“Free everyone!”, how many times have we shouted it at the top of our lungs, stretching an arm towards the den, with a heart beating in the chest? The game of hide-and-seek is based on two roles: who counts and who hides, who runs and who gets caught. The most satisfying action, though, falls to whoever hides best and waits for the right moment to run towards the den. By shouting “Free Everyone!” the last player not only is giving the gift of freedom to himself but he/she is also extending it to the other players. Could the condition established by the formula “Free everyone!” be found in real life?
Liberi tutti!, Capitolo I, installation view 1, photo: Anna Corai, courtesy Marignana Arte
This is the question that lies at the heart of the exhibition, currently ongoing at Marignana Arte’s Project Room. Eighteen emerging artists display the results of their research, as a tribute to Aldo Grazzi, a multifaceted artist who has made “freedom” the central theme of his artistic career. He taught painting and extra-media techniques at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts for many years. Currently he lives and works in Perugia.
Chiara Peruch, Reperto (serie), 2022-2023, olio e acrilico su tavola, 25×20 cm, photo: Anna Corai, courtesy Marignana Arte
Play, Art and Freedom are concepts that cannot be indivisible: one presupposes the presence of the other. Through play, art can range over an infinite number of theoretical and practical experiments: the freedom to do so is the prerequisite from which the work is articulated. Over the centuries, play has been misjudged as an activity devoid of any practical purpose. Only recent studies have shown how central it is to the cultural formation of individuals and society. Similarly, without purpose, art appears, through free imagination, to have the ability to explicate often uncontainable meanings in a single form.
Luca Marignoni, Un punto tra due cieli, punto B, dettaglio, 2018, pino cirmolo, 33 x 26 x 6 cm, photo: Anna Corai, courtesy Marignana Arte
Freedom uses ideas to arrive to matter, the artist, acting as a mediator, takes on this responsibility. So, here, the need to find an answer free from any predefined constructions arises. Art is a category that interprets events, allowing us to rediscover our space in the world and the artwork becomes, in this way, the product of a relationship with what surrounds us. The player who says “free everyone!” is the artist who becomes the bearer of a broader idea of liberation: he/she does not only liberate himself/herself but, through the creative process, gives a form that becomes accessible to all.
Paolo Pretolani, Sogno causato dalla puntura d’ape, dettaglio, 2022, olio su tela, 70 x 40 cm, photo: Anna Corai, courtesy Marina Bastianello gallery
Individuals use their energy to redeem themselves from everyday life and to be fully free. This condition is never experienced in solitude, but in constant relationship with the other. This exhibition is an invitation to understand this aspect in order to acquire a new awareness of our relationship with the world. Is it possible to reinvent a community’s consciousness? The individual becomes responsible for this choice. The decision to grasp, or not, the freedom proposed by the artists is up to the observer: compared to the game of hide-and-seek, in which the participants must accept the new condition of freedom at the moment of declaring: “Liberi Tutti!”, the exhibition-visitor can, on the other hand, decide not to take part and leave.
Weichao Chen, Scacchi armati, 2022, olio e acrilico su tela, 120 x 102 cm, photo: Anna Corai, courtesy Marignana Arte
The exhibition at Marignana Arte’s Project Room, in collaboration with the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, will be articulated into three chapters: Chapter I: 11.02.2023-4.03.2023 with works by: Alessandro Artini, Federico Borroni, Weichao Chen, Luca Marignoni, Chiara Peruch, Paolo Pretolani; Chapter II: 11.03.2023-1.04.2023, with works by: Silvia Luisa Elena Faresin, Megan Freeman, Silvia Giordani, Marco Mastropieri, Laura Omacini, Francesca Vacca; Chapter III: 8.04.2023-29.04.2023 with works by: Alessandro Bevilacqua, Francesco Cima, Bruno Fantelli, Simone Rutigliano, Giordano Tricarico, Fabiano Vicentini.
Ylenia Modolo
Info:
VV., Liberi tutti!
11.02.2023 – 29.04.2023
Marignana Arte Project Room
Dorsoduro, 140 A
Rio Terà dei Catecumeni
Venezia
https://www.marignanaarte.it/
Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, she subsequently attended the School for Curatorial Studies in Venice. She writes about contemporary art with a particular eye towards emerging artists and experimental research projects.
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