Project by Chiara Bertola curated with Andrea Lissoni
Ackroyd & Harvey / Mario Airò / Stefano Arienti / Massimo Bartolini / Stefano Boccalini / Ludovica Carbotta / Alice Cattaneo / Elisabetta Di Maggio / Rä di Martino / Bruna Esposito / Yona Friedman / Carlos Garaicoa / Alberto Garutti / Gelitin / Nicolò Lombardi / Mona Hatoum / Invernomuto / Kimsooja / Christiane Löhr / Marcellvs L. / Margherita Morgantin / Ermanno Olmi / Roman Ondák / Hans Op De Beeck / Adele Prosdocimi / Remo Salvadori / Alberto Tadiello / Pascale Marthine Tayou / Nico Vascellari / Nari Ward / Franz West
The Terre Vulnerabili project encompasses four separate exhibitions.
Since this is a project that is intended to mirror as closely as possible the growth of a living organism or the development of a plant over time, each exhibition represents a unique, unrepeatable moment that is different from the others, just like the various phases of life.
All of the works in the four exhibitions of the "Terre Vulnerabili" project are site-specific and/or have been redesigned specifically for the space of HangarBicocca.
Watch the video of the exhibition by connecting to this link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/HangarBicocca/116222998416075
Theme of the project
The project is all about acknowledging the concept of vulnerability from the physical and moral points of view, embracing it as a positive and vital element in life. Vulnerability is that singular capacity for empathy that allows us, as human beings, to recognise and accept our own ethical responsibilities towards others, the wider community and the environment.
This is an evolving, germinating, organic project, which will be developed over the course of its lifespan, enabling the public to play their part in it and allowing the artists to continue to cultivate and nourish it. In this way, all those involved will become in some sense responsible for the exhibition and for its continued existence.
The project does not come to an end with the staging of the exhibition – on the contrary, it is further developed through a process that includes a series of meetings with the artists involved to create together a new mode of sharing in the event itself. Vulnerability is, then, expressed not only in the works but also in this curatorial approach, which is based above all on mutual appreciation, sharing and collaboration between the artists – an approach that will necessarily lead to unpredictable experiences.
The four exhibitions encompassed by the project are, in part, the result of the meetings with artists held in Milan from September 2009 onwards. The monthly meetings have involved the discussion and development of the process for the four exhibitions.
The project aims, then, to indicate a direction and propose a new language at a time in which our planet and the systems that govern it are showing serious signs of breakdown.
The four exhibitions of the "Terre Vulnerabili" project have entrusted their political and ethical statement to the work of two great masters: director Ermanno Olmi and architect Yona Friedman – who through their work have been able to provide a form of food for thought that unites memory and hope, utopia and realisability.
Structure and lifespan of the project
The idea is that the work of each artist does not become crystallised once the individual exhibition opens – rather, it continues to grow and evolve for the entire duration of the project with additions, corrections and dialogues with other invited artists and with the public. In this way, all those involved will become in some sense responsible for the project and for its continued existence.
The project, which will see the involvement of 30 international artists, will include a total of four exhibitions (scheduled over 4 quarters to reflect the phases of the moon). All of the artists will participate on an ongoing basis in the various exhibitions of the project – each new phase overlapping with the preceding phase, which is not annulled but "added" to the other.
In this way, the project "comes alive", continuing even after the end of each exhibition, rendering each exhibition but one of the pieces of a larger project that is constantly moving towards becoming "something else".
