AFRICA. Telling a world / Io, Luca Vitone

AFRICA. Telling a world
Defining Africa today means being able to recount it. In an equilibrium between Occidentalism and Africanism, post-colonialism and migration, contemporary African art in reality poses essential, political, economic, religious and gender questions that affect the future of one of the most complex areas on our planet. With the exhibition AFRICA. Telling a world, curated by Adelina von Fürstenberg and overseen by Ginevra Bria for the video and performance section, PAC continues its exploration of the continents following the route of art. Through photographs, paintings, installations, drawings and sculptures, from public and private international collections, as well as videos and performances, 33 artists of different generations will offer visitors visual and narrative works in order to understand the universality of the contemporary Africa scene south of the Sahara. To celebrate the opening of the exhibition, on June 27, 28 and 29, three young South African artists had staged three different performances, between the imagination of the female universe and the dominant system representing the body in the media. Featured artists: Georges Adéagbo (Benin), Malala Andrialavidrazana (Madagascar), Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro (Gabon), Omar Ba (Senegal), Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (Côte d’Ivoire) Kudzanai Chiurai (Zimbabwe), Dokter & Misses (South Africa), Alassane Drabo (Burkina Faso), Amadou Fatoumata Ba (Senegal), Gabrielle Goliath (South Africa), Romuald Hazoumé (Benin), Anne Historical (South Africa), Pieter Hugo (South Africa), Seydou Keïta (Mali), Donna Kukama (South Africa), Gonçalo Mabunda (Mozambico), Ato Malinda / Alex Mawimbi (Kenya), Abu Bakarr Mansaray (Sierra Leone), Senzeni Marasela (South Africa), Zanele Muholi (South Africa), J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere (Nigeria), Idrissa Ouédraogo (Burkina Faso), Richard Onyango (Kenya), Tracey Rose (South Africa), Nawaaz Saldulker (South Africa), Chéri Samba (Congo), Buhlebezwe Siwani (South Africa), Berni Searle (South Africa), Yinka Shonibare MBE (Nigeria), Malick Sidibé  (Mali), Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritania), Barthélémy Toguo (Camerun), Billie Zangewa (Malawi).

Io, Luca Vitone

Opening: October 12

On the occasion of the 13th edition of the Contemporary Day dedicated to Italian art, the PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea in Milan presents the exhibition Io, Luca Vitone that explores the intense wide production of the Italian artist born in 1964 in Genoa and based in Berlin. Starting from the physical and historical architecture places, Vitone analyses a personal dimension built through a stratification of different languages connected to the identities and roots of the place itself, and challenges the conventions of faded, blurred memory. As a curious and untiring traveler, with a spirit lying halfway between an anarchist and a nomad, his work explores the ways in which the places built their identity through the cultural production: art, music, architecture, political associations and ethnic minority. Curated by Luca Lo Pinto and Diego Sileo, the exhibition at PAC will cover the artistic career of Luca Vitone spanning 30 years, through a selection of his most significant projects rather than a juxtaposition of individual pieces. Following the architecture of the space, it will articulate in several rooms each one devoted to a specific body of work as they have been originally presented in their entirety. By using the entire exhibition as medium, Vitone will transform the physical space of the institution into a work functioning as a palimpsest to display other pieces, reproposing an early work contextualized in the exhibition space and a new version of his works made with dust. He will likewise employ the external space of PAC and the catalogue as a further extension of the exhibition. The project will expand into the city with a selection of artist’s works installed at the fascinating cloisters of the Basilica di Sant’Eustorgio—one of the oldest churches in Milan founded in the 4th century—at the Museo Diocesano and at Museo del Novecento with the work Wide City (1998).

Exhibitions are promoted by the City of Milan and produced by PAC with Silvana Editoriale.