CONTEXTO 2018. GENER-AZIONI
Curated by Davide Dall’Ombra
Edolo (BS)
14 July – 9 September 2018
Rock, river, valley, pass, village, house: ART. In 2018, the Contexto art event reached its fourth edition, through which the town of Edolo was invaded, for four years in a row, by contemporary art.
This is the third installment held under the artistic direction of Casa Testori, for which curator Davide Dall’Ombra has thought of new artists, a different location for the interventions and a theme to be developed. In fact, the exhibition questioned itself on the theme of GENER-AZIONI (GENER-A(C)TIONS), meant as a place of passing on of witnesses, of cultural inheritances that are handed down, but also as acts that give life to something new, beautiful and useful for everyone.
THE ARTISTS’ PALACE FROM 11 TO 60 YEARS OLD
The heart of the town opened up on the ground floor of one of Edolo’s most beautiful buildings. 12 artists from three generations, through painting, drawing, video art, sculpture and installation, provided an insight into contemporary artistic production. The surprising d’après by the students (11-13 years old) of artist Rossella Roli were displayed at the opening to raise the question of the very concept of beauty and representation, as well as, of course, the responsibility of education and the relationship with one’s fathers.
From the figurative to the sculptural, we arrived through the opposite and formally complementary forms of Giorgio Brina & Simone Novara’s resin cushions and Fabio Roncato’s surprising waxes. A reasoning on the instruments of art that proceeded with the canvases full of material intrusions by Elisa Carutti, but also with the video animations and engraved cartoons used to construct their own poetic imagery by Danilo Sciorilliand Enrico Cattaneo.
Edolo became a mine of precious details for photographer Elena Canavese, and there was also a salutary test of figurative painting, thanks to the work of Dario Maglionico and Annalisa Fulvi. The Artists’ Palace was closed by a triptych of three women, from three different generations: from the large installation on Chernobyl by the Ukrainian Daria Romanenko, through the video on tension and custody by the Albanian Silva Agostini, to Laura Morelli’s crocheted bombs, disturbing and poignant at the same time.
THREE SPECIAL PROJECTS FOR THREE HISTORICAL PLACES
The Liberty Building next to the station presented to the public the “school” of an important architect from Oedola, a Viennese by adoption: Franco Fonatti. It was up to him to interpret the theme of Gener-azione(Gener-a(c)tion) through the metaphor of the bridge: a physical bridge, designed for the city of Venice, and a metaphorical bridge towards emerging creativity, represented by the ten projects of his most talented students.
The Prisons, a highly evocative place that conveys intact all its history of suffering, have been entrusted to the social cooperative Il Cardo, which has been dealing with disability and education since 1988, and transformed into a place of maximum joy and life, thanks to laboratories, meetings, music and workshops for children, disabled people and all citizens.
The Library building, a historic Edolese meeting place for young people and masters of every generation, opened the city’s horizon to the world, thanks to Andrzej Bargiela’s photographic exhibition dedicated to the Vietnamese people.
A VIEW FROM/AT THE CITY
Alberto Montorfano’s intervention consisted of a work of public art showing the faces of dozens of citizens of Edolo, chosen to represent the eyes of all the inhabitants: photographed, portrayed, printed and affixed on the election boards, they invaded the town’s main square with their own participatory gaze.
The intervention by Maria Teresa Ortoleva, a young artist by adoption from London, on the balcony in front of the parish church of Santa Maria Nascente overlooking the city, transformed the visitor’s point of view with her installation, mediating the urban and mountain scenery with the layout of the dream.
