Curated by Casa Testori – Davide Dall’Ombra, Luca Fiore, Giuseppe Frangi, Francesca Radaelli.

 

The main theme of the exhibition starts from the title of the Meeting 2017: “All that you have, bequeathed you by your father, earn it in order to possess it”, a quote taken from J.W. Goethe’s Faust, which focuses on the need to repossess what we have inherited, a central issue also in contemporary art.
The relationship with the past and tradition has marked, after all, the whole parabola of art from the 10th century , with episodes of both love and conflict.

What does it mean for an artist today “to re-inherit a cultural legacy individual or collective?”
What has the artist inherited? How is it made his own, how has he “renewed” or gone beyond that which he has “inherited from his forefathers”?
How do they operate, the experience of images, symbols, and forms of the past, with also the need to rethink genres, themes, and techniques, in confronting today’s suggestions?

The past has handed down to us great stories, numerous experiences, and millions of images, symbols with which we compare ourselves. The artist is like the new Aeneas who carries his aged father Anchises on his shoulders: not only is he a dwarf on a giant’s shoulders, but he is also able to conquer again and pass on to us what has been bequeathed to him, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to do it with our memories alone.

Within the destiny of the artist there is always a need for a “fidelity” and a discontinuity together, because art is an adventure of consciousness that always passes through a new start. The art of today signals its new start not only through its expressed contents, but also in its choice of languages and expressive means: from painting to photography to video, from sculpture to installation, in a freedom of “genres” that was never before equaled.

“I do not want to dig into the past for the pleasure of archeology, even if it would have been possible, but because the past has a reality that deeply influences us. Furthermore, if one carries it slowly to the surface, it is full of possibility”, said Jannis Kounellis, one of the great masters of today, who passed away in February 2017.

The exhibit wants to present the works of artists that document this complex relationship with the cultural and representational traditions that have preceded them. It is introduced by a video which contextualizes the theme and allows one “to enter” into it, equipped to fully understand the particularities of the artists presented. To the protagonists in the exhibit, Andy Warhol, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, will be the “godfather”, opening the itinerary with a work dedicated to the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, “re-inherited” in Pop-art theme.

Great space will be given to dialogue with the public, often very fascinated by contemporary art, helped by the presence of young guides who will favor a personal encounter with the works and with the theme of cultural heredity.

Sponsor: Gruppo bancario Credito Valtellinese, Sponsor SGR