Raffaele Quattrone

Renato Barilli - Le nuove occasioni

Curating an exhibition by one of the figures who best represents the last 50 years of Italian cultural life is a great honor but also a great test for someone such as myself, as I have always stayed abreast of Renato Barilli’s activities with interest and admiration and am aware that this honor is disproportionate compared to the entries in my own very modest CV. In addition to a brilliant career at the University of Bologna (where he is now professor emeritus) involving the publication of essays in aesthetics, literature and art criticism, Renato Barilli has curated numerous international exhibitions. These include “Opera e comportamento” at the 1972 Venice Biennale, curated together with Francesco Arcangeli, that included a piece by a young Gino De Dominicis destined to make history: “2ª soluzione d’immortalità (l’universo è immobile)” starring a young man with Down’s syndrome. Or the section “Aperto” at the 1990 Venice Biennale where Barilli was Jeff Koons’ main backer as he introduced the now-famous series “Made in Heaven” starring Koons and the porn star Cicciolina, his girlfriend at the time. Or the “Settimane Internazionali della performance” (unforgettably featuring Marina Abramovic and Ulay, nude, on either side of the front door of the GAM in Bologna) and the exhibitions “Anniottanta,” “Anninovanta” as well as the various “Officine” – “Italia,” “Europa,” “America” and “Asia” which, as Barilli perceptively understood, led to the emergence, in Emilia Romagna, of something very similar to the art exhibition “Documenta” held in Kassel, Germany, an area with similar wealth and opportunities (from the text "Everyday Epiphanies | Visioni epifaniche della contemporaneità" written by Raffaele Quattrone for the exhibition catalogue).

Renato Barilli

October, 3– November, 8 2015

Vignola (MO), DISLOCATA spazio espositivo

exhibition curated by Raffaele Quattrone and WunderKammer Associazione Culturale