NABA visual arts exhibition
May 9–16, 2023
From a draft by Andris Brinkmanis and Marco Scotini.
Curated by the NABA Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies MA students: Francesca Barberi, Elisabetta Calligaro, Chaitanya Chavan Santosh, Luisa Flores, Irene Follador, Francesca Grossi, Merve Korkmaz, Teresa Lafuente, Greta Martina, Alberto Navilli, Collettivo N410 (Barbara Niniano, Alessia Riva, Federica Rizzo), Alessia Vespa.
Artists: Susanna Acinapura, Chiara Antonelli, Roberta Argenta, Davide Barberi, Isabel Bergant, Edoardo Bonacina, Elisabetta Bottura, Cecilia Carmine, Elisa Ceccoli, Elisa Ceneri, Fiordi Cielo, Camilla De Siati, Barbara De Veteris, Xizi Du, Maria Esposito, Maia Evangelisti, Marie Nicole Gianfrate, Giorgio Mattia, Camilla Gurgone, Nicolò Minisi, Chiara Meloni, Chiara Nicoletti, Daniela Noviello, Alex Parrotto, C. Sidonie Pellegrino, Giulia Piatti, Chiara Smedile, Alessandro Sorrentino, Marco Resta, Oranee Thawatpongsri, Vismayee.
Exhibition coordinator: Letizia Mari / Exhibition set up: Nicolò Colciago / Visual identity: Giordano Cruciani.
For many years, the archive has been one of the central elements of the pedagogic processes developed by NABA’s Visual Arts Department.
Given the many facets of the word “archive”, it seems impossible to describe the plurality of meanings attributed to the term. Inside the archive, many objects settle and are kept, as in the depths of a lake. Water covers what we remember and what is forgotten, altering their dimensions and perception.
So much so that one wonders what is real, and, on the other hand, what is pure imagination?
It takes courage to decide to dive into the depths, to bring to the surface what has been left on the bottom. You must repeatedly take a breath and dive, in the knowledge that not everything can be brought to the surface and that this may not meet your expectations.
Inevitably the time will come to rise to the surface due to lack of breath, and the coordinates of space and time will begin to escape. Thus, far from the reassuring silence of the water that has covered, concealed, and protected everything, what has been found re-emerges in the frenetic and elusive world of life on the surface. Bringing back to direct light is not only an act of conscience but an act of will; giving voice, making what was once archived resonate, inserting it into the present.
The Archive symbolizes a portal capable of uniting and mixing different realities, allowing the emergence of new fusions and connections in a continuous evolution. It is a physical and personal place, it deals with memory and power. It has a public and private dimension. It is an alternative source of inspiration to the traditions and memories of the world, and it is here that the unceasing stratification and de-stratification of time can offer new possibilities for change. Archiving can be a participatory device of reinterpretation and subversion, which allows history to be re-written by giving voice to unrealized futures and unfinished pasts.
Voicing the Archive stems from the desire to unite and record fragmented and sometimes distant identities, bringing them together to produce often spatial and timeless dialogues and exchanges. By so doing, the intention is to create new approaches and perspectives in archiving, allowing us to reflect critically and in-depth on the search for its ontology.
On May 16 at 4pm a conference dedicated to the exhibition will be held in Agorà Space at Triennale Milano. An open and immersive dialogue on the possibilities of the archive, to give voice to the exhibition concept expressed by the curatorial team and to the practices of the emerging artists invited to participate. A series of conversations between students and alumni (Valentina Avanzini, Sofia Baldi Pighi, Alessia Baranello, Arnold Braho, Valentina d’Aprile, Caterina Fulcis, Gabriella Kolandra, Chiara Lupi, Elena Marcon, Letizia Mari, Tommaso Pagani, Paola Pietronave, Arianna Tremolanti)—young professionals in the cultural and curatorial sector of contemporary art—to describe the plurality of meanings and explore the depths of the lake, the nodal metaphor of the exhibition project, around which the narration of the works develops. A lake that hides, reveals, guards, sediments and raises non-linear fragments, to tell and rewrite history. Afterwards Marco Scotini will connect the exhibition to his latest publication L’inarchiviabile. L’archivio contro la storia (The Unarchivable, published by Meltemi), in a dialogue with Luca Cerizza, curator, art critic and NABA lecturer, and Luca Vitone, artist and NABA lecturer.
The exhibition sees the involvement of the students from both NABA campus in Milan and Rome, from the BA in Painting and Visual Arts and from the MA in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies. Voicing the Archive is the second act of the exhibition project started last year with (Im)possible Ecologies, held at the Botanic Garden of Rome Polo Museale Sapienza.
NABA Visual Arts Department is composed by the BA in Painting and Visual Arts, the MA in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies, both active in Milan and Rome campus, the Academic Masters in Contemporary Art Markets and in Photography and Visual Design, and the new Academic Master in Art and Ecology, all available in Milan.
Special thanks to: Guido Tattoni, Silvia Simoncelli, Caterina Iaquinta, Vasco Forconi, Gabriele Sassone, Elvira Vannini, Shuai Yin, Dario Pecoraro.
NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti
NABA is an international Academy focused on arts and design: it is the largest Academy of Fine Arts in Italy and the first one to have been recognised by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), back in 1981. In its two campus in Milan and Rome, NABA offers academic diplomas equivalent to first and second level university degrees in the fields of design, fashion design, graphics and communication, multimedia arts, new technologies, set design, visual arts. NABA was selected by the QS World University Rankings by Subject Art & Design as the Best Academy of Fine Arts in Italy and among the top 100 universities in the world.
