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different degrees of popularity. They belong to the first generations of Italians grown in a cosmopolitan background; their works and their language are global, and yet they are also very closely linked to the culture of their country. The exhibit focuses on this pretty small group of young artists, avoiding the mobs that typically crowded the Italian Pavilion in the past years. The purpose is to align it with the other national pavilions in the Biennale. This exhibition is not an attempt to return our full gaze to the entirety of Italian art; its intention is to deeply look into the work of three artists to whom it has given space, time and resources to present a large and ambitious project, an unmissable occasion in their careers as well as the chance for the public to immerge themselves in their minds and realities. The exhibition rejects yet another habit of previous editions: a concern with history and origins, and a certain worshipping of the past, less experienced than endured. Antecedents are fundamental and are part of the DNA of Italian art, but by
del Dna dell'arte italiana, ma sono ormai stati assorbiti, digeriti e metabolizzati. La proposta di quest’anno, pur riconoscendo l'importanza della tradizione, vuole analizzarla nelle opere di alcuni degli artisti più interessanti e vivi di oggi. Infine, lo spazio suggestivo che ospita il Padiglione Italia all'Arsenale è stato troppo spesso celato nel tentativo di trasformarlo in un luogo museale o in un white cube: Il mondo magico riscopre il fascino dell'architettura originaria creando un dialogo profondo con lo spazio, accettandolo, assorbendolo e amplificandone le caratteristiche più distintive. Difficile dire se i tre artisti selezionati rappresentino una nuova identità italiana nell'arte contemporanea. Per loro e per molti maestri della stessa generazione l'appartenenza a una particolare cultura è un problema che riguarda il passato e un'idea di nazionalità come tradizione da difendere piuttosto che come risorsa da reinventare. In questo senso, nelle loro opere Andreotta Calò, Cuoghi e Husni-Bey riflettono la crisi di un presente complesso, ma descrivono anche un nuovo Paese – reale e fantastico insieme – in cui i conflitti sono risolti attraverso l'immaginazione.
now they have been absorbed, digested and metabolised. This year’s proposal acknowledges the importance of tradition, but intends to analyse it in the works of some of today’s most interesting and lively artists. Finally, the interesting space that hosts the Italian Pavilion at the Arsenale has been too often limited by attempts to turn it into a museum-like place or a white cube. Il mondo magico rediscovers the enchantment of its original architecture, creating a deep dialogue with space, accepting it, absorbing it, and amplifying its most distinctive characteristics. It is hard to say whether the three selected artists represent a new Italian identity in contemporary art. For them, and for many maestros of the same generation, belonging to a particular culture is a problem of the past and an idea of nationality as a tradition to be defended, rather than a resource to be reinvented. In this sense, Andreotta Calò, Cuoghi and Husni-Bey reflect, in the works, the crisis of a complex present, but they also describe a new country, at once real and fantastic, where conflicts are resolved through imagination.
Da sinistra/From left: Roberto Cuoghi, Cecilia Alemani, Adelita Husni-Bey e Giorgio Andreotta Calò Photo Marco De Scalzi
BIENNALE A R T E