CENTENARY - Mimmo Rotella Institute
Main menu:
ACTIVITIES > EVENTS
Mimmo Rotella
Centenary 1918-2018
On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Mimmo Rotella (1918-2006), the Fondazione Mimmo Rotella, set up in 2000 by the artist himself, and the Mimmo Rotella Institute, a cultural association established in 2012 by Inna and Aghnessa Rotella, are delighted to announce a series of events conceived to celebrate this important occurrence in public museums and private galleries throughout Italy, and realized with the support of Regione Calabria.
This homage to the artist is intended to highlight the innovative and experimental character of his production, demonstrating his contribution to the history of contemporary art and looking in depth at the various aspects of his multi-faceted and wide-ranging career.
Shedule of Exhibitions:
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea: “Mimmo Rotella Manifesto”
from October 30 to February 10, 2019
Opening: Monday 29, 7 pm
Viale delle Belle Arti 131, 00197 Rome
Casa della Memoria Mimmo Rotella: “Mimmo Rotella in città”
from October 7, 2018 to Jenuary 31, 2019
Vico dell'Onda 1, 88100 Catanzaro
Galleria Christian Stein: “Rotella”
from May 11 to October 13, 2018
Opening: Thursday May 10, from 4 pm (Pero); from 7 pm (Milan)
Via V. Monti 46, 20016 Pero (MI); Corso Monforte 23, 20122 Milan
As regards the museums, Rotella’s entire world will be fully expressed in the major exhibition, curated by Germano Celant with Antonella Soldaini (curator of the catalogue raisonné of the artist’s works and director of the Mimmo Rotella Institute respectively) at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome. The retrospective, entitled “Mimmo Rotella Manifesto”, will be the most substantial exhibition ever to be organised on the artist.
The exhibition’s striking and spectacular layout, conceived for the great hall of the National Gallery around the theme of the manifesto, a topos of Rotella’s language, will enable the public to immerse themselves in the imaginary world of the artist, recomposing it through a selection of works and documents organised and interrelated according to chronological and iconographical criteria. Thus it will be possible to follow the crucial developments of his research, from his initial experiments with abstract painting in the 1940s in Rome and arriving, in the 1950s, at the invention of the décollages and retro d’affiches in which the material aspect is prevalent. It will then proceed to investigate his subsequent relations with Nouveau Réalisme, Pop Art and Mec-Art, between Paris, New York and Milan, up to the artist’s late production, when he returned to décollage, modulating it on large urban formats. The exhibition will also include videos and sound materials, also examining the poetic activity in which Rotella was involved from 1949, when he drafted the Manifesto dell’Epistaltismo to define a poetic-performance form inspired by jazz.
An extensive and detailed catalogue will accompany the exhibition, including previously unpublished contributions by national and international researchers on the various themes that emerge from the analysis of Rotella’s entire career.
To consolidate the artist’s connection with Catanzaro, his city of birth, an exhibition will be presented at the Casa della Memoria [House of Memory], the house-museum that was restored and opened by the artist in 2005. The exhibition, linked in its ideas to that of the National Gallery in Rome, will reinforce the role of the Casa della Memoria as a point of cultural reference for all citizens. The stages of the artist’s creative path will be developed through an interweaving of works, documents and biographical elements, highlighting the salient points, with particular attention devoted to the bond between the master artist and his land of origin. In this way Rotella’s career, begun within the walls of the house of his birth, will act as an example and a stimulus - as the artist would have liked - for the younger generations, who will find an extensive library devoted to him there. The inauguration is planned for 7th October, in parallel with a day of celebrations organised in the city.
To coincide with the celebrations of Rotella’s centenary, the historic Galleria Christian Stein will propose a large-scale exhibition on Mimmo Rotella at its two venues, in Milan itself in Corso Monforte and in Pero in Via Monti. The meticulous selection of works will make it possible to look back over some of the most well known technical and artistic methods with which the artist travelled through and marked a large part of the last century, with particular attention devoted to his later, highly imposing artworks: the sovrapitture [overpaintings] and décollages between the 1990s and the 2000s. The exhibition has availed itself of the curatorial consultancy and scientific supervision of the Mimmo Rotella Institute and will be followed by a documented catalogue with critical contributions.
For information:
Fondazione Mimmo Rotella: archivio@fondazionemimmorotella.net |+39 02 76113111
www.fondazionemimmorotella.net
Mimmo Rotella Institute: info@mimmorotellainstitute.it |+39 02 38230082 www.mimmorotellainstitute.it
Press office:
Maddalena Bonicelli: maddalena.bonicelli@mimmorotellainstitute.it | +39 335 6857707