The spaces of the Madre Museum are rich in references that range from Baroque to minimalism. Together with Gucci, they welcome into the cultural heart of Naples a collective narrative made up of installations, photographs, models, sound works, videos, neon sculptures, architectural sketches, and large drawings that dialogue with each other, starting from an exploration of the work of one of the most visionary protagonists of the Italian architectural scene in the second half of the 20th century: Aldo Loris Rossi. In addition to him, the protagonists of the exhibition project are the works of Vincenzo Agnetti, Giulio Delvè, Özgür Kar, Donatella Mazzoleni, Franco Mazzucchelli, Jim C. Nedd, Sara Persico, RM, Domenico Salierno, Nanda Vigo, Angharad Williams, and Tobias Zielony.
The title of the exhibition takes its cue from the eponymous novel by Enzo Striano, which – starting from the personal events of the protagonist Eleonora de Fonseca Pimente – traces a portrait of the social and anthropological transformations that Naples undergoes during the revolutionary years of 1799. The exhibition The Remains of Nothing figuratively explores the themes addressed in the book, which, between subjectivity and history, investigates the possibility of social and anthropological transformations in a time of profound change for the city of Naples. Naples and its changes are at the heart of the exhibition path, which finds its common thread in the investigation of Aldo Loris Rossi. A fundamental and visionary figure in the Italian architectural scene of the second half of the 20th century, Rossi initiated a radical aesthetic and political discourse on architecture and urban planning from the 1960s onwards, paying particular attention to the city of Naples. Aldo Loris Rossi’s vision emerges in the exhibition through a selection of projects he carried out for the city, placed in a new dialogue with the works of twelve contemporary artists of different backgrounds and generations, each of whom brings different answers and interpretations. The exhibition presents numerous drawings by Aldo Loris Rossi and Donatella Mazzoleni, conceived to combine organic forms, expressionist passion, futurist and constructivist influences. Projects such as the Casa del Portuale (1968-1980) and the residential complex of Piazza Grande (1979-1989) are integrated into the urban landscape of Naples, vivid examples of brutalist architecture, and appear as huge and autonomous spaceships, conceived in line with the utopias of the post-war period.
The exhibition figuratively explores the themes addressed in the book, which, between subjectivity and history, investigates the possibility of social and anthropological transformations in a time of profound change for the city of Naples.
Reflecting on the future that those constructions foresaw, and looking at the imagery they create today, these buildings are a starting point for reflection on living and its affective implications. Continuing along the exhibition path, one encounters the works of Vincenzo Agnetti and Nanda Vigo, artists from a generation close to the period of utopian architecture, who create interesting parallels, respectively conceptual and cosmogonic, with Rossi’s work. Where Jim C. Nedd, RM, and Domenico Salierno narrate the emotional dimensions, both sweet and desolate, of living today, Giulio Delvè and Özgür Kar instead present works that explore the danger of feeling existentially trapped. Sara Persico translates into sound the rough urban dimension that Angharad Williams captures in the reflection of a car. Franco Mazzucchelli conceives his inflatable sculptures as devices for occupying lived and shared space, filling the rooms of the Madre.
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