April 8 through June 11, 2017
Opening hours: Fridays from 3:00 pm to 7:00
Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 am to 12:00 am, and from from 3:00 pm to 7:00
Free admission
Inauguration: Saturday, April 8 at 6:00 pm
Press release
Giannetto Bravi at Civico Museo Parisi-Valle in Maccagno
A great personal exhibition to talk about "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"
"Giannetto Bravi and the distracted examiner" is the title of the new exhibition at the Parisi-Valle Civic Museum in Maccagno con Pino e Veddasca.
This exhibition is dedicated to Giannetto Bravi, one of the great masters of the new avant-garde who has combined pop and conceptual elements. Clara Castaldo is the curator of the exhibition, which will be open from April 8th (inauguration: Saturday, April 8th, 6:00 pm) through June 11, 2017.
The various sections of the exhibition offer an overview of the themes chosen by the author: from the series dedicated to Pompei (here it will be side by side with the archaeological section of the museum) to the famous bolt and chain suitcases, as portrayed in the photographic sequence by Mimmo Jodice for the catalog of the Apollinaire Center exhibition), to the famous ancient and modern Quadrerie, including numerous pieces on display for the first time.
"My sincere thanks to those who strongly wanted to set up this exhibition, thus allowing us to meet - from an unusual perspective - one of the protagonists of contemporary art, who was also a precursor of certain observations, thoughts and cultural phenomena that are typical of the twenty-first century,” says Fabio Passera, Mayor of Maccagno con Pino e Veddasca. “Together with our team and all our followers, I witness the exciting growth of the Parisi-Valle Museum, which is not only a temple for muses, but a place where culture is shared with everybody."
Clara Castaldo writes in the presentation for this exhibit, "We all bring home from the merchandise shop our own reproductions of works of art, and perhaps that’s where we spend most of the time we should spend looking at and enjoying the original works of art themselves. This is the dark side of humanity’s new era; it’s a well-known fact since the 60’s. Whatever we see, we want. We’ve all turned into consumers, as opposed to human beings. In order to be constantly surrounded by these reproductions, even when we don’t want to, we have traded in a fundamental element that gives true meaning to any work of art: the “here and now”. Even an HD reproduction is missing the unique and unrepeatable emotion that only the “here and now” of a work of art – its being in a certain place and in a certain moment in time – can transmit. Only enjoying art as one should, where it actually is, can give the authentic emotion it was created to give. Walter Benjamin in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (which inspired the title for this exhibition) said it very clearly.”
“Associazione la Città Sonora” will enrich the inauguration day with "Sound Paintings," a duo made of Mauro Bravo (double bass) and Davide Arzuffi (electronics) who will perform a piece called "The Voyage of the guardian".
Giannetto Bravi (1938-2013) was born in Tripoli (Libya) on December 18, 1938. He lived from 1940 to 1974 in Naples where he graduated in geology and started his artistic experience as part of the new avant-garde. His contribution to Operazione Vesuvio, wanted by Pierre Restany in the early seventies, is well known. It has been observed that his creativity has developed partly from his deep knowledge of the local culture, and partly from a scientific attitude that examines and verifies every finding.
Postcards had an important role in his work since 1972; at first he just sent postcards of the Vesuvio as evidence of the Operazione Vesuvio in progress, and then he started to assemble them into paintings or art books.
The most recent cycle is the " Quadreria d’arte ", an ongoing project based on postcards of the most famous masterpieces collected in the greatest museums and prestigious exhibition spaces around the world, which was presented in 2007 at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.
The artist has dozens of personal exhibitions and over 100 group exhibitions under his belt. Many art critics have written about his works, including Achille Bonito Oliva, Pierre Restany, Gillo Dorfles, Lea Vergine, Angela Vettese, Giulio Carlo Argan, Francesco Tedeschi, Cristina Casero, Giorgio Zanchetti, Elena Di Raddo, Philippe Daverio.
Locandina mostra (click per ingrandire)
