Edition: 58. International Art Exhibition - May You Live In Interesting Times directed by Ralph Rugoff (11 May - 24 November 2019)
Titolo del Padiglione Italia: Né altra Né questa: La sfida al Labirinto
Curator: Milovan Farronato
Commissioner: Federica Galloni
Catalogue: Né altra né questa : la sfida al labirinto, 58. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte La Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Italia, a cura di Milovan Farronato, Humboldt Books, Milano 2019
"Né altra Né questa: La sfida al Labirinto" is the title of the exhibition, curated by Milovan Farronato, conceived for the Italian Pavilion on the occasion of the 58. International Art Exhibition of Biennale di Venezia (11 May - 24 November 2019). The artists involved, with new works and historical works, are Erico David (Ancona, 1966), Chiara Fumai (Rome, 1978 - Bari, 2017) and Liliana Moro (Milan, 1961). The project focuses on the metaphor of the labyrinth as an enactment of the non-linearity of existence, drawing attention to the need for doubt and intuition as inescapable tools of human knowledge.
Milovan Farronato explains: "Venice is a labyrinth that over the centuries has fascinated and inspired the imagination of many creative people, including Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, the two greatest contemporary labyrinthologists according to mathematician Pierre Rosenstiehl. Venice, the undisputed cartographic centre of the Renaissance, is described by Calvino as a place where maps are always having to be redone as the boundaries between land and water are constantly changing, making the spaces of this city dominated by uncertainty and variability. It is in this context of unpredictable character that Né altra Né questa emerges, an exhibition in which the works on display, in close dialogue with each other and with the setting, continually generate new paths and new interpretations, branching out like a mycelium". The exhibition's subtitle alludes to "La sfida al labirinto" (The Challenge to the Labyrinth), a seminal essay by Italo Calvino from 1962, from which Né altra Né questa is inspired. In this text the author proposes a cultural work that is open to all possible languages and that feels co-responsible in the construction of a world that, having lost its traditional points of reference, no longer asks to be simply represented. In order to visualise the tangled forms of contemporary reality, Calvino elaborates the effective metaphor of the labyrinth: an apparent tangle of lines and trends actually constructed according to strict rules. Interpreting this line of thought in an artistic key, Né altra Né questa brings up to date - right from its title, which disorients through the rhetorical figure of anastrophe - an artistic project of "challenge to the labyrinth" in which Calvino's lesson can be understood, staging a non-linear exhibition path that cannot be reduced to a set of clean and predictable trajectories. The viewer is offered multiple and generous paths and interpretations, and is given the possibility of taking an active role in determining his own itinerary and thus confronting the outcome of his choices, contemplating doubt and indeterminacy as inescapable parts of knowledge.
"Straddling two generations, the works and biographies of Enrico David, Chiara Fumai and Liliana Moro, although very different - continues Milovan Farronato - mark significant contemporary artistic paths that stand out for their spirit of research between past and present. Their works stand out for their unquenchable desire to explore territories in which the everyday, survival, tradition and narrative have a strong presence. I have worked closely with these three artists over the years, in solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and I am delighted to be able to work alongside their practices in this large-scale exhibition, which will include new works as well as works from the past".
The calendar of cultural appointments includes a cycle of talks with the artists Enrico David and Liliana Moro and the philosopher Marco Pasi. The film-maker Anna Franceschini is entrusted with the documentation of the exhibition, realised as an experimental short film with the title "Bustrofedico", which will be presented in Venice at the end of the exhibition, produced by In Between Art Film and Gluck50.
The exhibition will also include a programme of educational activities aimed at young students from academies and dance schools, promoted by the Directorate-General, which will consist of a series of events, curated by Milovan Farronato, Stella Bottai and Lavinia Filippi, hosted in the Pavilion.