ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI

Dates

24 April – 17 July 2022 (Manica Lunga wing and Casa del Conte Verde)
24 April – 26 February 2023 (Castello di Rivoli)
Inauguration: Sunday 24 April 2022, 2 – 6 pm

Venues

Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Castello, Manica Lunga wing, gardens of Castello di Rivoli, Conference Hall and Theatre), the Cerruti Villa, the Casa del Conte Verde and the Digital Cosmos

“This exhibition brings together many contemporary visions of what it is to be human today in a posthuman world, what the human condition is now. For the first time, artists of the traditional art world and of the new digital NFT art world will be brought together through their works and in person in conversation – from from Beeple to Julie Mehretu to Richard Bell, and many more.”

– Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Director of Castello di Rivoli

Highlights of ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI include:

Beeple’s HUMAN ONE – the international museum premiere of this kinetic video sculpture with corresponding NFT presented face-to-face with Francis Bacon’s painting Study for Portrait IX

Richard Bell’s Bulldozer Scene No Tin Shack, 2022, installed in the gardens of Castello di Rivoli – a special commission by one of the world’s foremost Indigenous artists and thinkers, whose work is featured in documenta 15, opening in June this year

Julie Mehretu’s painting Orient (after D. Cherry, post Irma and summer), 2017-2020, displayed with Giacomo Balla’s futurist Velocità astratta, 1913, of a century before, presenting different visions of a layered and dynamic reality

For the opening on Sunday 24 April, a series of talks with artists whose works are part of ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI and Castello di Rivoli Director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Chief Curator and Curator of Collections Marcella Beccariawill take place in the gardens. 

2 pm – Bracha L. Ettinger
2.30 pm – Anna Boghiguian
3 pm – Silvia Calderoni and Ilenia Caleo
3.30 pm – Julie Mehretu
4 pm – Beeple (Michael Winkelmann)
4.30 pm – Richard Bell
5 pm – Nikita Kadan

The following artists in the exhibition will be speaking near their works with Castello di Rivoli Curator Marianna Vecellio on Sunday 24 April, earlier in the day: Enrico David, Irene Dionisio, Agnieszka Kurant and Marianna Simnett.

Concept

ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI opens on April 24, 2022. This exhibition marks a midway point in the overall ESPRESSIONI project, a multi-year exhibition and research programme that began in 2020 and will continue through 2023, which looks at human expressions in art from prehistory to today in societies across the world.

ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI is a major exhibition unfolding across the entire complex of Castello di Rivoli, a 17^th-century baroque palace in the hills above Turin, from the historic galleries of the Castello, to the spaces of the Manica Lunga wing and gardens, to the Museum’s Theatre, the Cerruti Villa (a house museum that is part of Castello di Rivoli) and to the Casa del Conte Verde in the historic centre of the town.

ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI refers to the fractured aspect of contemporary life during which art is experienced against the backdrop of disruptive elements such as the digital revolution, pandemics and war. The exhibition investigates the multiple forms of expressiveness, expression, expressivity and expressionism that run through the histories of art and societies.

“The idea for the ‘Espressioni’ programme originated as a response to pressing urgencies that define our world,” says Christov-Bakargiev, “with the suggestion of the obsolescence of the individual human subject due to, on the one hand, the need for a complex multispecies co-evolution to achieve climate and social justice, and, on the other hand,  the multiplication of ‘dividual’ selves and forms of mass vanity in our ‘selfie’ era of hyper-self-representation combined with the celebration of technology. The exhibition’s time span extends from the dawn of human civilizations, with early cave paintings, up to the present through a global perspective, which includes a study of Street art and forays into the online world.”

ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI will activate new dialogues, emphasising the multiple ways in which artists in different times and geographical areas express their emotional states and their bodily sensations. The exhibition includes painting, sculpture, installation, collage, photography, video, sound art, performance and new forms of digital art.

ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI will also include numerous new artistic productions, performances and special solo ‘focus’ projects by artists such as: Ed Atkins (Oxford, UK, 1982); Kader Attia (Seine-Saint-Denis, France, 1970); Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė (Kaunas, Lithuania, 1983), Vaiva Grainytė (Kaunas, Lithuania, 1984)and Lina Lapelytė (Kaunas, Lithuania, 1984); Richard Bell (Charleville, Australia, 1953); Beeple (Michael Winkelmann,Fond du Lac, USA, 1981); Anna Boghiguian (Cairo, Egypt, 1946); Silvia Calderoni (Lugo, Italy, 1981) and Ilenia Caleo (Livorno, Italy, 1974); Enrico David (Ancona, Italy, 1966); Irene Dionisio (Turin, Italy, 1986); Bracha L. Ettinger (Tel Aviv, Israel, 1948); Mariangela Gualtieri (Cesena, Italy, 1951); Grada Kilomba (Lisbon, Portugal, 1968); Agnieszka Kurant (Lódz, Poland, 1978); Dana Schutz (Livonia, USA, 1976); Marianna Simnett (Kingstone-upon-Thames, UK, 1986); Uýra Sodoma (Emerson Pontes da Silva, Santarém, Brazil, 1991) and Jenna Sutela (Turku, Finland, 1983).

