ARTISTS7 ITALIAN VISIONS
8 june > 23 june 2009
FRANCESCO DE MOLFETTA | SANDRO DEL PISTOIA | TOMMASO GUERRA | FRANCESCO MANCINI | FRANCESCO MERNINI | NICOLA SAMORI' | LAPO SIMEONI
text of Francesca Franco, Marcello Lega and Angelo Quattrocchi
edited by Lapo Simeoni
open hours
8 > 14 june 10 a.m to 8 p.m.
15 > 23 june 11 a.m to 6 p.m.
preview monday, june 8,
10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
free admission everyday
riehenstrasse 74 ch-4058 basel - switzerland
You see Rome and die? But has the world ever seen Rome?
Behind the Coliseum and the photo of the Swiss guards, behind the Florentine renaissance, the rivers of Milan, the gondolas of the canals, lots of pasta, pizza and lots of mafia, that that rests of Italy is?
Italy with continuing immigration, flee the intelligent and anxious people, fleeing from the suffocating province and its full passiveness, the politically perverse Italy, of the intrigue of the courthouse, the massacring motorways, the bombs, the threats and the doors open to all kind of traffic. Italy that does not read but does not stop to buy, always more tired Italy, still dreaming of Mussolini, that remembers, not knowing how to look forward, breathlessly anxious Italy, Italy in crisis.
Where is this Italy?
Seven Italians vision is a wanted act, the artists that hate their country but love their land, share their negative and conserve the honour of their blood, the artist is never neutral.
Until they stop asking politicians and economists " what is Italy?", speak the sincere, speak who is not afraid to criticize oneself and who still precipitates the beauty of the beautiful country.
Seven well known Italian artists, of high intellectual level their vision of their Italy. A joined force to search for the unit, to rip away from the cob webs and the dust of years of stereo types, of short sightedness and insufficient realistic interests.
Seven artists, because only art is honest and because these are times that serve honesty.
Somebody has to recount Italy, must paint her, must photograph her, bring her to an aim, the real one, the Italy that wakes up in the morning, without make-up and with an expression after a night that seems 60 years long of suffering.
To see we still find a way to love our country, we must first look straight in the eyes of Italy.Text | Marcello Lega
