Until 9 December, the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg hosts the exhibition 'Arte Povera 1967-1971', curated by Ilaria Bernardi and promoted by the Consulate General of Italy in the South African capital. This is the first exhibition in Africa of Arte Povera and the first after the death, in 2020, of Germano Celant, who in 1967 defined it as "art that consists in removing, eliminating, reducing to a minimum, impoverishing signs, to reduce them to their archetypes". Since then, Arte Povera.
The Johannesburg exhibition, thanks to the collaboration with the artists and their archives, collectors and museums that have lent their works, welcomes the works of 13 artists considered the most important exponents of Arte Povera: Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini, Gilberto Zorio. The curator Ilaria Bernardi has adopted an analytical and philological concept that restores liveliness and dialogue between the artists: at the Wits Art Museum are exhibited emblematic works of the research of each artist, dated between 1967 - the year in which Celant coined the term Arte povera - and 1971 - the year in which he postulates that the label must dissolve in order for each artist to take on his or her own singularity.
The exhibition is accompanied by an area dedicated to a chronology of the group exhibitions held in those years to be considered pivotal for the history of Arte Povera, accompanied by display cases with the relevant catalogues. The exhibition concludes with the video-documentary 'Arte povera', curated by Beatrice Merz and Sergio Ariotti, with archival material, footage from recent solo exhibitions and clips of interviews with Germano Celant.
The exhibition is part of a larger exhibition project entitled 'Arte Povera and South African Art: In Conversation', promoted by the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg and the Consulate General of Italy and which includes, on the same dates as the exhibition curated by Ilaria Bernardi, another entitled 'Innovations in South African Art, 1980s-2020s', curated by Thembinkosi Goniwe, dedicated to South African artists who, for some aspects of their practice, declare themselves or are akin to Arte Povera: Lucas Seage, Jane Alexander, David Thubu Koloane, Kagiso Pat Mautloa, Moshekwa Langa, Usha Seejarim, Bongiwe Dhlomo-Mautloa, Willem Boshoff, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Thokozani Mthiyane, Kay Hassan.
All rights reserved © Copyright ANSA