Focus Projects

The exhibition at Castello di Rivoli marks the museum world premiere of HUMAN ONE, 2021 (0xa4c38796C35Dca618FE22a4e77F4210D0b0350d6), by Beeple (Michael Winkelmann, b. 1981). HUMAN ONE is a kinetic video sculpture existing in both the physical and digital realms with a perpetual dynamic animation of a person resembling an astronaut traversing an ever-changing landscape. Beeple created the artwork in association with new blockchain technologies known as “smart contracts”. In this case, the artist may modify the work remotely over time. Thus, the viewer will have a unique experience of HUMAN ONE each time they return to see the artwork. The person walking in an ever-changing landscape represents the first human in the Metaverse. HUMAN ONE will be presented in visual dialogue with one of the most important paintings of Francis Bacon (1909–1992), Study for Portrait IX, 1956-1957, from the Cerruti Collection at Castello di Rivoli. In the unique setting of the 147-meter-long, six-meter-wide Manica Lunga wing of Castello di Rivoli, the dynamism of the walking person in HUMAN ONE contrasts with the static nature of the man portrayed in Bacon’s portrait, which reflects the existentialist anxieties of the post-Second World War modern era when it was created. Bacon’s Study for Portrait IX portrays its subject with no hands and no agency, sitting on a chair against an emerald green background within a white linear geometric structure that Bacon often used to frame his figures. By contrast, Beeple’s “astronaut” represented in the artist’s evolving landscape is moving constantly, while the audience stands still. HUMAN ONE represents a new era of digital art. The journey of the “astronaut” invites the viewer to consider the relationship between their digital identity and their physical identity. Beeple captured the attention of the international art world and global crypto community after the Christie’s auction of the artwork EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, 2021, as an NFT a year ago, serving as a catalyst for digital art and the uniqueness that each NFT (non-fungible token) represents through the new blockchain technology of the smart contract. Later in 2021 Beeple made HUMAN ONE, which was auctioned at Christie’s Evening Sale to Ryan Zurrer, a Swiss-based businessman and collector of digital art. Beeple is widely considered the standard-bearer of digital art and HUMAN ONE can be viewed as a revolutionary work of art of our times in the way the artist questions the boundaries between the virtual and real worlds.

The solo project by Richard Bell conceived for Castello di Rivoli will be installed in the gardens and the Conference Hall of the Manica Lunga wing of Castello. Bell’s artistic production, which began in the 1980s, is closely intertwined with Indigenous political issues and investigates the brutality and discrimination experienced by Aborigines in Australia. Referring to biographical events, Bell tells a story often hidden in an attempt to recognise the autonomy and aesthetics associated with the political power of contemporary Aboriginal art. His two projects here include a life-size reproduction of his Aborigine family’s tin shack demolished by the Australian authorities, which will be installed in the gardens with typical furnishings and with his new video installation (Bulldozer Scene No Tin Shack, 2022) about the demolition of his house when he was 14 years old. The looped projection shows a teenager who, in an attempt to stop the bulldozer that was demolishing the tin shack in which he was living in 1967, imitates the gesture of the man who had stopped the advance of a tank in Tiananmen Square in 1989. In the video, the teenage boy stands still and, despite his resistance, the bulldozer destroys the shack, leaving a pile of rubble. A mini-retrospective of Bell’s work in the adjoining Conference Hall presents works including Prelude to Imagining Victory of the series Umbrella Embassy, 2013, which is the first installation version of the work Tent Embassy, 2013 – in progress; the recent paintings U Can’t Touch This, 2021, and Immigration Policy, 2017; works from the past, such as Ministry Kids (Children’s Parliament), 1992, and Pigeon Holed, 1992, which reflect the fear that Aborigines may access Australian institutional and power positions. The painting Bell’s Theorem, 2002, will also be installed along with original notes from the artist’s writings. Finally, the video Scratch an Aussie, 2008, will also be on display. Richard Bell’s work will feature prominently in documenta 15, opening in June 2022.

