The works of ten artists to reflect on the fractures of our time but without forgetting lightness. The exhibition will be open to visitors from 19 May to 9 June 2024, in the evocative spaces of the Conference Hall of the Villa Reale in Monza. This Is The End, born during a decisive moment of caesura for the most pressing current events, when the enthusiasm for the post-pandemic recovery was knocked down by the news of the invasion of Ukraine, explain the AND Cultural Association, which is curating the collective. On display, the works of Elisa Cella, Nicola Evangelisti, Nadia Galbiati, Roberto Ghezzi, Elena Ketra, Camilla Marinoni, Andrea Meregalli, Gabriele Micalizzi, Silvia Serenari and Matteo Suffritti.
The title chosen for the exhibition is a reference to the very famous 1967 song by the Doors, chosen by Francis Ford Coppola as the soundtrack to the first, unforgettable scene of the film Apocalypse Now (1979), loosely based on the book Heart of Darkness Of Joseph Conrad. The song, the film and the book create an intertwining as perfect as it is powerful, for a meditation on horror, madness and human psychology. «The exhibition wants to be a cry proposed by the artists, who have always been sensitive to the vibrations that the world produces and custodians of their re-elaboration», continue from AND, an association founded in Monza in 2023, with the aim of organizing art projects and exhibitions Contemporary.
Financial crisis, conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine, the nuclear threat, the energy crisis, drought, floods, the dramatic increase in the world population, the unknowns of Artificial Intelligence. Against the backdrop of climate change, the great migrations of people fleeing from unsustainable situations and inhuman conditions. And then, the abuse of women, the numbers – and names – of femicide which are updated daily. In short, “That naive promise of peace, prosperity, acquired rights, advanced civilization has been called into question.”
But despite all this and what the title would seem to communicate This is the end – “Beautiful friend”, continues the song – the Monza exhibition is «The opposite of what we might expect», he says Simona Bartolena art historian and critic who wrote a text accompanying the exhibition. «It is not a tragic exhibition, which insists on melodramatic iconography; it is not trivial, in any case, presenting works that always choose the most effective and intelligent way (even when it could be the most difficult) to get to the point. It is an exhibition that does not judge, but that suggests reasons for reflection, an exhibition that uses a composed and never shouted tone, sometimes even light (what a beautiful thing lightness is!), but which arrives, precisely for this reason, like a punch in the stomach ».
The works of the nine artists, with different paths, techniques and poetics, address the themes of the exhibition, with an alternation of paintings, sculptures, installations and photographic reworkings. Art acts as an intermediary to connect the various sciences involved, questions the present and calls professionals and the public to a collective reflection to face the challenges of the future. In fact, each artist has been associated with a professional of the topic covered, who has written a text for the catalog and who will participate in a round table open to the public, which will be held on May 25th at 4pm, in the Conference Room of the Villa Reale in Monza.
