The exhibition “Umano molto umano” (Human, very human) that Collezione Poscio has proposed at Casa De Rodis for the summer of 2020 is dedicated to the theme of portraits. Curated by Casa Testori, the exhibition was inspired by a topical fact: in the dramatic months marked by the Coronavirus epidemic, we were all profoundly affected by the faces of those who were on the front line in hospitals and intensive care units. The photographic “portraits” of nurses and doctors have put before us faces of a human intensity that is hard to forget. They are images that re-propose the sense of making a “portrait”: which is not simply the restitution of a person’s features, but the exploration and unveiling of a human condition.
This is an awareness that artists have always had and that the exhibition aims to rediscover through the presentation of 13 great portraits from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The title of the exhibition, “Umano molto umano”, is intended to underline this aspect that gives full value and meaning to the portrait genre.
In order to meet the rules and restrictions imposed by the post-pandemic, the exhibition developed like a theatre programme: the portraits appeared in sequence behind the large window of Casa De Rodis for 13 weeks. Every Saturday there was the ritual “appearance” of a new face, according to a precise calendar: visitors and passers-by were invited to explore and deepen the single portrait thanks to a text on a panel that, in addition to historical data, offered an in-depth reading of the work. The exhibition was fully an exhibition “on the square”: in fact, thanks to an evocative display solution, the 13 portraits – from 11 July to 11 October – looked out, naturally in reproduction, from the windows of Casa De Rodis, and thus onto the central Piazza Mercato in Domodossola.
Throughout the week, there was a succession of important works such as Umberto Boccioni‘s Ritratto della madre from the Ricci Oddi Gallery in Piacenza and the Ritratto di Mario Alicata, one of Renato Guttuso‘s masterpieces.
Opening the exhibition was a painting made for the occasion by Barbara Nahmad: the Ritratto di un ritratto featuring Monica Falocchi, head nurse of the ICU at the Spedali di Brescia. Monica Falocchi is one of the symbolic faces that marked the months of the epidemic: in fact, her face, photographed by Andrea Frazzetta, went on the cover of the New York Times Magazine.
EXHIBITION CALENDAR
11 – 17 July: Barbara Nahmad, Ritratto di un ritratto (COVID-19, Brescia), 2020
18 – 24 July: Ottone Rosai, Ritratto di Ottavio Fanfani, 1946
25 – 31 July: Beppe Devalle, Ritratto di Jo, 2010
1 – 7 August: Giovanni Testori, Ritratto di donna, 1977
8 – 14 August: Filippo De Pisis, Garçon de Boulevards, 1928
15 – 21 August: Carlo Fornara, Ritratto della sorella Marietta davanti alla chiesa del lazzaretto a Prestinone, 1896
22 – 28 August: Aldo Mondino, Ritratto, 1987
29 August – 4 September: Giosetta Fioroni, Liberty in gabbia, 1969
5 – 11 September: Mario Schifano, Ritratto di Boccioni, 1985
12 – 18 September: Renato Guttuso, Ritratto di Mario Alicata, 1940
19 – 25 September: Gianfranco Ferroni, Autoritratto, 1946
26 September – 2 October: Matteo Fato, Ritratto di Charles Duke (Moon1972), 2019
3 – 11 October: Umberto Boccioni, Ritratto della madre, 1911/12
COLLATERAL EVENTS
MY PORTRAITS IN THE FRONT LINE
Unione Montana delle Valli dell’Ossola, Domodossola
25 September 2020
Meeting with photographer Andrea Frazzetta (winner of the 2020 Ischia International Prize for Journalism) with the participation of Monica Falocchi, head nurse of the ICU of the Spedali Civili Hospital in Brescia (cover face of “New York Time Magazine“) and artist Barbara Nahmad and moderated by Giuseppe Frangi.
VIRTUAL FINISSAGE
16 October 2020
At the end of the exhibition, a free-access meeting was held (via Zoom) with the participation of Giuseppe Frangi, vice-president of Casa Testori, Stella Poscio, president of Casa de Rodis, and Massimo Ferrari, president of Galleria Ricci Oddi in Piacenza, the museum that owns Umberto Boccioni’s Ritratto della madre, which closed the exhibition calendar.
