Mimmo Paladino
Quijote: an exhibition, a film, a book
16 December 2005 - 5 February 2006
Naples, Museum of Capodimonte
Via Miano 2, Naples, Italy
Opening hours
Exhibition: 8.30 am 2.00 pm
Museum: 8.30 am 7.30 pm
Wedsneday closed
Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali
Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Napoletano
Quijote. A new great exhibition by Mimmo Paladino at Museo di Capodimonte in Naples.
On the inauguration of the new exhibition area of the Museum of Capodimonte, for the presentation of shows and other cultural events, and on the 400th anniversary of the publication of El Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, the President of the Regional Council of Campania, Antonio Bassolino, and the Superintendent for the Museums of Naples, Nicola Spinosa, have invited Mimmo Paladino to interpret the eternal modernity of Don Quijote. The artist offers an unusual and very personal view of the ingenious hidalgo. Don Quijote is much more than the protagonist of a story: he is the story itself.
An exhibition
Quijote is the name of the exhibition created by Paladino to recount the story of Cervantes popular hero – anti-hero. A large installation, fifteen bronzes and paintings, forty watercolours, an artists book for a surprising journey in Don Quijotes imaginary world. The works by Paladino are a trip in the universe of the sad knight, so far away in the story of his adventures and his fantastic battles against the windmills, but also so close, in his emotional and sentimental reactions, to modern day.
A film
Paladino, as director, continues the story of his Quijote also on the big screen, with an outstanding cast: the pop singers Peppe Servillo, from Avion Travel, and Lucio Dalla are Don Quijote and Sancho Panza, the artist Enzo Cucchi is Merlin the Wizard, the actor Alessandro Bergonzoni is Wizard Festone and Ginestra Paladino is Dulcinea.
A book
Paladino is also the author of the pictures for a precious artists book entitled Don Quijote, published by Editalia (Gruppo Istituto Poligrafico-Zecca dello Stato). The pictures by the artist interface with the lines by the poet Giuseppe Conte narrating the legendary Mediterranean hero .
On this occasion Editalia is also presenting an exquisite edition of Don Quijote by Cervantes in Alfredo Gianninis classic Italian translation accompanied by 150 reproductions of watercolours through which Mimmo Paladino offers his own interpretation, not to illustrate the story, but playing with the book, the author, the characters.
A phantasmagorical game of reflecting mirrors that makes this project even more fascinating and intriguing. A great artist, a universal story and an incomparable city for a unique Quijote.
Mimmo Paladinos art originates in the seventies, when the artist took his first steps in a figurative world full of symbolic elements. Over the years Paladino has created surprising linguistic routes: presenting his own interior world, primordial and magical, moving from drawing to painting, from sculpture to mosaics, from engraving to film. Between the late seventies and the early eighties he reveals a renewed interest for the human figure and from 1985 onwards he creates large bronze sculptures and installations. In 1995 Paladino is the protagonist of a great art event at Piazza Plebiscito, Naples, with his Salt Mountain: chromatic vibrations, vast arrays of colour, sculptural installations, animal and human forms. Neapolitans still remember his fallen horses in the salt. Testimony of that great event is Vasca, today conserved in the collection of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Capodimonte.
The new exhibition area of the Museum of Capodimonte has been realized with funds from Region Campania, co-financed by the European Union-European Fund for Regional Development, PIT funds, in the ambit of P.O.R. Campania 2000-2006 and the contribution of the Ministry fo Cultural Heritage and Activities. The Quijote exhibition is realized by Regione Campania and the Soprintendenza Speciale for the Museums of Naples, with the support of the Office of Tourism and Culture of the Regione Campania. The Province of Naples, the Town Council of Naples, the PAN Palazzo delle Arti of Naples and the Cervantes Institute have also contributed. The catalogue of the exhibition is published by Electa Napoli. The film Quijote is produced by Ananas s.r.l. and by Regione Campania, with the contribution of the Province of Benevento and of FCRC Film Commission, Regione Campania. The theatrical and musical show, organised in Naples on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition, is by Editalia (Gruppo Istituto Poligrafico Zecca dello Stato) with the participation of Mimmo Cuticchio, Lucio Dalla and Marco Alemanno for the presentation of the book Don Quijote by Mimmo Paladino and Giuseppe Conte, published by the Group.
Information: mobile phones and international callers dial 39 06 39967050 (operating from the beginning of the exhibition) – Italy tel. 848800288
Organization and Promotion
Civita, Piazza Venezia 11 – Roma – Tel. 39 06 6920501 incontra@civita.it
Revolution, C.so Re Umberto 46 bis – Torino – Tel. 39 011 546284 – info@r-evolutionitalia.it
Press Offices
Studio Esseci, Sergio Campagnolo – Tel. 39 049 663499 – info@studioesseci.net – www.studioesseci.net
Soprintendenza Speciale for the Museums of Naples, Simona Golia – Tel. 39 081 2294478 polomusna.uffstampa@arti.beniculturali.it
Editalia, Maria Bonmassar – Tel. 39 06 4825370 – maria.bonmassar@tiscali.it
Electa Napoli – Sandra Zavaleta – Tel. 081 5756654 – email press@ena.it
