How are great artists representing human feelings?
Starting on 29th November, EMOTION will be on at the Chiostro del Bramante until July 2024. The exhibition, curated by the visionary Danilo Eccher, brings together the works of Italian and international artists expressing all ranges of feelings and sensations through their art.
More than twenty artists, more than twenty works many of them site-specific: EMOTION takes the audience on a journey of emotions so that many more can be felt. Surprise, confusion, desire, joy, fear, anticipation, anxiety, happiness, pride, excitement, nostalgia, admiration, relief, tranquility, embarrassment.
How many emotions inspire an artist? And how many are retained within the work? And which ones does a viewer feel in front of that work? And how many are retained over time and how many change and how do they change? When dealing with emotions there are more questions than answers, there are always more emotions than certainties.
Eccher’s meticulously orchestrated presentation promises a rollercoaster of emotions, ingeniously connected through twenty site-specific installations. Each piece, a carefully crafted testament to the potency of artistic expression, serves as a conduit for the varied and nuanced facets of human experience.
As visitors traverse the exhibition, they are enveloped in a sensory tapestry, encountering installations that evoke joy, melancholy, awe, and introspection. The curator’s observing eye ensures a harmonious blend of diverse mediums, from paintings and sculptures to interactive installations, all strategically positioned to elicit a instinctive response.
The journey unfolds with the wonder of facing Luigi Mainolfi‘s towering sculptures in the outer cloister, traversing a floor resembling the ocean; the perplexity induced by Piero Pizzi Cannella‘s imaginative cathedrals and the marvel of his Raphael-inspired Camera Picta; the enchantment of Alessandro Sciaraffa‘s interactive work, which recreates the light and sound refractions of the aurora borealis; the allure of Masbedo’s (Nicolò Massazza and Iacopo Bedogni) video installation, set in a bewitched forest, or the mesmerizing and concentric attraction of Paolo Scirpa‘s neon ludoscopes.
This emotional odyssey continues with the decomposable prisms crafted by Korean artist Kimsooja; a dreamy microcosm of potential and fantastical visions by Tony Oursler; the imaginative reinterpretation of superhero figures by Adrian Tranquilli, as well as the site-specific project by Nedko Solakov, which reintroduces storytelling in a clever and sometimes ironic manner.
Imagine if the ceiling, floor, and walls were enveloped in a grove of dragonflies as in Pietro Ruffo’s installation—what emotion would stir within you? And what curiosity motivates visitors to explore, investigate, and uncover the hidden meanings in Matt Collishaw’s still lifes, crafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence?
While Eva Jospin encapsulates her emotions within cardboard landscapes and architectures, Annette Messager imagines anxiety as human body parts hanging to the ceiling through photographs within fishing nets, colorful shapes, and a sizable Pinocchio; the collective AES + F engages in what it terms “social psychoanalysis,” revealing and probing the values, vices, and conflicts of contemporary global culture.
29 November 2023 – 31 July 2024
Chiostro del Bramante
Via Arco della Pace, Roma
Opening times: Mon-Fri 10am-8pm; Sat-Sun 10am-9pm
Tickets: from Monday to Friday €15, Saturday and Sunday €18
Kids from 6 to 14 €10, under 5 free
