IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BIOGRAPHY OF A TRAVELER: Roots, Losses and Landings
NOVEMBER 17 – 30, 2024 – Palmieri Foundation, in Vico dei Sotterranei in Lecce.
Curated by Dores Sacquegna
Opening Sunday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. is the group exhibition of contemporary art entitled BIOGRAPHY OF A TRAVELER: Roots, Losses and Landings, organized by Primo Piano LivinGallery at the Palmieri Foundation The event, under auspices of the Municipality of Lecce, is curated by Dores Sacquegna. Exhibition catalogue on display.
THE SHOW
The real journey is not in seeking new lands but in having new eyes (Proust)
Through the three identity acts of roots, losses and landings, the show aims to investigate, the mechanisms of the ethical and political function of art. Common thought of all artists is Trans-forming and Trans-figuring, which unifies opposite concepts such as stillness and flowing, matter and ineffable in defining boundaries and our very existence. Here the word “journey” is understood as a crossing of the human being in the landscape of perception. It stands for freedom, for detachment, for exile, for rebirth, for care, for roots, for memory. Aspects that contemporary art has recounted in so many ways especially in recent years. On display are the testimonies of sixteen contemporary artists from the United States, Austria, Luxembourg, and Iraq (as far as foreign artists are concerned), in dialogue with their Apulian colleagues. A multidisciplinary exhibition that invites the viewer to embark on a journey marked by the idea of “root/origin,” of “loss/empty,” offering cues of “landing/rebirth.” An intoxicating itinerary in art and taste thanks to the partnership with two Salento farms between tastings and welcome drinks: Azienda Agricola Contino and Azienda Agricola Ferrara. An event in which to lose oneself and finally find oneself.
ARTISTS AND WORKS
The exhibition opens with live PERFORMANCES by two artists from Puglia, MASSIMILIANO MANIERI with “Return to Gaza” and NUNZIO LOBASSO with “Sublimations.” In addition to them, Primo Piano presents the national premiere of the film “Iihya” (Rebirth), by Middle Eastern artist and activist SAMA ALSHAIBI, with the closing chapter of “Silsila” (Connection), a project begun in 2009, crisscrossing the historic deserts and water bodies of North Africa and the Middle East. The protagonist’s return is not only one from exile but also a revival and gifting back to the rivers. A restorative ritual of spatial justice and eco-resilience, the video presents the power of harmony and balance through gestures of poetic imagination.
It’s up to you, the visitor, to decide where to start your journey: you could start from memory and its de-construction to reflect on questions of identity, time, history, with GIOVANNI FELLE‘s “visions of a bedroom” or sit on MONICA LISI‘s “flying carpet” to learn about her story, before entering the Wunderkammer that GIANNI CHIRIATTI has set up for you. The idea of travel is measured by the concept of comfort wherever we go and that we call “home” with DENA HADEN. Your path will take you into the labyrinthine “chromatic deviations” by NUNZIO LOBASSO and you will search for light among matrices and algorithms with SARA McKENZIE.
You will experience the broken balance between you and nature with MASSIMO RUIU and search for reality in CLAUDIO RIZZO‘s Dream of Atlas. Of mirrors and reflections is the journey that SIAN PRICE and MARCO RIHA offer you at the boundaries of time. Art, you know, is Trans-figuration of reality, and in CLAUDIO LONGO‘s Genius loci, you will meet a shamans who will accompany you in a fluid landscape where the sky is lost in the sea with JUSTINE GIORDANO. You will dance to the rhythm of the didgeridoo with MARGOT REDING-SCHROEDER and after shedding your bestiality in the lower world, you will access the middle world with FERNANDO SPANO‘s “pro-actions” that together with the god Apollo, will await you at the top where you can finally enjoy the higher Good.
In this world of visions, we offer you unexpected places of reflection…fluid, visual, sonic and poetic paths…where human nature is unpredictable, and time is irreverent!
Artists: Sama Alshaibi (Iraq), Justine Giordano (United States), Dena Haden (United States), Sara McKenzie (United States), Margot Reding-Schroeder (Grand Duchy of Luxembourg), Marco Riha (Austria). From Apulia: Gianni Chiriatti, Giovanni Felle, Monica Lisi, Nunzio Lobasso, Claudio Longo, Massimiliano Manieri, Sian Price, Claudio Rizzo, Massimo Ruiu, Fernando Spano.
cover picture still video detail @ by Sama Alshaibi
