Arte Povera triumphs in Paris

“A poor art, engaged with contingency, with the event, with the ahistorical, with the present”: with these illuminating words, the Genoese critic Germano Celant defined the meaning of an emerging artistic current in 1967, establishing an immediate parallel between Jerzy Grotowski’s Teatro Povero and the works created in the same years in Italy by artists of the caliber of Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti and Michelangelo Pistoletto. Almost sixty years later, the Bourse de Commerce in Paris is preparing to host a rich retrospective on this movement: it will be entitled Arte Povera, and from next October 9th until January 27th it will delve into the path followed by artists and intellectuals engaged in a constant reflection on the overcoming of traditional art, its stylistic features and its superstructures, in order to establish a direct and material relationship with the work of art and its deepest meaning. IN FRANCE THE EXHIBITION ON THE HISTORY OF POOR ART By presenting to the public the works of thirteen exponents of Arte Povera, the Parisian exhibition will allow visitors to retrace the entire evolution of a pioneering movement, capable of changing painting, sculpture and the performing arts forever. Since its inception, this current has stood out for the use of immediate raw materials, through which its exponents have created works and installations capable of investigating the subjective experience of the material, its mutations and its relationship with space. To trace the history of a revolutionary artistic movement, the exhibition curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev will present a rich selection of works from the Pinault Collection of the Parisian institute, harmoniously integrated with pieces from the Castello di Rivoli and the CRT Art Foundation, as well as with loans granted by important public and private collectors. THE WORKS OF PISTOLETTO, KOUNELLIS AND ANSELMO TRASFORMING ARE EXHIBITED IN PARIS radically the language of contemporary art, artists such as Pistoletto, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz and Pino Pascali have expressly renounced the definition of a unique distinctive style, aiming instead at the creation of heterogeneous and unconventional works that have an immediate impact on observers. autumn exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris will document the innovative power of Arte Povera, inviting visitors to reflect on the great relevance and originality of an artistic experience that is both direct and free from predefined codes and ideologies.[Immagine in apertura: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Venere degli stracci, 1967, reproduction de Vénus en ciment recouvert de mica et de chiffons, 150 × 280 × 100 cm (installation). Courtesy du Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Rivoli-Turin). Prêt de la Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT. Photo : Paolo Pellion]