A.A.A.Angelica

Marco Di Giovanni

a cura di Maria Livia Brunelli

Additional Info

Intoduction:
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the "Orlando Furioso" by Ludovico Ariosto, concurrent with the important exhibition of Palazzo dei Diamanti, the MLB Maria Livia Brunelli asked some artists to compare themselves with the reading of the poem, to deepen an aspect of it that everyone felt strongly linked to their own poetics. After Giovanna Ricotta and Stefano Bombardieri, the exhibition concludes with Marco Di Giovanni, who created a suggestive and poetic exhibition that does not fail to amaze and excite visitors.
The exhibition project revolves around two fundamental themes: in the first room the warrior women of the poem; in the second the strong fascination exerted by the Moon.
Angelica and Bradamante are the symbol of the new role that the woman assumed in the Renaissance, but at the same time they have to fight with a mentality still very much linked to male privileges: both beautiful, the first is expert in magic and destined as a wife to the most valiant knight, the second is a loving warrior who defeats the most valiant knights.
Di Giovanni frames the figure of Angelica, in his being the object of desire to be awarded as a prize, in that category of women, often beautiful but very unlucky, that the actuality shows us every day by reading the pages of newspapers, those women who propose themselves through ads like "AAA Angelica ". Di Giovanni contacted them starting from those ads, and asked them to pose for a portrait, recalling the tradition of the pictorial nude that in more modest centuries has often seen women used as models. An apparently irreverent operation, that in reality is fully "cortese" in the medieval meaning of the term, because it ennobles the woman until she becomes a woman-angel, giving the impression, says the artist, of "fading elusive and liquid, referring to the fact that one of Angelica's tricks to escape his contenders is to become transparent".
Bradamante instead is really present in the exhibition as a contemporary incarnation of Artemis, goddess of the hunt but also protector of virginity and modesty: throughout the poem defends itself from attacks by petty and violent men for the love of his Ruggero. On show a beautiful girl will fall into the shoes of Bradamante who, for the duration of the inauguration, will overshadow the spectators, struggling in an ideal but thunderous duel of metallic sounds.
In the second room instead the protagonist is the Moon, the celestial body celebrated by the poem as a symbol of the overturn of all that happens on Earth: the only place where there is no madness, which instead dominates the world, because everyone is constantly looking for what they can’t get.
There are no better words than those of Marco Di Giovanni to tell this second part of the exhibition: "The main wall will be dominated by an installation with 46 Moleskine notebooks, one for each song of the poem, all open on the planisphere page divided into time zones; but madness makes us lose every space-time coordinate, as happens in Orlando, wandering the world to the right and to the left, naked, uprooting trees, without distinguishing even the day from the night ".
In this way the artist, with pencil, has added on every planisphere mimetic signs with respect to the print, in order to create an irrational chaos that will confuse borders and continents.
Exhibited Works:
View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://mlbgallery.com/en/exhibitions/a-a-a-angelica-marco-di-giovanni-en#sigProIdaacdc12220
Performance ed installazione "Bradamante"
Exhibition Set Up:
View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://mlbgallery.com/en/exhibitions/a-a-a-angelica-marco-di-giovanni-en#sigProIde7bf29b4a5
Vernissage: Photo Gallery:
View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://mlbgallery.com/en/exhibitions/a-a-a-angelica-marco-di-giovanni-en#sigProId0c530188b0
Finger food a cura di Silvia Brunelli
View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://mlbgallery.com/en/exhibitions/a-a-a-angelica-marco-di-giovanni-en#sigProId8c9a817c61

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the "Orlando Furioso" by Ludovico Ariosto, concurrent with the important exhibition of Palazzo dei Diamanti, the MLB Maria Livia Brunelli asked some artists to compare themselves with the reading of the poem, to deepen an aspect of it that everyone felt strongly linked to their own poetics. After Giovanna Ricotta and Stefano Bombardieri, the exhibition concludes with Marco Di Giovanni, who created a suggestive and poetic exhibition that does not fail to amaze and excite visitors.
The exhibition project revolves around two fundamental themes: in the first room the warrior women of the poem; in the second the strong fascination exerted by the Moon.
Angelica and Bradamante are the symbol of the new role that the woman assumed in the Renaissance, but at the same time they have to fight with a mentality still very much linked to male privileges: both beautiful, the first is expert in magic and destined as a wife to the most valiant knight, the second is a loving warrior who defeats the most valiant knights.
Di Giovanni frames the figure of Angelica, in his being the object of desire to be awarded as a prize, in that category of women, often beautiful but very unlucky, that the actuality shows us every day by reading the pages of newspapers, those women who propose themselves through ads like "AAA Angelica ". Di Giovanni contacted them starting from those ads, and asked them to pose for a portrait, recalling the tradition of the pictorial nude that in more modest centuries has often seen women used as models. An apparently irreverent operation, that in reality is fully "cortese" in the medieval meaning of the term, because it ennobles the woman until she becomes a woman-angel, giving the impression, says the artist, of "fading elusive and liquid, referring to the fact that one of Angelica's tricks to escape his contenders is to become transparent".
Bradamante instead is really present in the exhibition as a contemporary incarnation of Artemis, goddess of the hunt but also protector of virginity and modesty: throughout the poem defends itself from attacks by petty and violent men for the love of his Ruggero. On show a beautiful girl will fall into the shoes of Bradamante who, for the duration of the inauguration, will overshadow the spectators, struggling in an ideal but thunderous duel of metallic sounds.
In the second room instead the protagonist is the Moon, the celestial body celebrated by the poem as a symbol of the overturn of all that happens on Earth: the only place where there is no madness, which instead dominates the world, because everyone is constantly looking for what they can’t get.
There are no better words than those of Marco Di Giovanni to tell this second part of the exhibition: "The main wall will be dominated by an installation with 46 Moleskine notebooks, one for each song of the poem, all open on the planisphere page divided into time zones; but madness makes us lose every space-time coordinate, as happens in Orlando, wandering the world to the right and to the left, naked, uprooting trees, without distinguishing even the day from the night ".
In this way the artist, with pencil, has added on every planisphere mimetic signs with respect to the print, in order to create an irrational chaos that will confuse borders and continents.