curated by Marilena Di Tursi and Arechi Invernizzi
exhibition views at Trullo Rubina, Ceglie Messapica
August 03rd – August 23rd 2024
Within the Trullo Rubina, the theme of the watershed is declined through the dialogue between contemporary artists and some masters of the Italian 20th century, thus associated: Rachele Maistrello and Giulio Turcato, Elena Mazzi and Fausto Melotti, Julie Béna and Aligi Sassu, Marzena Nowak and Agostino Bonalumi.
The spontaneous relationship established between one work and another in the different environments of the trullo, conceived as listening and viewing rooms, generates fruitful ‘intrusions’ between past and present. The visitor is led along a fluid path, connected to the circular layout of these ancient architectures.
"The exhibition set in the rooms of the Trullo Rubina with the subtitle Di-stanze vicine, a project dedicated to my mother, Rubina Ciracì, also moves in this general perspective.
Already the use of linguistic paradox imprints a particular direction and path, tying itself closely to the ambivalence inherent in the concept of watershed. The oxymoron, which consists in associating two words of opposite meaning, actually indicates a third way of meaning, resulting from this juxtaposition. It is, therefore, a rhetorical figure that invites us to interpret the world differently, to step out of a pure dualistic mindset and venture into new territories.
For each room of the trullo, separate but contiguous at the same time, the works of two artists from temporally distant generations have been selected. Between them, a delicate assonance is established, not so much philological as sympathetic, an indirect sharing of certain elements that prove to be substantial to the representation of each author.
In this frontal setup, which reduces the distance between past and present, each work can obviously be enjoyed individually. However, the discreet dialogue that seems to establish itself spontaneously between them shifts the visitor's attention and gaze from one work to the other, in a fluid movement that involves the circular architectural layout of the trullo and seems to evoke the passage of water." (Rita Urso, Life is a harvest, 2024)
Alongside the exhibitions, NUCRÉ includes a residency programme held in the Trullo Rubina. Started in 2023 with artist Giulia Parlato, it continues this year with artist Giuditta Vendrame, who has explored the natural and anthropic universe of groundwater, visiting archaeological sites (neviere, fogge and wells) and natural sites (caves). The echo of the voices and tales of the local experts takes shape in the drawings of white snowballs inspired by the world of snowfields, hence the title “Neviera” (2024), on display at the Castello Ducale.
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Photos by Marino Colucci
Julie Béna
Graduated from the Villa Arson in Nice and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, in 2012-13 she was part of Le Pavillon, the Palais de Tokyo's research laboratory in Paris and in 2018 she was nominated for the Prix AWARE, dedicated to women in art. Julie Béna's work consists of an eclectic set of references, combining contemporary and ancient literature, high and low art, humour and seriousness, parallel times and spaces. Consisting of sculpture, installation, film and performance, her works often seem to float in an infinite void, unfolding against an imaginary background where anything is possible. In recent years, Béna has developed a series of personal cosmologies in which she stages seemingly mundane characters and objects that engage in enigmatic conversations and interactions with each other.
Her works have been shown in solo exhibitions at Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris (2022), Villa Arson, Nice (2021), Kunstverein Bielefeld and Kunstraum, London (2020), and Jeu de Paume, Paris, Capc Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux and Museo Amparo, Puebla (Mexico) (2019). She has created and directed numerous performances: at Centre Pompidou, Paris; ICA, London; M Leuven, Leuven (Belgium); Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Performa, New York.
Agostino Bonalumi
Having abandoned his studies of technical and mechanical drawing, he began painting as a self-taught artist. In Milan, he attended Enrico Baj's studio and met Enrico Castellani and Piero Manzoni, with whom he exhibited in Rome, Lausanne and finally Milan in 1958. Accepting the decline of informal art, he participated in the magazine Azimuth, which promoted a reset of the previous artistic experience towards a new beginning, based on a renewed agreement with social progress. In the 1960s, his artistic career developed towards the creation of environmental works, in which the viewer actively participates in the space, such as Blu abitabile (1967), Grande ambiente bianco e nero (1968), and Ambiente pittura dal giallo al bianco e dal bianco al giallo (1979). He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1966, in 1970 with a solo room, and in 1986. In 2002 he was awarded the Premio Presidente della Repubblica and on this occasion the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him at Palazzo Carpegna in Rome. Bonalumi's works can be found in numerous museums including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Museo del Novecento in Milan.
Rachele Maistrello
Rachele Maistrello studied at the IUAV University in Venice, the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Zurich. Her research is articulated along different lines and employs digital sources and tools together with analogue components or those linked to forms of craftsmanship. Photography plays a central role and is used together with other forms of expression to narrate the connection between the individual and the environment, and how they mutually contaminate each other in defining the sphere of identity. Over the years, she has exhibited in group and solo shows both in Italy and abroad, including MAXXI Museum, Rome (2021); Hamlet, Zurich (2020); Kunstverein Bielefeld, Germany (2020); Inside Out Museum, Beijing (2019); La Triennale, Milan (2018); Photo España, Madrid (2018); Fotomuseum Winterthur (2018); Manifesta 12, Palermo (2018); Unseen Fair, Amsterdam (2017); Museo Pecci, Prato (2017); Museo di Fotografia, Cinisello Balsamo (2012); MSUM Museum, Ljubljana (2013); Ca' Rezzonico Museum, Venice (2013); BYOB, 54. Venice Biennale, Italy (2011).
