Italics presenta Panorama
Monopoli, 1-4 September 2022
1-4 September 2022
ITALICS presents from Thursday 1st to Sunday 4th September 2022 in Monopoli (Bari), the second edition of the city-wide exhibition “Panorama” curated by Vincenzo de Bellis. The exhibition itinerary embraces the ancient historic center of the Adriatic town and unfolds along a constellation of twenty exhibition spaces, including palaces, churches, squares, votive shrines hidden in the alleys and chiassi, which house 70 works from the fifteenth century to today.
The project “Panorama Monopoli” develops as a great choral story inspired by the Greek concept of xenia, to which each of the selected works contributes by offering multiple readings on universal themes that, from the fifteenth century to today, have moved the creativity of artists of different eras and interested human reflections for about seven centuries. For the Greeks, the term xenia summarized the sense of hospitality and the relationship with the foreigner, governed by basic behavioral rules, such as the custom of paying homage to the guest with a “farewell gift” to testify to having liked the visit.
In a sense, xenia is a form of ritualized friendship based on reciprocity. The concept is linked to that of foreigner, from xenos, and to the history of Monopoli, which is common to that of many other cities on the Adriatic coast, a crossroads of exchanges, interests, peoples and trade. Egnatini (coming from the Messapian center of nearby Egnazia), Byzantines, Bretons, Arabs, Spaniards, Venetians have contributed in various ways to making the culture of the city a real polychrome mosaic but, at the same time, these menacing presences have structured it like a mighty fortress on the sea.
The ancient seaside village of Monopoli located in the heart of the Apulian coast along the “Costa dei Trulli” preserves a centuries-old stratification of the history of human civilization. The historic center, of medieval origin, is a maze of pedestrian alleys, typical noise and ancient squares, a jewel of popular housing in dialogue with sumptuous religious buildings and splendid noble palaces. Among these streets takes shape the second edition of the widespread exhibition “Panorama” which includes about 70 works by 60 artists distributed along a path made up of 20 exhibition spaces. There are seven performances that will activate the places chosen for the action, the local community or, in turn, other works exhibited in the same context.
The exhibition itinerary embraces the main churches of the village, such as the Church and former monastery of Saints Joseph and Anna, with its surprising majolica floor that hosts one of the many dialogues between different eras in the history of art that will meet along the way; the nerve centers of the urban fabric such as Piazza Palmieri where a performance will be staged, and then Piazzetta Santa Maria and Largo Castello; and then more intimate spaces of cloisters, chiassi, hallways and votive shrines in the alleys of the historic center that will house site-specific installations. Palazzo Martinelli, the Complex of San Leonardo, the stables of Casa Santa and the Sala delle Armi of the Charles V Castle host the four main exhibition centers.
In the spring of 1953 Sanfilippo exhibited La mia occupazione in the important exhibition Arte astratta italiana e francese set up at GNAM. The French artists on display, including Andrè Bloc, Auguste Herbin, Sonia Delaunay, Jean Dewasne and Serge Poliakof, are all operating in a neoconcretist milieu. More varied addresses, on the other hand, presents the Italian section of the exhibition, where the Milanese abstractionists, the Group of Eight, the Spatialists, the Origine and Forma Group are represented. La mia occupazione is a painting that can no longer be placed in relation either with the research of artists from across the Alps or with those of Italian concretists. The painting seems rather comparable to contemporary works by Piero Dorazio built, such as that of Sanfilippo, on joints and slips of shapes along the vertical axis of the canvas. La mia occupazione presents a structure of freer forms, as well as Diverse storie of the same year, collected “in an almost atmospheric space”, as Giuseppe Marchiori wrote in 1952, “forms that aggregate and disintegrate in continuous dimensional and tonal relationships , building a non-measurable spatiality yet modulated in the light that reveals it ”.
“Panorama Monopoli” is realized under the patronage of the UNESCO, the Ministry of Culture, the support of the Department of Tourism, Economy of Culture and Valorization of the Territory of the Puglia Region and the Departments of Culture and Tourism of the Municipality of Monopoli. Belmond is Main Partner of ITALICS supporting “Panorama Monopoli” and all future projects. After supporting the first edition of Panorama, Tod’s confirms its support as a Partner of the project in 2022. The “Panorama Monopoli” public program is organized in collaboration with Treccani Arte.
Media partner Il Giornale dell’Arte.
