Fiorucci Art Trust is thrilled to highlight Neither Nor: The challenge to the Labyrinth, the exhibition curated by our Artistic Director Milovan Farronato, for the Italian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
The show gives form to the intricate relations that define the experience of knowing and evokes non-linearity, doubt, transience and intuition as inescapable tools of human understanding.
New works interweave with ones from the past by Milovan’s long term adventure companions Enrico David, Chiara Fumai and Liliana Moro. Albeit already part of Milovan’s universe, all three artists were crucial players in the reality of Fiorucci Art Trust and its many geographical and temporal declinations. Chiara and Liliana performed for our London audience at the Fiorucci Art Trust HQ with Lezioni d’Italiano while Milovan a few years prior had already accompanied Enrico in another Venetian adventure when he curated Repertorio Ornamentale, his first solo show in Italy at the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa. All three artists participated in Volcano Extravaganza, drawing inspiration from Stromboli, the volcanic island to which we return every year. We are not sure if all three indeed met there but we are certain that their paths crossed in the winding moon lit alleys of our Eolian refuge.
The subtitle for the Italian Pavilion project alludes to The Challenge to the Labyrinth (1962), a seminal essay by Italo Calvino in which he observes and outlines different cultural responses that emerged in reaction to the industrial boom. He assigns literature the task of building a ‘cosmic’ image and creating a dialogue with the future, with an attitude of peaceful acceptance towards the fact that the ‘way out’ could be nothing but the passing from one labyrinth to the other. Interpreting this line of thought in an artistic manner, Neither Nor – whose Italian title, Né altra Né questa, already uses the rhetorical figure of the anastrophe to disorientate – offers to visitors the chance to play an active role in determining the route they will take, there by confronting them with the result of their own choices: numerous and generous are the points of view, perspectives, and paths that one may freely choose.
The Italian Pavilion is being inaugurated on the occasion of the preview of the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2019 (8, 9 and 10 May). The exhibition will be open to the public from Saturday 11 May to Sunday 24 November 2019.
For more information on the exhibition and accompanying events, please visit www.neithernor.it