Arte Povera
Bourse de Commerce, Paris
From October 9th, 2024 until January 20th, 2025
The Arte Povera exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, showcases over 250 works by key artists like Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti and Mario Merz, alongside new commissions and contributions from international artists influenced by the movement. The exhibition, drawing from significant collections including the Pinault Collection and the Castello di Rivoli, explores Arte Povera’s emphasis on simple, inexpensive materials and techniques that evoke the energy flows of life, from physical and chemical forces to psychic energies like memory and emotion. Arte Povera, emerging in the mid-1960s in Italy, utilizes both natural materials (earth, water, plants) and industrial items (metal, neon, chemicals), reflecting a holistic view of art and life. The artists aimed for authenticity and simplicity, avoiding over-intellectualization and embracing the empirical and practical aspects of existence. This approach laid the groundwork for what is now known as installation art, where viewers interact with the art in a shared space, enhancing their sensory experience beyond mere observation.
opening image: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Venere degli stracci, 1967, reproduction of Venus in cement covered with mica and rags, 150 × 280 × 100 cm (installation). Courtesy of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin. Lent by the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT.
The exhibition also contextualizes Arte Povera within postwar Italy’s avant-garde movements and compares it to other international currents like Japan’s Gutaï, and it highlights the movement’s broad influence, with works by later artists such as David Hammons and Pierre Huyghe continuing its legacy. Arte Povera’s integration of contradiction and complexity, alongside a deep respect for tradition and everyday life, expanded the boundaries of Western art, making it a pivotal force in contemporary art history. The exhibition’s exterior installations, including Giuseppe Penone’s Idee di pietra and Mario Merz’s Fibonacci Sequence, along with works in the Salon and Rotunda, encapsulate the movement’s themes of nature, energy, and transformation. In the Passage, display cases link Arte Povera to influential figures like Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, underscoring the movement’s diverse and far-reaching impact. For each artist, the practice is associated with an underlying influence, be this a material, another artist, a movement, or an era.
For further information pinaultcollection.com.
