EXHIBITING
22.07.23 – 03.09.23
EXHIBITING
Until September 3rd
Opening | Thursday, July 20th, at 6.00 p.m
At 6.00 p.m, guided tour of the exhibition followed by a vernissage with drinks and music.
From Tuesday to Sunday, from 3.00 p.m to 10.00 p.m
On Thursdays, from 3.00 p.m to 11.00 p.m
From August 14th to August 27th, the exhibition will be open with reduced hours from 7.00 p.m to 9.00 p.m
An exhibition that tells the connection between Manifattura Tabacchi and the production of contemporary art, showcasing a selection of works conceived, designed, and built in dialogue with the architectural complex and its history.
Exhibiting is an unexpected journey that guides the visitor, a collection of stories, some resounding, others unexpected—it is an invitation to exploration.
The exhibition unfolds within the spaces of the Factory, creating a multi-voiced narrative. Among these voices are those from the more distant past, originating from the three cycles of artist residencies: “Cura” (Care), “Meraviglia” (Wonder), and “Armonia” (Harmony)—words to navigate the world today and aspirations for young artists invited to experiment with their practices.
Other sounds and stories come from the recent history of NAM—Not A Museum, the contemporary art program of Manifattura Tabacchi, which, in collaboration with SUPERBLAST, launched a call for art for a free artistic production that would explore human action as a trace for the first edition, and themes of the third landscape and dreams for the second.
The entire journey of “Exhibiting” narrates the value of education, interdisciplinarity, and dialogue with the new generations of artists, in a perspective where both research and production are fundamental to understanding our present.
IPER-COLLETTIVO, MICROMEGÀSUONI
Micromegàsuoni is part of an empirical investigation that the collective has pursued in two different types of landscapes: the city, represented by Manifattura Tabacchi, and a series of natural reserves and forests located in the regions of Tuscany and Umbria. A totemic and inhabitable element within it, the artwork reproduces and amplifies unknown sounds originating elsewhere, precisely in the forest where its invisible twin is located. The split artwork in space is reunited in the time of sound.
The artwork was created during SUPERBLAST I, the first edition of the artist residency project conceived and produced by NAM – Not A Museum.
LORENZO LUNGHI, SPECCHIO RIFLESSO
Specchio Riflesso is a sculpture that can distort our image and ego to the point of maximum condensation, where one can get burned if used in optimal lighting conditions. It is a concave mirror capable of focusing the rays of the sun and the figure of the viewer into a single focal point.
Inspired by the Solarpunk imaginary, the artist conceived the sculpture as a device for collective engagement through which to prepare food and drinks. The artwork was born as part of a larger project that involved a rooftop encampment on Building B9 of Manifattura Tabacchi.
The artwork was created during SUPERBLAST II, the second edition of the artist residency project conceived and produced by NAM – Not A Museum.
EDOARDO ARUTA, LA FURIA DEL DIRE
La Furia del Dire takes inspiration from the expressive register of a social and musical dimension – the phenomenon of Posse – born to improve the existential condition of an entire generation, contributing to imagining the role of communities in urban peripheries and suggesting a return to origins, to small self-produced realities, to street creativity, to occupied spaces, and to self-management that aspires to a model of horizontal society. Specific attention is given to the creative relationship with musical technologies and the aesthetic possibilities linked to their use, such as the DJ’s cut-up technique and the use of the sound system, ‘the wall of sound,’ as a catalyst for the collective ritual of dance.
The artwork was created during SUPERBLAST I, the first edition of the artist residency project conceived and produced by NAM – Not A Museum.
ESMA ILTER, A FAR-OFF LOOK
The problematic relationship with home begins with a life of constant movement, going from one crowded city to another, from home to home. As the notion of home becomes modernized and idealized, it becomes increasingly abstract: an object that cannot be built or desired. The memory of home is tied to the places where the artist has lived, where she grew up, and eventually had to leave. Ilter started drawing the floor plans of the houses she had lived in, beginning with a mnemonic-architectural process that led her back to her first blurred childhood memory. The artist tried to reconstruct it and create a space that closely resembled all these eidetic images. “When I close my eyes, I imagine myself there, with the sound coming from the sea, under a blinding sun, in a large garden.”
The artwork was created during La meraviglia, the second edition of the artist residency project conceived and curated by Sergio Risaliti.
