“Front and Back” is the first extensive organic retrospective dedicated to the artist Italo Zuffi, curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Davide Ferri, open from January 20 to May 1, 2022.
The exhibition at MAMbo presents for the first time in a comprehensive way the work of one of the major protagonists of Italian art between the nineties and 2000, continuing the investigation on the panorama of visual arts in our country that the museum has been carrying out for years, and confirming the line of research oriented to the documentation of the contemporary artistic context of the territory in which the museum is located, which descends historically from the Gallery of Modern Art of Bologna.
The path allows to reread the work of Italo Zuffi taking into consideration a spectrum of works that goes from the beginning, in the mid-nineties, until 2020, highlighting the thematic cores that have always supported his research and are translated into contrasts and oppositions that can act on the body (sometimes that of the artist himself) as on the sculptural form: between the ideas of construction and at the same time of destruction/fall; of work and, at the same time, of energy dispersion; of softness and rigidity; of fragility and competition (especially with respect to the art system).
In a multiplicity of languages and expressive choices, the more than 50 selected works – including sculpture, photography, video and performance – reconstruct the artist’s poetics through new combinations and without necessarily following a chronological progression. Alongside the best-known and most emblematic works, some of the lesser-known ones will also be on display, providing an opportunity to generate new hypotheses for dialogue between them.
During the opening of the exhibition, an editorial project in Italian and English will be published by Corraini Edizioni.
We would like to thank the Dipartimento Cultura e Promozione della Città del Comune di Bologna for its fundamental contribution to the realization of the exhibition.