Julie Mehretu, one of the major painters exploring abstraction today, began her activity in the late 1990s. Known for her layered paintings combining contemporary references with architecture and urban planning, in 2003 she exhibited at Castello di Rivoli as part of the exhibition The Moderns. More recently, Mehretu has used photographs found online and in newspapers to prepare the first draft her canvases, made up of layers of personal marks that carry the image to a unique form of dynamic abstraction. From migration crises to global warming, from the fires in California to the Charlottesville violence in 2017, up to the rise of reactionary movements in international politics, the latest cycle of Mehretu’s works includes Orient (after D. Cherry, post Irma and summer), 2017-2020. In the case of this work, the specific reference is to the conflicts in the Middle East and the tragic events of the war in Syria. Interested in the formal problems of colour and line, the artist creates a compression of time and space in this painting, as well as a short circuit between the art historical references: from the geometric abstraction of Suprematism to the dynamism of Italian Futurism, up to Abstract Expressionism. On the occasion of ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI, Mehretu has chosen to exhibit this work belonging to her private collection and considered by the artist to be extremely significant. It will enter into dialogue with Velocità astratta, 1913, a major Futurist painting by Giacomo Balla belonging to the Cerruti Collection at Castello di Rivoli. A founding member of the Futurist movement in the early 20^th century, Balla was one of the inventors of Modern abstraction through the kinetic dynamism of moving objects such as the automobile, whose speed characterised the new technological progress of the time.

Read more for information on the many other Focus Projects in this exhibition.

Exhibited Works

Alongside a selection of works from the Castello di Rivoli Collection and the Francesco Federico Cerruti per l’Arte Collection at Castello di Rivoli, the exhibition will include national and international loans from many private and public institutions. Among the numerous artworks on display, there will be photographic images of ancient cave paintings by Clarence Bicknell (Herne Hill, 1842 – Casterino, 1918) and David Coulson (Paris, 1948), while historical works from the Cerruti Collection will include Penitent Magdalene, c. 1490-1495, by Benedetto da Maiano (Maiano, 1441 – Florence, 1497); Dead Christ Supported by Angels, c. 1490-1495, by Giacomo Del Maino (Lombardy, 1469–1503); Tauromachia, 1814-1816, by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Fuendetodos, 1746 – Bordeaux, 1828); an untitled wooden sculpture by an Urhobu artist (Nigeria, 1800s); Velocità astratta, 1913, by Giacomo Balla (Turin, 1871 – Rome, 1958); Fin d’un voyage, 1929, by Alberto Savinio (Athens, 1891 – Rome, 1952);Passant furtif, 1954, by Jean Dubuffet (Le Havre, 1901 – Paris, 1985)and Study for Portrait IX, 1956-1957, by Francis Bacon (Dublin, 1909 – Madrid, 1992). Also on display are Das Attentat, 1936, by George Grosz (Berlin, 1893 – West Berlin, 1959); Senza titolo, 1956, by Pinot Gallizio, Costant, Asger Jorn, Jan Kotík, Piero Simondo, Gallizio jr (Alba, 1902–1964; Amsterdam, 1920 – Utrecht 2005; Vejrum, 1914 – Aahrus, 1973; Turnov, 1916 – Berlin, 2002; Cosio di Arroscia, 1928); Nascondersi vale la pena, 1959, by Gastone Novelli (Vienna, 1925 – Milan, 1968);I numeri malefici, 1978, by Fabio Mauri (Rome, 1926–2009); Persone nere, 1984, Ragazza che fotografa un QRcode, 2021, Tre persone che spingono la “Sfera di giornali” (QR-Code – Buongiorno Michelangelo di Ugo Nespolo 1967-1968, Torino), 2021, Lampadina, 1962-66, Sacra Conversazione, 1972, and L’architettura dello specchio, 1990, by Michelangelo Pistoletto (Biella, 1933); Monument for the Birthday of Rome, 1995, by Jimmie Durham (Houston, 1940 – Berlin, 2021); See Through, 1970, by Vito Acconci (New York, 1940–2017); I Am too Sad to Tell You, 1971, by Bas Jan Ader (Winschoten, 1942 – Atlantic Ocean, 1975); Cave of Forgotten Dreams, 2010, by Werner Herzog (Munich, 1942); Poster per “Prostitution”, 1976, by Cosey Fanni Tutti (Christine Newby, Kingston upon Hull, 1951); Poet and Muse, 1991, and Notes to Basquiat: Shaman, 2001, by Gordon Bennett (Monto, 1955 – Brisbane, 2014); City Deep, 2020, by William Kentridge (Johannesburg, 1955); Untitled, 1985, by Jean-Michel Basquiat (New York, 1960–1988); Novecento, 1997, by Maurizio Cattelan (Padua, 1960); A Way in Untilled, 2012, by Pierre Huyghe (Paris, 1962); WHERE DOES IT ALL END?, 1994-1995, by Sarah Lucas (Holloway, London, 1963); Gaining and Losing, 2012, di Rahraw Omarzad (Kabul, 1964); United We Stand, Divided We Fall, 1993, by Damien Hirst (Bristol, 1965); Filter, 1998-2020, by Susan Philipsz (Glasgow, 1965); Untitled, 2018, by Kai Althoff (Cologne, 1966); Mick Miller, 2008, and Brutalities, 2014, by Vernon Ah Kee (Innisfail, 1967); Orient (after D. Cherry, post Irma and summer), 2017-2020, by Julie Mehretu (Addis Ababa, 1970); Vicino a Torino muore un cane vecchio, 2003, by Diego Perrone (Asti, 1970); Revival of the Snake, 2005, by Yang Fudong (Beijing, 1971); Lucid Skin, 2019, by Nikita Kadan (Kiev, 1982) and AntiGonna (Vinnytsia, 1986); Il ciclo de La Risalita, 2020, by Patrizio Di Massimo (Jesi, 1983); Senza titolo, 2021, by Francis Offman (Butare, 1987); Giochi da adulti, 2020, by Guglielmo Castelli (Turin, 1987); Autodesire 9, Grief X, 2020-2021, by Lauren Wy (Long Beach, 1987); Soggetto danzante, 2016, by Giangiacomo Rossetti (Milan, 1989); Banda di fiori (Notturno), 2021, by Alice Visentin (Ciriè, 1993), and The Family… and the Zombie, 2021, by Karrabing Film Collective (Australia, 2008).

