Sixteen artists from different nationalities, training, aesthetics and styles find themselves under the same title: “Unannounced: The Other Voices Of Silence”, a group show organized by Mattia Pozzoni Art Advisory and curated by Marta Orsola Sironi at LAMPO space in Milan. How can Alessio Barchitta, Giuditta Branconi, James Cabaniuk, Nicole Colombo, Kat Giordano, Filippo Gualazzi, Hannah Lim, Aronne Pleuteri, Zayn Qahtani, Gianna Rubini, Adelisa Selimbašić, Ebun Sodipo, Maddalena Tesser, Katie Tomlinson, Georgia-May Travers Cook, Sidney Westenskow be included in the same exhibition? This is illustrated until 8 October 2023 in the exhibition. The voice has outclassed the aesthetic bond. From figurative painting to installation, from sculpture to poetry: the multidisciplinary nature of mediums describes the history of “others”, of people excluded from Western society and thought. Those who do not belong to the white-Eurocentric heteronormative paradigm find here a voice and a space in which to express themselves and disseminate their history.
AA.VV, Unannounced: The Other Voices Of Silence, installation view at LAMPO Milano, courtesy Mattia Pozzoni, Ph. Crates / Matteo De Nando
Social marginalization is narrated by the meticulous ornamental sculptural works by Hannah Lim, to which she draws on the research of Orientalism and feminism from East and South Asia to talk about the exclusion of mixed cultures and the destiny of the woman-object. The LGBTQIA+ symbols in James Cabanuik’s abstract approach become pictorial emoticons which proclaim a reassuring environment where you can be yourself. The hidden signs of passive violence literally melt a dance in the heat of an oven in Katie Tomlinson’s painting. The absence of the voice has given way to the emerging artists included in the exhibition to create a drastic photograph of what happens silently through the softness and the presence of care in the shape of a soft toy beyond the ordinary measure, with the strength of a display for sound-visual recording or with the materiality of large abstract paintings.
AA.VV, Unannounced: The Other Voices Of Silence, installation view at LAMPO Milano, courtesy Mattia Pozzoni, Ph. Crates / Matteo De Nando
Through stolen and pictorial photographic glimpses, Adelisa Selimbašić upsets by bringing into her painting the events related to identity and the sense of inadequacy that transpire daily within symbolic frames from the format of an Instagram post. Her work is a redirection, a practice to learn to love one’s body and identity. Drawing on her cultural heritage, Zayn Qahtani works to create stories that seem to exist in the twilight-zone: “too distorted to be real, too familiar to be a dream”, in the words of the artist herself.
AA.VV, Unannounced: The Other Voices Of Silence, installation view at LAMPO Milano, courtesy Mattia Pozzoni, Ph. Crates / Matteo De Nando
Aronne Pleuteri leads us beyond the limits of our cultural, social and iconographic experience. She overturns our Western assumptions and orients us towards distinct knowledge. Nicole Colombo‘s elongated metal hands offer a space made of candles and fragrances that recall prayer and blessing at the moment of baptism. The essences make us perceive with other senses the presence of our body which in turn becomes inebriated by the delicate scent, giving a moment of inner peace.
AA.VV, Unannounced: The Other Voices Of Silence, installation view at LAMPO Milano, courtesy Mattia Pozzoni, Ph. Crates / Matteo De Nando
A space of comfort but above all of protest is outlined: their silent melody is visible, free and ready to be heard. Now artists, involving us in social and personal battles, can identify and eliminate our constructs and educate us through their feelings and knowledge.
Alessia D’Introno
Info:
AA.VV. Unannouced: The Other Voices Of Silence
A cura di Marta Orsola Sironi e Mattia Pozzoni Art Advisory
21/09/2023 – 08/10/2023
LAMPO Milano, Via Valtellina, 5, 20159 Milano MI
https://www.lampomilano.it
Alessia D’introno has a degree in Visual Arts and is currently attending the two-year specialist course in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, NABA, Milan. She writes for the print and online magazine Juliet Art Magazine. Her critical work focuses on the demolition of historical paradigms to which Italy and Europe have been linked for centuries. The de-colonial practice of her research develops a comparison and an openness towards new methodologies and possibilities.
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