This is perhaps the hottest week in the Milanese cultural environment: miart returns from 12 to 14 April, one of the most anticipated modern and contemporary art fairs of the year. In the meantime, while thousands of enthusiasts and “experts” flock to the city, exhibitions not to be missed also sprout: among these, the large retrospective that the Prada Foundation dedicates to the master of Arte Povera Pino Pascali stands out, an appointment flagship of the institution’s 2024 season. PINO PASCALI PROTAGONIST AT THE PRADA FOUNDATION Open to the public until 23 September and divided into three areas of the Foundation (the Podium, the North Gallery and the South Gallery), the Pino Pascali exhibition – curated by Mark Godfrey – is divided into four sections, bringing together a total of 49 works by the artist from Bari. The first chapter delves into the five personal exhibitions in which the artist presented his famous spatial environments, accessible and reconstructed in their original dimensions. The second part is dedicated to a focus on the use of the natural and industrial materials favored by Pascali: here their origin, use in the commercial sector, as well as the use made by other artists, are examined. The third section instead focuses on collective exhibitions, which places the artist’s works in relation to his contemporaries, including Alighiero Boetti, Luciano Fabro, Piero Gilardi, Jannis Kounellis and Michelangelo Pistoletto. Finally, a final “documentary” room collects photographic testimonies (and a 16mm video) of Pascali at work or together with his sculptures. NEWS FROM THE 2024 EDITION OF MIART In the meantime, the long-awaited appointment with miart returns, confirming for the fourth consecutive year the direction of Nicola Ricciardi. There are numerous new features in this 28th edition: the number of participating galleries has increased (178 from 28 countries, compared to 169 in 2023, for a total of over a thousand works on display), and two new sections have been inaugurated, conceived as a sort of “spatial gateway” or “time Machine”. The target? Broadening geographical and temporal horizons – hence the theme no time no space, in a tribute to the famous song by the legendary Franco Battiato. The main chapter of the fair, Established, is unmissable, in which we find the most established artistic realities at an international level. Here the two new sections stand out: Portal, curated by Abaseh Mirval, which offers eight small exhibitions projected towards new boundaries, and Timescape, an exhibition project curated by the fair itself, which will develop over the next three years and which each year will focus on works created in increasingly distant eras (this year we start with the early twentieth century).[Immagine in apertura: immagine della mostra “Pino Pascali” Fondazione Prada, Milano Foto: Roberto Marossi Courtesy: Fondazione Prada. In primo piano: Pino Pascali 32 mq di mare circa, 1967. Copia espositiva Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Roma. In secondo piano: Claudio Abate Pino Pascali con 32 mq di mare circa, 1967. “Lo spazio dell’immagine”, Palazzo Trinci, Foligno, 1967 Photo Claudio Abate © Archivio Claudio Abate]