Elena Mazzi
Starting from the examination of specific territories, in her works, she revisits the cultural and natural heritage of the places intertwining stories, facts, and fantasies transmitted by local communities, in order to suggest possible resolutions to the human-nature-culture conflict. The artist participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, in institutions such as Luleåbiennalen, PAV – Parco Arte Vivente in Turin, der TANK in Basel (CH), BIENALSUR, MADRE in Naples (IT), Ar/ge Kunst in Bolzano (IT), Södertälje Konsthall in Stockholm (SE), Whitechapel Gallery in London (UK), BOZAR in Brussels (BE), Museo del Novecento of Florence (IT), MAGA of Gallarate (IT), GAMeC in Bergamo (IT), MAMbo in Bologna (IT), Sonje Art Center in Seoul (KOR), Palazzo Fortuny in Venice (IT), Fondazione Golinelli in Bologna (IT), 16. Quadriennale in Rome (IT), GAM in Turin (IT), 14 Istanbul Biennale (TR), 17. BJCEM Biennale del Mediterraneo, COP17 in Durban (ZA), Istituto Italiano di Cultura in New York (USA), Bruxelles (BE), Stockholm (SE), Johannesburg (ZA) and Cape Town (ZA), Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa of Venice (IT). She is the winner, among others, of Cantica21 promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, and of the 7th edition of the Italian Council promoted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. Elena Mazzi is currently pursuing a PhD at Villa Arson in Nice (FR).
Fausto Melotti
Considered a pioneer of geometric abstractionism, Melotti's style is based on abstract and at the same time figurative geometric creations, in which the influence of the two disciplines that formed him, music and engineering, can be seen. Constantly searching for new materials and creative possibilities, he has left behind a large number of works such as drawings, ceramics and his teatrini, fascinating terracotta compositions conceived as minute living spaces, within which the artist mimes situations of encounters, presences, alienated and absorbed life. He took part in numerous exhibitions at the Venice Biennale (1948, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1966, 1972, 1986, 1995). In the month of his death, he was awarded the Golden Lion in Memory during the 42nd Venice Biennale. The artist's works can be found in museums such as the MoMA in New York and the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan.
Aligi Sassu
Educated at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, he joined the Futurist movement at a very young age. After an initial phase influenced by G. Manzù and the Lombard chiaristi, his artistic practice turned to expressionist tones with refined reworkings of recurring subjects (horses, heroic figures, crucifixions, battles, etc.) suspended in a metaphysical and supernatural aura. He left for Paris in 1934 and in 1937 was sentenced to one year in prison for anti-fascist activity, which included the promotion of the Corrente group in 1938. Between the 1950s and 1960s, he experimented with different techniques ranging from mural painting to mosaics, from ceramics to graphics. During this period he frequented Albissola, a meeting place for artists, poets and writers, and produced the panels of the “Cronache di Albisola”, one of his most inspired cycles. In 1996, a large donation by the artist led to the Sassu Foundation in Lugano. Present in numerous museum collections, Aligi Sassu's work was exhibited at the LX Venice Art Biennale in 2024.
Marzena Nowak
Her artistic research focuses mainly on the relationship between memory and imagination, between autobiography and the dream world. Nowak’s works, contextualised in the historical-social context of the political changes of the 1980s, play with the forms of sensory perception and the intertwining between the tasks of everyday life and the desire to take refuge in fantasy. She has exhibited in numerous international galleries and museums including Gregor Podnar, Wien; Galerie Mezzanin, Wien; COCA Center of Contemporary Art, Torun (2011); Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2011); Künstlerhaus, Salzburg (2011); MUMOK - Museum Moderner Kunst, Wien (2012); Warsaw Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014); CAC - Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (2015); Pori Art Museum, Pori (2016); Neuer Kunstverein, Wien (2018); Stiftung Ludwig, Wien (2021); Artopia Gallery, Milan (2023).
Giulio Turcato
Considered one of the leading Italian representatives of Informal Abstractionism, he contributed to the foundation of the most significant artistic groups that played a decisive role in the renewal of post-war Italian painting: Forma Uno (1948), Fronte Nuovo delle arti (1948) and Gruppo degli Otto (1952). Drawing on neo-Cubist beginnings, his style interweaves and mixes images from the outside world which are transposed into forms of lyrical invention, intertwining and overlapping with rhythm of emotions against the backdrop of poetic spaces. During his decades-long career, he took part in the Venice Biennale numerous times (1942, 1954, 1956, 1958, the edition in which he won the prize, 1966, 1968, 1972, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1993, 1995). In 1973 and 1980 he exhibited at the São Paulo Biennale and participated in Documenta 2 in Kassel in 1959. His works can be found in numerous museum collections such as Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome and Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna at Ca' Pesaro, Venice.