Anche in un castello si può cadere (In a Castle, One Can Still Fall) | Museo Novecento

Museo Novecento presents, in the spaces of the Caveau at Manifattura Tabacchi, the final exhibition of the residency project WONDERFUL! Art Research Program 1st edition 2024 – Maria Manetti Shrem.

The exhibition, curated by Benedetta Casini, showcases the work of artists Friedrich Andreoni, Lucia Cantò, Benedetta Fioravanti, and Giovanna Repetto, offering one of the many possible outcomes of an intense journey of study, research, and discovery.
As the curator explains: “The exhibition title In a Castle, One Can Still Fall alludes to a fall as an unexpected event, a stumble in a seemingly obstacle-free path that opens the possibility of a reversed gaze, directed toward the depths of unknown, sometimes inhospitable, places.
The public is invited to explore the spaces of the Caveau at Manifattura Tabacchi, used for the first time as an exhibition venue. Currently serving as a storage site for objects that tell the story of the factory’s life and destined for an imminent transformation, the Caveau is a liminal space, suspended between past and future. The works on display appear as unexpected apparitions, embracing the challenge of the building’s dense historical and symbolic layers.
After all, if there is one element that unites the four artists, it is the depth of their practice—their ability to tap into the subconscious, the submerged, to extract meaningful, evocative works. Another recurring element, though never explicit or obvious, is the reference to the contact between bodies, which recurs throughout the exhibited works. The body is questioned in its role as a vehicle for sensitive communication with others, but also as an identity vessel, within whose boundaries the self is defined. It is no coincidence that, in profoundly different ways, the artists who have shared space and time over these months direct their gaze toward the notion of contact, of threshold—the liminal space separating the Self and the Other.”

WONDERFUL! Art Research Program is a project conceived by Museo Novecento under the artistic direction of Sergio Risaliti and the curatorship of Stefania Rispoli. It was created to offer young artists and curators working in Italy the opportunity to live for over six months in Florence, a city that for centuries has been a crucible of ideas, a source of inspiration, and a home for artists.

The project is designed to provide space and time for artistic and professional growth by offering a residency, a studio, a scholarship, and a training program. Within their apartments at Museo Novecento and studios at Manifattura Tabacchi, the artists Friedrich Andreoni, Lucia Cantò, Benedetta Fioravanti, Giovanna Repetto, and curator Benedetta Casini, selected through an open call, met with professionals, artists, curators, and many others who shared their experiences and moments of study and research. The experience was enriched by visits to exceptional places in the area and by a residency period in Nemours, France, made possible through the valuable collaboration with the Claudia Cardinale Foundation.