The exhibition, curated by Germano Celant, in collaboration with the artist and the Emilio Isgrò Archive, offers a broad survey of the master's art from the XNUMXs to today. An important exhibition: from the first erasures of books, dated 1964 to the visual poems on emulsified canvases and the Red Stories, to continue with the impressive and articulated texts deleted in the historical volumes de The Treccani Encyclopedia, 1970, up to those ethnic gods Ottoman codes, 2010.
The experimental and linguistic journey of Isgrò, in an unprecedented and spectacular way, will be inscribed in a setting encompassing and enveloping architecture. The rooms of the Napoleonic Wing of the Foundation, enriched by transversal and diagonal walls, used to break up and modify the space as if they were lines on a sheet, will in fact function as paper supports that will convey an enormous and new erasing operation, conducted once again on literary material, so as to let the public enter a large book, visually modified by the artist.
The choice of the text that will flow on the surfaces of the exhibition envelope fell on romance Moby Dick by Herman Melville, so as to imply a fantastic transit in the belly of a cetacean, that of erasing words and writings that made Isgrò famous: “The theme I address for this exhibition at the Cini Foundation in Venice, the city where the first erasures were born in 1964, can only be that of language. For this reason it seemed necessary to resort to the biblical tradition filtered by the Moby DickMelville's wonderful novel – explains Emilio Isgrò – It will be Melville's canceled work that will therefore contain all the others and whoever enters the exhibition will be accompanied into the belly of the whale, or the belly of the media language that covers its real and desperate silence with noise".
The exhibition sees the presence of works from important public and private, national and international collections, among which stand out Christ canceller, 1968, installation composed of 38 canceled volumes, from the Center Pompidou in Paris; Map, 1970, from the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto; Historical, canceled book from 1972, from the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome; the monumental geographical map erased Worldview, 2007, 9 meters long, from the Luigi Pecci Contemporary Art Center, Prato; four precious works from the Gallerie d'Italia collection; Volkswagen poem, 1964, from the Study Center and Archive of Communication of Parma; the Red History Alma's run, 1969, from the Giovanni Fattori Civic Museum of Livorno; and the Corpus Justinianeum, canceled in six volumes, of 2018.
The anthology is accompanied by a volume published by the Treccani publishing house, which includes, in addition to pages Moby Dick and an interview between the artist and the curator, a large illustrated chronology that explores and documents Isgrò's personal and professional career.
Exhibition realized with the contribution of Intesa Sanpaolo – Art, Culture and Historic Heritage Department within the framework of Progetto Cultura.
Cover image: Emilio Isgrò: Ottoman code of storms, 2010, acrylic on book in wooden box and plexiglass, 57,5 x 82,5 x 13 CM
