As in past editions, AMACI has entrusted the design of the guiding image for Giornata del Contemporaneo to an internationally renowned Italian artist. After Michelangelo Pistoletto (2006), Maurizio Cattelan (2007), Paola Pivi (2008), Luigi Ontani (2009), Stefano Arienti (2010), Giulio Paolini (2011) and Francesco Vezzoli (2012), this year it is Marzia Migliora‘s turn to propose Aqua Micans.
The photographic shot, made in situ, depicts some water bearers as they cross Alberto Burri’s Grande Cretto in Gibellina. With this line of women, engaged in a daily and vital action, Marzia Migliora has chosen to take up and repeat the ritual solemnity of an ancient gesture that is the same all over the South: carrying an amphora on their heads or shoulders, traversing a harsh and desolate landscape. The artist wanted as protagonists of his action a group of women from Gibellina, descendants of those who lived in the houses destroyed by the tragic earthquake of 1968, whose rubble is now concealed and guarded under the mantle of Alberto Burri’s Grande Cretto. Their presence thus goes beyond the fulfillment of a performance, to reinforce on the contrary the deep and emotional bond with the place.
The title Aqua Micans is taken from the novel Locus Solus by Raymond Roussel: it is a title inspired by the virtues of that liquid that the French writer wanted to be able to bring human beings back to life. Water, a common good par excellence, becomes in Marzia Migliora’s image an element of life, survival and salvation, while the figure of the water bearer becomes a symbol of an act of care.
The artist’s choice to set the image inside Burri’s Grande Cretto, one of the most important contemporary works of art in our heritage, stems from its significance and extraordinary expressive power. The Great Cretto, which extends over the ruins of Gibellina for ten hectares, appears as a labyrinth of fractures on the ground, an environment that refers to drought as the absence of life. The image combines in itself the strength of the monument to memory and the vitality of artistic production capable of communicating with intact power even many years later.
For the Ninth Giornata del Contemporaneo, the artist has thus leveraged the equivalence between water and culture, necessary nourishment for humans, and between water bearers and contemporary cultural workers, bearers in turn of a precious and irreplaceable commodity on which the growth and well-being of society depends. At a time of crisis and cutbacks, Aqua Micans introduces a reflection on the role of the museum as an institution responsible for preserving and protecting the existing and at the same time stimulating the production and rethinking of the new, creating an ideal bridge between the present and our art-historical past, through which to build a positive future projection.
MARZIA MIGLIORA
Marzia Migliora’s work is articulated through a wide range of languages including photography, video, sound, performance, installation and drawing. Her works originate from a focus on the everyday. The artist investigates themes such as identity, desire and responsibility, touching on present and past history and relating places, spaces and memories. Her works pose as questions that aim at an active involvement of the viewer, who becomes the protagonist and without whom the work itself cannot be resolved: the artist’s goal is to propose an experience that is lived and shared by the public.
Among her solo shows: Maximum Capacity Minus One, 2012, performance, Fondazione Maxxi, Rome; Viaggio intorno alla mia camera, 2012, project for Oltre il Muro, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli; Ginnastica dei ciechi- La corsa al cerchio, 2012, Giardino di Sant’Alessio, Rome; Rada, 2011, Centro per l’arte contemporanea Ex3, Florence; Those who neglect to reread condemn themselves to always read the same story, 2009- 2011, Museo del Novecento, Milan; Tanatosi, 2006, Fondazione Merz, Turin; The Agony & The Ecstasy, 2005, The Foundation for Art & Creative Technology, Liverpool (UK); Pari o Dispari, 2004, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin.
She took part in the group exhibitions: Vaf Foundation Artistic Award, 2012, Stadtgalerie, Kiel (DE); Museum Biedermann, Donaueschingen (DE); Castello Colonna, Genazzano (IT); Acting out, Italian Artists in Action, 2012, Maxxi Foundation, Rome; MenteLocale, 2012, Cesac, Caraglio; Forte Piano, the forms of sound, 2012, Auditorium della Musica, Rome; C’est à ce prix que nous mangeons du sucre, 2011, Event 2011, Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux (FR); Sindrome italiana, 2010, Le Magasin, Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble (FR); Tutto è connesso, ricerche e approfondimenti nell’arte dell’ultimo decennio attraverso la collezione, 2010, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli; Où? Scènes du sud: Espagne, Italie, Portugal, 2007, Carrè d’Art Nimes (FR); La parola nell’arte, 2007, Mart, Rovereto; Focus, 2003, Videoteca GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (ES).
Event promoted by
AMACI – Associazione dei Musei d’Arte Contemporanea Italiani
With the support of
Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo – Direzione Generale per il paesaggio, le belle arti, l’architettura e l’arte contemporanee
Under the High Patronage of the Presidente della Repubblica
Under the patronage of
Rappresentanza in Italia della Commissione Europea
Senato della Repubblica
Camera dei Deputati
Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo
Ministero degli Affari Esteri
Conferenza delle Regioni e delle Province autonome
Unione Province d’Italia
Associaizone Nazionale dei Comuni Italiani
ICOM Italia
Technology Partner
Telecom Italia
Partner
Terna SpA
Supporting Partner
Regione Toscana
Thanks to
Fondazione Goca – Gallery of Contemporary Art Palermo for the production of the Aqua Micans project.
