Il exhibition itinerary of the works of Mimmo Paladino - explains the curator Flavio Arensi - starts right from the gates of the Villa, where the large white marble "Stele" is located, a schematized figure that welcomes the visitor and invites him to indulge in a journey between mathematics, music and dream. Paladino's works, which are all a balance between signs, symbols and mysteries, have always denoted a strong link with music and more generally with harmony experienced as a geometric element. The visitor is solicited by references and references to the world of opera and music, experiencing the union between sculpture and landscape
The exhibition winds along the main places of Villa Rufolo, starting with the garden in the shade of the main tower where the «Zenith» ring recalls Wagner's ring. Along the avenues and gardens it will thus be possible to come across some of the famous works of the master from Benevento, set in the most poetic glimpses, between the columns of the cloister, or grouped in the old dining room where thirteen medium-sized sculptures are arranged. On the other hand, the horse «Architecture», «Fallen rightly», the red iron composition «Respiro» are monumental. It is a sort of itinerary in the melody which in Paladino becomes, in fact, a geometric motif, a symbolic impulse, pure form.
Particularly relevant is the installation of the twenty stone «Witnesses» on the square of the Auditorium designed by the Brazilian starchitect Oscar Niemeyer. The relationship created between Paladino's sculptures and the building is spectacular and distorts the normal perspective of the place.
To celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the death of the composer Carlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo di Venosa (1566-1613), Paladino was invited by the artistic director of the Ravello Festival, also to elaborate some ad hoc works, placed and presented in preview in the ancient chapel of the villa ("A tribute - explains Valanzuolo - to the most visionary and innovative of ancient musicians, rendered by the creative impetus of Paladino in the year in which, not surprisingly, the Festival relies on the main theme of Tomorrow" ). A further study of Gesualdo's human story will take shape thanks to the commission of a short film that Paladino made with the actor Alessandro Haber, who will impersonate the musician in his last hours of life as he dictates his will. «Labyrinthus» – this is the title of the video that will be screened as part of the exhibition – is inspired by this extraordinary literary document, adapted by Filippo Arriva and reinterpreted with original music by Franco Mussida.
Also in the Villa, in the spaces of the Museum, the four posters will be exhibited Paladin he designed for the Verdi season of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma directed by Riccardi Muti (Nabucco, I due Foscari, Attila and Simon Boccanegra), with some graphic variations, for a total of twenty-four tables never presented to the public up to now.
In the catalog of the exhibition, published by Arte'm, in addition to the text by the curator Flavio Arensi, a conversation between Filippo Arriva and Mimmo Paladino, and a text by Franco Mussida will be reported. The photographic service of the installations was entrusted to Peppe Avallone, while Pasquale Palmieri signs the shots taken on the film set.
MIMMO PALADIN
The artistic reflection of Mimmo Paladino, born in 1948 in Paduli, develops starting from the end of the 60s. Fascinated by the cultural climate of the time, between conceptual art and American Pop Art, whose most representative artists had exhibited at the Venice Biennale in '64, Paladino focused his early activity on photography, often associated with drawing, a technique particularly congenial to him . His first personal exhibition was in Caserta, in 1969.
The 70s saw his interest in the figure establish itself more and more incisively: from the initial conceptual experiments, the artist transferred his attention to figurative painting. Geometric structures and objects such as branches and masks stand out on the boldly colored canvases. In 1978 he was in New York where he inaugurated solo exhibitions the following year at the Marian Goodman Gallery and at the Annina Nosei Gallery.
In 1980 he took part in the Venice Biennale in the 'Aperto '80' section by Achille Bonito Oliva', and together with Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi and Nicola De Maria, he gave life to the 'Transavanguard'.
During the 80s his art became increasingly referential and on large surfaces of great visual impact, the artist represented life and the mystery of death. The techniques used are different: from drawing to engraving, to the insertion of three-dimensional elements on the canvases.
Since 1985 he has dedicated himself to large bronze sculptures and installations. He celebrates the 1995 intervention in Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples where he creates an enormous mountain of salt on which he places sculptures with animal and human forms.
In the 90s he successfully intensified his activity abroad and in 1994, first among contemporary Italian artists, exhibited at the National Gallery of Fine Arts in Beijing. In 1999, as part of the South London Gallery Project, in a brick cave under the Roundhouse at Chalk Farm in London, he installed the work 'The Sleepers', which dialogues with the sound interventions of Brian Eno.
In 2003 Paladino was chosen as the representative of Italian art during the Italian presidency in Brussels: the equestrian sculpture 'Zenith' was installed in the square of the European Parliament headquarters. The Luigi Pecci Contemporary Art Center in Prato, in 2002-2003, dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him and in 2004 at the Royal Palace of Caserta, as part of the Terrae Motus project, a solo exhibition was held with his most recent works. In 2005 at the MAR in Ravenna, for the first time, the sets created in the last fifteen years were exhibited. In Naples at the Capodimonte Museum in 2005 he presented a work dedicated to Don Quixote as a prelude to 'Quijote', the feature film that the artist would direct the following year. In 2008 he was entrusted with the construction of the roofing of the scaffolding of the Ghirlandina restoration site, the bell tower of the Cathedral of Modena. Also in 2008 is an important exhibition at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome with the contribution of the musician Brian Eno and a personal exhibition at the Villa Pisani in Stra. An important installation is the one present on the island of Lampedusa to commemorate the victims of the clandestine landings.
In 2009, an exhibition of sculptures that fill the streets, squares and palaces of the town, in the enchanting scenery of Orta S. Giulio, on Lake Orta. The exhibition catalog consists of 48 original and unpublished photos by Gianni Berengo Gardin: the famous photographer has created a series of portraits of Paladino and his works.
In 2010 Mimmo Paladino signed the scenography of "work in progress", a tour that saw the couple Lucio Dalla and Francesco De Gregori reunite after 30 years. On April 10 of the same year, a large blue horse measuring over four meters was installed in the Amphitheater of the Vittoriale degli Italiani in Gardone Riviera (BS), the house-museum of Gabriele d'Annunzio. At the end of January 2011 he created the new permanent room of the National Archaeological Museum of Villa Frigerj in Chieti dedicated to the Warrior of Capestrano and inaugurated the exhibition of sculptures centered on the "new Warrior", set up at the Exhibition Center of the Carichieti Foundation in Palazzo De Mayo. In 2011 the city of Milan dedicated a large retrospective to him, curated by Flavio Arensi, at Palazzo Reale, where he is the first contemporary artist to be able to exhibit in the rooms on the main floor. For the occasion, the "Mountain of salt" is installed in Piazza Duomo. In 2012 his horses were placed on the Fòcara di Novoli (Lecce), a veritable monument of agricultural engineering and devotion, erected and burned in honor of Sant'Antonio Abate and almost 25 meters high and 20 meters in diameter to the base. In 2012 he took part in the LIV Venice Biennale, Italian Pavilion
The exhibition is curated by Flavio Arensi, promoted by the Ravello Foundation, in close collaboration with Stefano Valanzuolo, Artistic Director of the Ravello Festival, – Paladino's exclusive exhibition features 50 works, including the impressive installation of the twenty «Witnesses» chosen for dialogue with Niemeyer's architecture.
