The global art scene becomes a new republic of Utopia in the exhibition set up at Palazzo Baldeschi by Marco Tonelli. Who talks about the exhibition in the interview
“Making the work and poetics of the artists central even before the repercussions on a social and political level. Despite having all the works exhibited relationships with current historical contexts or even linked to what the future could hold for us. With its uncertainties and anxieties, promises and opportunities”. With these words the curator Marco Tonelli presents the exhibition Nature/Utopia: art between ecology, reuse and futurepromoted – until November 3rd – by Perugia Foundation at the headquarters of Baldeschi Palace. Nature and ecology interpreted through the lens of contemporary art through the works of thirteen artists from all over the world.
“The only possible response to the anxieties of our era is the work of art, not as a solution or compensation, but an autonomous imaginative practice, separate but not indifferent from reality”, adds Tonelli, who you can also follow in our interview. “Just like the island of Utopia, a utopian paradise detached from the rest of the world but at the same time a projection of what it could be”. The inspiration around which this research revolves is in fact the legendary republic of Utopia imagined in the 16th century by the English humanist Thomas More in his story of the same name, where the protagonist is a land connected to reality but also independent, not a mirage but a possible world .
13 artists
The route and exhibition therefore intend to talk about the very current issues of man’s relationship with nature and his future. They were chosen to do so 13 artists protagonists of the Italian and European cultural scene, American and coming from non-European contexts, such as Cameroon and Mozambique. Artists who have made the concept of utopia, reuse, project and nature their basic poetics since the 1960s, each with their own specific characteristics. As demonstrated by the works chosen for the exhibition, made with traditional but also unexpected and innovative materials.
By now historicized authors such as Gianfranco Baruchellowho between the 70s and 80s had worked the land as if it were a work of art, to Hugh the Stone, who has always used architecture to reflect on the contradictions and relationships between nature and the city. Particularly the case of Piero Gilardi, which has made ecology one of the main themes of its work and which with its nature carpets has transformed sections of nature itself into paintings. One of the most important Italian artists from the 60s to today is Giuseppe Penonerepresented here by Time structurewhere the bronze of the structure testifies to the profound link that exists between fusion and plant growth.
From Africa to Finland
The African creative scene is represented by works of Gonçalo Mabunda, artist from Mozambique, with masks made with bullets, grenades, rifles, cartridge cases. Which on the one hand evoke fetishes, totems and ritual headdresses, on the other they seem to be caricatures of anthropomorphic and mechanized faces that recall the bloody civil war that devastated his country. And also from Cameroonian Pascale Marthine Tayou, which creates environmental installations using colored plastic bags, not recycled but new. As if their consumption and degradation had been avoided and frozen into a work of art.
It comes from Finland Kaarina Kaikkonen, which works exclusively with reused and recycled clothing, mainly men’s shirts. The presence of is elegant Paolo Canevari, an artist who has made the reuse of materials a distinctive feature of his work. Here witnessed by the series Black Pages, where ancient gilded frames guard newspaper sheets covered in burnt engine oil like relics. And works by contribute to giving great complexity to the cultural project Davide Benati, Nicola Toffolini, Loris Cecchini, Giuliana Cunéaz, Peter campus.
Nature/Utopia
Art between ecology, reuse and future
Edited by Marco Tonelli
Until November 3, 2024
Palazzo Baldeschi al Corso
Corso Vannucci 66 – Perugia
Tel: 075 5734760
www.fondazioneperugia.it
