Museo Arte Contemporanea Cavalese announce Mendacia mirabilia, a preview meeting with artist Jacopo Dimastrogiovanni leading up to his solo exhibition Festina lente, scheduled for next December.
The event organized for the 22nd Giornata del Contemporaneo, dealigns fully with the theme Geographies of the Contemporary, understood as a reflection on a constantly changing present in which territories, identities, and communities redefine themselves through continuous relationships and exchanges. Indeed, the meeting aims to explore an alternative geography—at once intimate and universal—mapped out not by physical borders, but by the stories and resonances an artwork can spark.
At the heart of this event is the behind-the-scenes narrative of an artwork that reveals the artist’s deep passion for collecting and previews the installation of one of the museum’s rooms, set to transform into a genuine Wunderkammer. Dimastrogiovanni leads the audience into the core of the mechanism that once governed cabinets of curiosities: the fluid and ambiguous transition between artificialia and naturalia, between artifacts of human ingenuity and wonders of the natural world. The starting point is a mysterious, evocative artifact—a tiny miniature trident that seems to defy time and reality. Supported by antique prints and old parchments, the artist weaves an incredible narrative linking this object to a mythological baby Neptune and a distant beach. It is a timeless story of rescues and wonder, whose true origin and ultimate connection to the collection are revealed only over the course of the event.
This device of “inventing reality to create wonder” acts as a magnifying glass, offering a glimpse into the deeper meaning of Festina lente. This is precisely what the exhibition represents: a reminder that cultural memory, much like our own identity, is not a static given, but a continuous puzzle that we can and must piece back together so as not to resign ourselves to invisibility. Like a collector of fragments, Jacopo Dimastrogiovanni appropriates memories gathered from others, from the past, and from their names, giving voice to the anxieties of contemporary humanity and mapping out new geographies of the imagination. A journey that heals our gaze, ultimately revealing that no one is truly bound to remain the person they were born, nor trapped within their own geography.