Notes for Editors:

ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI

24 April – 17 July 2022 (Manica Lunga of Castello di Rivoli and Casa del Conte Verde)
24 April – 26 February 2023 (Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Castello di Rivoli Gardens and the Digital Cosmos)

Curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Beccaria, Marianna Vecellio and Fabio Cafagna with the curatorial coordination of Anna Musini.

The exhibition includes a focus project on the history of Street Art, “Wall Street”, by Gianluca Marziani (with Stefano Antonelli).

Public Programmes

In conjunction with the exhibition, Castello di Rivoli is organising a series of conferences, meetings and in-depth screenings for the public, which will be attended by some of the artists whose work is on display in dialogue with experts from different fields.

The ESPRESSIONI Project 2020-2023

ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI is the second chapter of a three-part programme.

ESPRESSIONI. THE EPILOGUE will take place in Spring 2023 with works by Nalini Malani (Karachi, 1946), Nicole Eisenman (Verdun, 1965), Adrián Villar Rojas (Rosario, 1980), Cooking Sections (Daniel Fernández Pascual, 1984, and Alon Schwabe, 1984), Tabita Rezaire (Paris, 1989), and major works by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Fuendetodos, 1746 – Bordeaux, 1828), William Turner (London, 1775 – Chelsea, 1851), James Ensor (Ostend, 1860–1949), Gustav Klimt (Baumgarten, 1862 – Vienna, 1918), Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz (Könisberg, 1867 – Moritzburg, 1945), Anton Zoran Mušič (Boccavizza, 1909 – Venice, 2005), and Jackson Pollock (Cody, 1912 – Springs, 1956), among others.