NICOLA GHIRARDELLI, UNTITLED (IL LIMITE DELLA NEVE)
Suspended dust coagulates, generating bodies, as contingency creates life from aggregates of matter. They are the tail of a language that has been spoken forever, a legacy in constant metamorphosis. Emerging from chaos, the artworks give shape to the need to inhabit the magical and fantastical; they do not aim for the investigation to converge into a formula, but into a form. It is a tension towards the creation of an ecosystem of meaning rooted in the awareness of the complexity of the cosmos. They are apotropaic objects, talismans that trace their origins back to a superstitious antiquity permeated with wonder and astonishment.
The artwork was created during L’armonia, the third edition of the artist residency project conceived and curated by Sergio Risaliti.
GIULIA POPPI, FANTA VERGINI #3
Part of a series of artworks in semi-transparent colored resin that the artist creates by molding, shaping, and bending the material using chemicals she has composed through trial and error. The sculptures, glossy and colorful, incredibly resembling giant sugar glass or pre-chewed gum, seduce the viewer and create uncertainty about their nature. They appear organic but at the same time clearly inorganic, generating curiosity about the material and inviting touch.
The artwork was created during La meraviglia, the second edition of the artist residency project conceived and curated by Sergio Risaliti.
MOHSEN BAGHERNEJAD, MOGHANJOOGHI, MATTEO COLUCCIA, STEFANO GIURI, LORI LAKO, GIOELE POMANTE, TATIANA STROPKAIOVÀ, IDROCARBURI POLICICLICI AROMATIC
The most common diseases among the female workers of Manifattura Tabacchi were lung cancer and pulmonary emphysema, both affecting the respiratory system. The same diseases that afflicted the cigarette workers of Manifattura continue to affect, yesterday as well as today, consumers of tobacco-based products: smokers. An old tent, acting as a filter between the interior and exterior, becomes the ideal object to explore this dark relationship. By dyeing it, tar, one of the primary components of cigarettes, creates a conceptual link between the history of Manifattura and the present, objectifying through a symbolic gesture the connection between a historical fact and a current fact related to those who consume them. The artwork was created during the workshop led by artist Marzia Migliora.
The artwork was created during La cura, the first edition of the artist residency project conceived and curated by Sergio Risaliti.
TATIANA STROPKAIOVÁ, VENEZIAN
Venezian was born from the desire to approach painting through the palette. This artwork is part of a series of paintings of various sizes, based on an original reference image that is then freely replicated. What the artist is interested in representing is the intimate aspect of the character, going beyond the purely figurative dimension of painting and entering a dynamic, elusive, and vibrant atmosphere. To create these paintings, Stropkaiová took the “original image” (Frank Duveneck, Venetian Girl, 1880) and transformed it into a new entity.
The artwork was created during La cura, the first edition of the artist residency project conceived and curated by Sergio Risaliti.
DAVIDE D’AMELIO, A OTTO ANNI LUIGI XIII FA UN DISEGNO SIMILE A QUELLO DEL FIGLIO DI UN CANNIBALE DELLA NUOVA CALEDONIA. A OTTO ANNI HA L’ETÀ DELL’UMANITÀ, ALMENO DUECENTOCINQUANTAMILA ANNI
“Descending into dark basements, underground passages, overlaying concrete facts with psychological ideas – the idea of the subconscious, of memory, a place where I rediscovered toys I had abandoned along with a huge amount of other childish objects. There, I had a vision, an epiphany. […] I tried to look at the world through the eyes of a stranger, seeing how children arrive in their physical bodies as outsiders” (Henri Michaux). Every child of around eight years old has drawn the sky above the horizon. As outsiders, we asked ourselves: What is in front of me? The horizon or the sky?” – Davide D’Amelio.
The artwork was created during La meraviglia, the second edition of the artist residency project conceived and curated by Sergio Risaliti.
SEDICENTE MORADI, CERVO DI MANIFATTURA
His activity unfolds in a pursuit of three-dimensional drawing, which involves assembling reclaimed wood, prunings, roots, or lichens, recognizing formal echoes with human or animal organic structures, guided by the motto “Every form is in Nature.” Moradi proposes spontaneous installations within the urban fabric with a humble and poetic energy, always careful to integrate as naturally as possible into chosen spaces. For Moradi, the suggestions of citizens are both testimonies and revelations.
The artwork was created by the artist in 2021 during that time, Manifattura Tabacchi hosted his studio.