The Fondazione Galleria Milano is pleased to invite you to the opening of “Journey Around a Table: Alik Cavaliere and Vincenzo Ferrari”, curated by Bianca Trevisan and Nicola Pellegrini. Thanks to the discovery of previously unpublished documents, the exhibition reconstructs the dense network of correspondence between Alik Cavaliere (Rome, 1926 – Milan, 1998) and Vincenzo Ferrari (Cremona, 1941 – Milan, 2012). Having met at the Brera Academy at the beginning of the decade, where they both taught, their approaches were different, seemingly worlds apart. The former employed a narrative language focused on the material, while the latter’s was alphabetic and semiotic. Yet, in their nearly daily meetings—in one’s studio or the other’s—they discovered a common framework for thought: the everyday object.
The upper floor of the Foundation houses a reconstruction of the installation “Attraversare il tempo” (“Crossing Time”), created between 1978 and 1979 by Alik Cavaliere and Vincenzo Ferrari and presented in Como, Alessandria, and Milan. “Attraversare il tempo” is a visionary and impossible journey through space and time, a utopian attempt to make visible the concepts set forth in Einstein’s theory of relativity, a game of chess played by the two artists, and a proposed train itinerary that would actually be undertaken with the family of their artist friend Bobo Piccoli. The original plates, from which 12 lithographs were produced, are accompanied by preparatory sketches, the notebook in which the two artists documented the creative and conceptual process, and photos from the trip with the Piccoli family. Also on display are other works by the artists from the 1960s and 1970s that help reconstruct the genesis of their artistic explorations and shed light on why, ultimately, this collaboration came to an end.
As Cavaliere recounts in his notebooks: “We worked together for a year, approaching a theme through our different experiences and working practices […] through rethinking and testing, we proceeded by process of elimination, gradually eliminating… everything.” The works on display share common traits, yet yield different results: both experimented, for example, with works in boxes—or rather, in suitcases—drawing on Duchamp’s “boîte-en-valise” experiment. On the lower level, archival materials, artworks, and photographs that trace the relationship between the two are also on view.
The exhibition is part of the program dedicated to the centennial of Alik Cavaliere’s birth, organized by the Alik Cavaliere Art Center. On October 15, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts will host an international symposium dedicated to the artist, curated by Angela Vettese, Fania Cavaliere, and Giulia Vandelli. Among others, Bianca Trevisan will also speak, further exploring the conceptual dialogue between the two artists.
