Achille Bonito Oliva calls together over thirty international artists for a large exhibition project spread throughout Italy, with the patronage of EXPO 2015 and the collaboration of the Sensi Contemporanei experimental program for culture of the Agency for Territorial Cohesion and MiBACT.
Starting from Friday 25 September until the end of October 2015 the environmental installations that make up L'Albero della cuccagna are inaugurated. Nutrimenti dell'arte, an exhibition spread throughout the country with the collaboration of numerous public and private institutions, which build an exhibition network in progress over time and space. Each Foundation/Museum will host a work inspired by the Maypole: an iconographic subject that has a long tradition behind it and an equally archaic popular memory, linked to the sacred tree of fertility of Celtic origin.
In the collective imagination, the maypole represents the land of abundance and the place of entertainment. The involvement of contemporary artists makes it possible to create interactive works, finally not prohibited to minors who solicit the intervention of children and young people, giving a participatory and playful accent to the exhibition event. At the same time it also becomes the admonition of art that wants to solicit public awareness of the theme of food and hunger in the world.
They participate in The Maypole. Nutrients of art: Giovanni Albanese, Alessio Ancillai, Marco Bagnoli, Per Barclay, Gianfranco Baruchello, Bertozzi & Casoni, Tomaso De Luca, Giuseppe Ducrot, Lara Favaretto, goldiechiari, Innocente, Alfredo Jaar, Alfonso Leto, Felice Levini, Sebastian Lloyd Rees , Franco Losvizzero, Emiliano Maggi, Marzia Migliora, Masbedo, Luigi Ontani, Mimmo Paladino, Shay Frish Peri, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Paul Renner, Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio, Marinella Senatore, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Patrick Tuttofuoco, Oliviero Toscani, Costas Varotsos, Ben Vautier, Jonida Xherri, Sislej Xhafa.
The project in progress will take place in: Bergamo (GAMeC), Biella (Cittadellarte - Pistoletto Foundation), Bologna (MAMbo - Museum of Modern Art of Bologna | Institution of Bologna Museums), Bolzano (Museion), Catanzaro (MARCA - Museum of Arts of Catanzaro), Como (Fondazione Ratti), Faenza (MIC – International Museum of Ceramics), Fisciano (Salerno) (Campus UNISA – University of Salerno), Frascati (Rome) (Scuderie Aldobrandini), Genazzano (Rome) (CIAC - Colonna Museum), Genoa (Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art), Gibellina (Trapani) (Orestiadi Foundation), Lecce (Charles V Monumental Complex), Matera (European Capital of Culture), Milan (Hangar Bicocca; MUDIMA Foundation) , Montefortino (Fermo) (La Roccaccia – Monti Sibillini National Park), Naples (Castel Sant'Elmo; National Archaeological Museum, MADRE – Donna Regina Museum of Contemporary Art, Morra Foundation – Vigna San Martino), Nuoro (MAN – Museum of art in the province of Nuoro), Padula (Salerno) (Certosa), Passariano (Udine) (Villa Manin), Pescara, Potenza (Provincial Archaeological Museum), Rivoli (Turin) (Castello di Rivoli), Rome (GNAM – Gallery National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, MAXXI - Museum of XXI Century Arts), Rovereto (Trento) (MART - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto), San Gimignano (Galleria Continua), Turin (Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Merz Foundation), Venice (Ca' Pesaro | MUVE – Venice Civic Museums Foundation).
The image of the Maypole, a symbol of joy and prosperity - but also of the effort and commitment necessary to obtain them - is common to all European cultures, and is present in its various variations both in the rites widespread on the shores of the Mediterranean much in the Norse sagas. So there are many conceptual references that make this specific theme the fundamental character of the project designed by Bonito Oliva. From the value of shared identity that unites even distant traditions; to the themes of Expo 2015. If the universal exposition intended to plant the seed of awareness of environmental and nutrition issues, here is this awareness germinating and growing in the sensitivity of the artists, who interpret and transmit the message. Looking in a privileged way to the younger generations, to whom the entire project is dedicated.
The Maypole. Food for art
Conceived and edited by Achille Bonito Oliva
September 25, 2015 - February 10, 2016
With the patronage of EXPO 2015
