OTP – ORIZZONTE TERZO PARADISO
Various locations, Vernazza and Corniglia (La Spezia)
September 17 – December 31, 2024
OTP has been made possible thanks to the Fund for the support of small and medium-sized art towns and villages, a grant awarded in 2022 to the Municipality of Vernazza by the Ministry of the Interior – Department of Internal and Territorial Affairs – Central Directorate for Local Finance.
OTP is promoted by the Municipality of Vernazza and co-organized by Ilaria Bernardi (project curator), Carol Bonini and Luca Ciotoli for Smarturista Cooperativa di Comunità, Gianni Moggia for ProLoco di Vernazza, Gianpaolo Barrani for ProLoco Corniglia, and Francesca Guelfi for Uniti per Corniglia.
OTP includes the following exhibitions:
ALIGHIERO BOETTI. IN SITU
Convento di San Francesco – Vernazza
ARTE POVERA. LA STORIA 1967 – 1971
Castello Doria – Vernazza
OLTRE L’ARTE POVERA
Stefano Arienti, Marinella Senatore, Vedovamazzei
Facciata del Palazzo in via della Stazione 5 | Fosso, via Solferino |
Piazzetta di fronte a via Solferino | Arco in via Fieschi 222 – Corniglia
Facciata del Convento di San Francesco e Piazzale del Castello Doria – Vernazza
Curated by Ilaria Bernardi
Building on the links between Arte Povera and the territory of Liguria (since its theoretician Germano Celant, born in Genoa in 1940): Germano Celant, born in Genoa in 1940), the exhibition and educational project OTP – Orizzonte Terzo Paradiso aims not only to look at this artistic movement, but also to define its boundaries, through three exhibitions from 17 September to 31 December 2024, preceded by an interdisciplinary public programme from June to the beginning of September 2024, It consists of 8 events in 8 locations between Vernazza and Corniglia, which, when ideally united on the map, outline the symbol of the Third Paradise of Michelangelo Pistoletto, still a frequent visitor to Corniglia, whose thought inspired the whole project.
The exhibition ALIGHIERO BOETTI. IN SITU at the Convento di San Francesco in Vernazza is the result of a desire to recall the links between the Turin artist and this area, where Boetti had a house from 1965 to the early 1980s. The exhibition presents six important works, including a large map from 1972, the planes from 1981 and other smaller tapestries, which are privately owned, in particular by people from the area who were close friends of the artist. The exhibition is being organised with the help of the artist’s daughter, Agata Boetti.
At the Castello Doria in Vernazza, the exhibition ARTE POVERA: THE HISTORY 1967-1971 is configured as an educational tool for the area, in order to understand the movement, its premises, poetics and developments through an illustrated chronology of the relevant group exhibitions held between 1967 and 1971, that is, from the year in which Celant coined the term Arte povera to the year in which he postulated that this label must be dissolved in order for each artist to assume his or her singularity, and the video documentary Arte povera, curated by Beatrice Merz and Sergio Ariotti (Hopefulmonster, Turin 2011), which presents the movement in all its complexity through some of its main protagonists.
Finally, the exhibition OLTRE L’ARTE POVERA: Stefano Arienti, Marinella Senatore, Vedovamazzei, which is spread between Vernazza and Corniglia, aims to pay tribute to the two Arte povera artists linked to this specific territory (Alighiero Boetti and Michelangelo Pistoletto) by tracing their legacy in the production of contemporary artists of successive generations who in them recognize their masters. Arienti, Senatore and Vedovamazzei have selected specific locations outdoors between the two locations for the presentation of six site-specific interventions, with the intention of encouraging visitors to explore even lesser-known corners of the two localities.