The Piper Pluriclub in Turin was a discotheque where legendary exhibitions and artistic activities took place between presenting photographs of theatre productions by Jerzy Grotowski’s company, as well as 1966 and 1969. Designed by the architects Piero Derossi, Giorgio Ceretti and Riccardo Rosso following the new lan- The Living Theatre, which put on political plays during his exile in Italy after 1965. Other guages of 1960s Italian design, it became established as a lively venue for artists, musicians, writers and documents show collaborations from Jannis Kounellis and Giulio Paolini at the Teatro film-makers. Stabile with Carlo Quartucci, an Italian stage director, in the tradition of Antonin Artaud’s One performance at the Piper Pluriclub was Michelangelo Pistoletto’s La fine di Pistoletto in which twenty-five people, theatre of the absurd and theatre of cruelty. Theatre was just as important for Michelangelo each wearing a mask of Pistoletto’s face, held reflective metal plates in their hands, slowly making the plates to vibrate. Pistoletto, who performed in the street with Lo Zoo group. Finally, photographs of dance The Living Theatre’s Mysteries and Smaller Pieces premiered here, Marisa Merz presented her space-filling Sculture shows staged in galleries in Italy illustrate the pioneers of American postmodern dance: viventi [Living Sulptures], and Alighiero Boetti, Annemarie Sauzeau Boetti and Piero Gilardi presented their fashion Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, and Simone Forti. designs at the Beat Fashion Parade (which included a plastic minidress featuring water and live fish). One of these clothes created by Alighiero Boetti is exhibited, as is one of the masks of La fine di Pistoletto. Clino Trini Castelli, a young designer who at that time also worked for Olivetti with Ettore Sottsass, was responsible for the Piper Pluriclub’s visual identity and communication. He designed this Piperic Timeline installation, based on his collection of original objects and posters, especially for this exhibition. OG2.indd 8 23.05.19 11:12 Michelangelo Pistoletto & Lo Zoo, Teatro baldacchino [Canopy Theatre], Turin 1968. Photo : Marco Farano View of the Piper Pluriclub, Turin. Courtesy Clino Trini Castelli p. 4 p. 5 Giulio Paolini, Apoteosi di Omero [Apothéose d’Homère], 1970-1971 Section 2 - Time and place In his works Giulio Paolini deals with a complex set of themes involving image, gaze, This second section has a focus on archives, showcasing places selected from Azioni Povere [Poor Actions] like Aktions- authorship, viewer and space. The phenomenon of vision plays a particularly crucial raum 1 in Munich and Fernsehgalerie by Gerry Schum. Organised by artists, this room brings together documentary images role. His installation Apoteosi di Omero recalls Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s relative to key actions, as well as photographic works and works on paper drawing on a temporal and/or spatial process. famous