"The Moderns" Castello di Rivoli (Italy)

[Randy]

I Moderni / The Moderns
Curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

April 16 – August 3, 2003
Press preview Monday April 14, 2003 – 11:30 a.m.

Castello di Rivoli
Museo d’Arte Contemporanea

Piazza Mafalda di Savoia
10098 Rivoli (Torino)
tel. 011.9565222/280
fax 011.9565231


I Moderni / The Moderns
Curated by Castello di Rivoli Chief Curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev


I Moderni / The Moderns is a group show which explores the ways in which a number of artists are engaging with modernism and modernity round the world today. This exhibition will include sculpture, installations, projections, painting, drawing, and sound projects. It will present new and existing works by over 20 artists, including Haluk Akakçe, Ricci Albenda, Massimo Bartolini, Elisabetta Benassi, Tacita Dean, Tom Friedman, Liam Gillick, Arturo Herrera, Evan Holloway, Brian Jungen, Jim Lambie, Daria Martin, Julie Mehretu, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Jorge Pardo, Paul Pfeiffer, Susan Philipsz, John Pilson, Simon Starling, Sarah Sze, Piotr Uklanski and Gary Webb.

“Today, a growing number of artists round the world are referring to modernism or using icons of modernity as narratives and fictions in their artworks. The digital world is internationalist, as were the modernists; it aims to go beyond the local/global dichotomy, while at the same time achieving a reach broader than anything the modernists achieved. The digital mind is a project-based mind, encouraging a sense of 'agency', an ability to make choices and act, to have a point of view and a perspectival gaze, even within contemporary notions of multiplicity. Memory and Modernity are intertwined (the ‘future’ is a notion belonging to the past), and in some instances this idea takes form in the use of the history of film as a medium and subject -- for cinema, after photography, has been the most outstanding innovative cultural practice in the Modern Age. In other instances, it is to the formalism of 'high modernist' art in painting and sculpture that artists are looking. For such artists, issues of form, color, composition and linguistic experimentation are topical. Science, absurd or useless science, as well as its fantastic variant science fiction, are also sources for many artists today, and are primary metaphors being used.” (Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev)

The exhibition will also include a sound section selected and organized by Anthony Huberman, including works by Kim Cascone, Richard Chartier, Farmersmanual, Bernhard Günter, Tetsu Inoue, Massimo, Kaffe Matthews, Carsten Nicolai, Yasunao Tone, Tu m’ and Carl Michael von Hausswolff.

The exhibition will be hosted in the Manica Lunga building at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. This 400 feet-long space was renovated and opened to the public in 1998. Designed in the 17th century as a picture gallery, the long and narrow Manica Lunga represents an ideal early modern architecture, specifically dedicated to the viewing of autonomous artworks. This project is both classical and experimental, static and process-oriented. An aesthetic experience for the audience that will be sensorial and pleasure-oriented, as well as disconcerting and problematic.

A 248 page illustrated catalogue with a new essay by the curator, texts by renowned international art critics and an anthology of early modernist texts chosen by the artists will be produced on this occasion. Significant writings by Kandinsky, Marinetti and Poe will be included in this unique book.

For information
Press Office, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, ph. +39/011.9565209–211, fax +39/011.9565231, e-mail: press@castellodirivoli.org