Compagni di viaggio / Traveling Companions

Artists: ThisJumana Abboud, Carla Accardi, Vito Acconci, Mario Airò, Maria Thereza Alves, Getulio Alviani, Karel Appel, Marco Bagnoli, Judith Barry, Massimo Bartolini, Bizhan Bassiri, Elisabetta Benassi, Alighiero Boetti, Alvin Curran, Bruna Esposito, Dario D’Aronco, Gino De Dominicis, Thierry De Cordier, Valentino Diego, Jimmie Durham, Jan Fabre, Luciano Fabro, Marco Fedele di Catrano, Günther Förg, Federico Fusi, Carlos Garaicoa, Alberto Garutti, Isa Genzken, Gilbert and George, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Fabrice Hybert, Irwin, Johannes Kahrs, Joseph Kosuth, Jannis Kounellis, Oleg Kulik, Ken Lum, Donatella Landi, Felice Levini, Sol LeWitt, H. H. Lim, Eric Madelaine, Eva Marisaldi, Fernando Melani, Bjarne Melgaard, Mario Merz, Liliana Moro, Reinhard Mucha, Maria Nordman, Luigi Ontani, Dennis Oppenheim, Meret Oppenheim, Giulio Paolini, Luca Maria Patella, Cesare Pietroiusti, Alfredo Pirri, Vettor Pisani, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Dmitri Prigov, Emilio Prini, Annie Ratti, Gerhard Richter, Gert Robijns, Remo Salvadori, Maurizio Savini, ManfreDu Schu, Thomas Schütte, Tamuna Sibirladze, Ettore Spalletti, Donatella Spaziani, Haim Steinbach, Adrian Tranquilli, Giulio Turcato, Jan Vercruysse, Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani, Ian Wallace, Lawrence Weiner, Franz West, Achim Wollscheid and Christopher Wool.

Consisting of several segments, this exhibition provides a multilayered view of the artistic production of the featured artists and the role, or perhaps simply a visual reflection, of their friendship with the two key protagonists, Dora Stiefelmeier and Mario Pieroni, whose archives, collection of artworks, and current projects are put on view. The process of the selection for and the staging of the exhibition were guided by the predominant idea of showing Stiefelmeier and Pieroni’s participation in the production of artworks, their work on exhibitions, and, last but not least, their informal and congenial associations with numerous prominent figures both on the Italian and international art scenes. Hence the title of the show Compagni di viaggio / Traveling Companions, which presents, by way of a variety of artworks, audio archives, videos, postcards, letters, poems, and documentary photographs, the many years of their active cooperation and friendship.

The drawings, sculptures, postcards, letters, and artist’s books with inscribed dedications displayed on the first floor bear witness to the lively activities of the Pieroni Gallery in the 1970s and 1980s, of the non-profit organization Zerynthia established in the early 1990s, and of radio RAMradioartemobile. This collection had grown out of the decades of close contacts between Stiefelmeier and Pieroni, on the one hand, and artists and other figures on the international art scene, on the other. Both the selection of works and documents and the design of their display are the work of the Irwin group, who have used the material to produce a distinct view, interpreting and translating into exhibition format the story of professional and friendly links between people of different generations and styles of expression. Most artists are presented with a single artwork, or even only with a postcard they sent on some occasion or other (intervening in the given visual image, putting their thoughts in writing, in the intervention, or in the choice of motif), with a taped video work they made, having been unable to meet in person, or even an intervention in Stiefelmeier and Pieroni’s home or gallery. This provides visitors with an opportunity to see a great deal of documentary material and artworks, which in their diverse ways reflect the cordial links between, as well as some quite intimate details in the lives of, Stiefelmeier, Pieroni, and the artists.

The last decade of their active participation and creative zeal is represented by three works: RAM live, SAM SoundArtMuseum (an installation by Getulio Alviani and Pietro Grossi), and the current project Il Treno (The Train). In collaboration with RAM live – an Internet radio station broadcasting from www.radioartemobile. it since 2001 and collecting such audio material as sound artworks, interviews, dialogues and other related materials – radioCona will prepare several days’ worth of programming to be broadcast on the Internet (from the RAM website and from www.cona.si/radio) as well as at 88.8 MHz on the FM dial. Irena Pivka and Brane Zorman will prepare a selection of materials from the RAM archives, while Ilari Valbonesi, a longtime former collaborator of RAM live, the web radio of RAM, will put together a program from various Slovenian audio archives. For the first few days of the show, radioCona will have its studio on the ground floor of the gallery, broadcasting live a program that will include, in addition to the selected audio works and sound art projects, interviews, talks, and other content.

The current projects are exhibited on the second floor: a number of sound works; the archive of the SoundArtMuseum (established in 2004 and curated by Lorenzo Benedetti, Riccardo Giagni, and Cesare Pietroiusti, it has over 1,000 audio works); and the second station of the Il treno project (the first one was in Turin on November 6, 2010), entitled Landscapes on the Move, curated by Lorenzo Benedetti and Cecilia Casorati, and presenting works by Donatella Spaziani, Liliana Moro, Mario Airò, Massimo Bartolini, Dario D’Aronco, Marco Fedele di Catrano, Valentino Diego, Donatella Landi, Eva Marisaldi, Alfredo Pirri, and special guests of the Train project, Jannis Kounellis and Alvin Curran. The sequence of exhibitions, meetings, and short trips creates the connections between the chosen galleries, while metaphorically the title can be understood to refer to the rapid succession of scenarios and stories changing in the art spaces as quickly as they would on a train, broadening the horizons of the viewers-passengers in the process.

Also Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani’s documentary S.T. (Untitled), a work in progress featuring many of the artists participating in Compagni di viaggio, and Jimmie Durham’s film Pursuit of Happiness will be screened as part of the exhibition.

Traveling Companions

This exhibition provides a multilayered view of the artistic production of the featured artists and the role, or perhaps simply a visual reflection, of their friendship with the two key ...