The result of an ideal dialogue resulting from the sharing of a conception of the journey as an engine of artistic experiences, the exhibition, curated by Lorenzo Giusti, presents a series of new works - photographs, wall drawings, drawings and installations - born from the common travel experience on the mountains of central Sardinia. Hamish Fulton (London, 1946) is one of the most representative figures of British art in recent decades. Together with Richard Long he is considered the founding father of an international movement of "walking artists", of which the Austrian Michael Hoepfner (Krems, 1972) is today one of the most significant exponents.
The exhibition at Man of Nuoro compares the work of the two artists for the first time, identifying a common ground for comparison in the journey on the mountains of Supramonte and Gennargentu. An experience of total immersion in the harsh nature of eastern Barbagia which saw the two artists move for two weeks in the same environment, without ever meeting. United by the same passion for the mountains and a common vision of artistic practice as an expression of personal experiences (even when done in groups), Fulton and Hoepfner open up, through the use of different languages - the former's more conceptual, with texts or path graphs, the second one more visual, with photographs and installations – a significant reflection on the role of art, on the concepts of experience and creation, as well as on the relationship between man and the environment.
Hamish Fulton began his career in the late XNUMXs, calling himself a "Walking Artist", a way of distinguishing his work from the Land Art practices with which he was initially associated. His is an experiential art, which feeds on long walks in natural contexts, especially in the mountains, from Europe to South America, from Tibet to Japan. Since the XNUMXs he has declined part of his work in a participatory dimension, aimed at sharing the experience of walking, which has also found application and development in urban contexts. His works are kept in the collections of the most important museums in the world, from the MOMA in New York, to the Center Pompidou in Paris, to the Tate Modern in London.
Michael Hoepfner lives between Vienna and Berlin. His work focuses on the experience of traveling on foot, through desert or sparsely inhabited areas from Ukraine to China, from Kyrgyzstan to South Korea. A journey that began as a physical and mental exploration of geographical spaces and which continued as a reflection on concepts of reality and place. Among the most recent exhibitions are those at the Kunstforum Bank in Vienna, at the Kunsthalle in San Gallo, at the Kunstverein in Salzburg, at the ar/ge Kunst in Bolzano and in the Olaf Stüber galleries in Berlin and Hubert Winter in Vienna.
The project will be completed by a catalogue, published by NERO, with texts by Lorenzo Giusti, Giovanni Carmine and Muriel Enjalran.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a program of laboratory activities organized by the museum's educational section and by walking experiences for the public, in collaboration with local artists and environmental guides.
