WALL-EYES
LOOKING AT ITALY AND AFRICA
LOOKING AT ITALY AND AFRICA
Johannesburg, Keyes Art Mile
October 3 – November 7, 2019
Cape Town, 6 Spin Street
November 21- December 12, 2019
Rome, Auditorium Parco della Musica
January 9 – March 1, 2020
Exhibition views: Courtesy IIC Pretoria
Promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Italian Embassy in South Africa, Italian Consulate of Cape Town, Italian Cultural Institute of Pretoria
Part of the integrated promotion program Italy, Cultures, Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
Curated by Ilaria Bernardi
The group show bears witness to and promotes the positive contamination between cultures, including four works created by just as many young Italian talents during or after a stay in Africa and therefore inspired by that continent; it explores the common points between Italy and Africa, presenting a further six works by just as many young Italian talents focused on specific socio-cultural aspects of today’s Italy that, however, do not seem very different from traits of the African continent; it also hosts six works by the same number of young African artists, with the intent of triggering a confrontation with Italians on common themes.
Eager to make the exhibition in progress and to forge relationships with host cities, in Johannesburg the exhibition, alongside the ten works by the Italians, presents three works (by Lhola Amira, Jessica Webster, Neill Wright) from the three galleries in the city (Goodman, Smac and Everard Read), while in Cape Town three works are presented (by Jared Ginsburg, Rodan Kane Hart, Bronwyn Katz) from the collection of the A4 Art Foundation. In Rome only works by Italian artists are displayed. The variation of the works on display, limited to African artists, is meant to evoke and confirm what Pliny the Elder claimed in the first century AD, namely that “out of Africa, there is always something new.”
The title of the exhibition reveals how it was conceived: a “wall-eyed” gaze, seeing on one side Italy and on the other side Africa.
Exhibited artists: Lhola Amira, Rä di Martino, Silvia Giambrone, Jared Ginsburg, Rodan Kane Hart, Bronwyn Katz, Andrea Mastrovito, Elena Mazzi, Luigi Presicce, Marta Roberti, Marinella Senatore, Eugenio Tibaldi, Gian Maria Tosatti, Luca Trevisani, Jessica Webster, Neill Wright.