ESPRESSIONI. THE PROPOSITION was held 2020 – 2021 and included a solo exhibition and performance by Anne Imhof(Gießen, 1978), as well as major works by Simone dei Crocifissi (Bologna, 1330 ca. – 1399 ca.), Dosso Dossi (San Giovanni del Dosso, 1468 ca. – Ferrara, 1542), Caravaggio (Milan, 1571 – Porto Ercole, 1601), Jusepe de Ribera (Xàtiva, 1591 – Naples, 1652), Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome, 1593 – Naples, 1656 ca.), Andrea Vaccaro (Naples, 1604–1670), Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Fuendetodos, 1746 – Bordeaux, 1828), Alexej von Jawlensky (Toržok, 1864 – Wiesbaden, 1941), Pablo Picasso (Malaga, 1881 – Mougins, 1973), Giorgio de Chirico (Volo, 1888 – Rome, 1978), Egon Schiele (Tulln an der Donau, 1890 – Vienna, 1918), Alberto Giacometti (Borgonovo di Stampa, 1901 – Coira, 1966), Emilio Vedova (Venice, 1919–2006), Mario Merz (Milan, 1925–2003), Marisa Merz (Turin, 1926-2019), Fabio Mauri (Rome, 1926–2009), Piero Manzoni (Soncino, 1933 – Milan, 1963), Bas Jan Ader (Winschoten, 1942 – Atlantic Ocean, 1975), Anselm Kiefer (Donaueschingen, 1945), Chris Burden (Boston, 1946 – Topanga, 2015), Isa Genzken (Bad Oldesloe, 1948), Enzo Cucchi (Morro d’Alba, 1949), Beau Dick (Kingcome Inlet, 1955 – Vancouver, 2017), Monica Bonvicini (Venice, 1965), Susan Philipsz (Glasgow, 1965), Cecily Brown (London, 1969), Wael Shawky (Alexandria, 1971), Marzia Migliora (Alessandria, 1972), Lin May Saeed (Würzburg, 1973), Regina José Galindo (Guatemala City, 1974), Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (London, 1977), Jordan Wolfson (New York, 1980), Patrizio Di Massimo (Jesi, 1983), Miao Ying (Shanghai, 1985), and Giuliana Rosso (Chivasso, 1992). Over the past year 2021, solo projects dedicated to Otobong Nkanga (Kano, 1974), Bracha L. Ettinger (Tel Aviv, 1948), Agnieszka Kurant (Lódz, 1978) and Pier Paolo Pasolini (Bologna, 1922 – Ostia, 1975) were also added.

The activities of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea are primarily supported by Regione Piemonte.

This exhibition is made possible thanks to further support of Fondazione CRT.

Castello di Rivoli thanks Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT for the artworks on permanent loan to the Museum exhibited in the frame of ESPRESSIONIomodato permanente al Museo presenti in ESPRESSIONI.

The ESPRESSIONI exhibition and research programme is supported by Andrea Ruben Levi, Benefactor.

The project by Richard Bell is made possible with the generous support of Friend Cav. Simon Mordant AO and Catriona Mordant AM.
The projects by Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell and Gordon Bennett are supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
The projects by Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell and Gordon Bennett have been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The project by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė is made possible thanks to Giuliana Setari Carusi, Benefactor, and the Lithuanian Cultural Institute

The project by Grada Kilomba is made possible thanks to the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, Cape Town and London; the Hartwig Art Foundation, Amsterdam and Nicoletta Fiorucci, Benefactor.

The project by Irene Dionisio is made possible thanks to Beatrice Bulgari, Benefactor.

The project by Agnieszka Kurant is made possible thanks to Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Benefactor.

The project by Beeple is made possible thanks to Ryan Zurrer.

The project by Dana Schutz is made possible thanks to Thomas Dane Gallery, London and Naples.

The project by Bracha L. Ettinger is made possible thanks to Artis, New York; Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, and Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv.

Transport Partner

Holders of a Frecciarossa, Frecciargento or Frecciabianca ticket – with destination Turin on a travel date within three days before the entrance to the Castello di Rivoli – will receive a 50% discount on the entrance ticket to the Museum and 10% at the Bookshop of Castello di Rivoli. Tickets can be purchased at Castello di Rivoli ticket office or on the castellodirivoli.org website. In both cases, to take advantage of the discount, it will be necessary to show your travel document at the Castello di Rivoli ticket office.

Opening hours

Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea

Thursday – Sunday 11am – 7pm

Cerruti Collection

Thursday – Sunday 11am – 7pm

Casa del Conte Verde – Via Fratelli Piol, 8 – Rivoli

Tuesday – Friday 4pm – 7pm | Saturday and Sunday 10am – 1pm / 4 pm – 7pm

Tickets

On the occasion of ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI, from Thursday 28 April to Sunday 25 September 2022, the public will be able to visit the exhibition venues of Castello di Rivoli and the Cerruti Villa with a single ticket at the special rate of € 19,50.

The exhibition in the venue of Castello di Rivoli will be open to visitors with an entrance ticket of € 10.

Visitors who the same day will visit the venue of Castello di Rivoli with an entrance ticket issued by the Casa del Conte Verde will get a reduced ticket of € 6,50.

Visitors who the same day will visit the venues of Castello di Rivoli and the Cerruti Villa with an entrance ticket issued by the Casa del Conte Verde will get a reduced ticket of € 19,50.

Visitors who the same day will visit the venue of the Casa del Conte Verde with an entrance ticket issued by Castello di Rivoli will get a reduced ticket of € 3.