22 April – 28 May 2016
ABC-Arte Bologna Cultura
Via Alessandrini 11, Bologna
www.abcbo.it/abc
curator: Beatrice Buscaroli
exhibition design: Fausto Savoretti
“Il male degli Ardenti” is one of the Italian synonyms for the disease Ergotism. In the Middle Ages it was a feared illness, caused by a fungus that lives as parasite on cereals plants, especially on rye: the Claviceps purpurea. Besides physical effects, it can cause mania or psychosis. Another name is the Saint Anthony’s Fire, due to the fact that the monks of the Order of St. Anthony were particularly successful at treating this ailment. Here is the bridge to the exhibition “Il male degli Ardenti” with works by Giovanna Caimmi, curated by Beatrice Buscaroli, currently on show in the rooms of the Bolognese association ABC.
Three years ago, Giovanna visited Lisbon and saw the “The Temptation of Saint Anthony” by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 – 1516) at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga. It is the representation of the supernatural temptations faced by Saint Anthony the Great / Anthony the Abbot during his sojourn in the Egyptian desert. Since this first encounter with Hieronymus Bosch, Giovanna was intrigued by the works of this artist. First she started to write some little texts, inspired by the paintings.
Soon she returned to her habitual artistic expression in the visual arts. By the contemplation of Bosch’s paintings, she found symbolic elements like spheres, crystals, existing and fabulous animals. Some of them Giovanna isolated and made sculptures in mixed media of them. From these pieces she shoots little animated videos. So the imaginative worlds painted by Bosch over 500 years ago, were brought into life.
In the exhibition the videos are part of an installation, conceived in cooperation with Fausto Savoretti: a wall with rectangular openings is stretched like a veil in front of the reproductions in original size of Bosch’s “The Temptation of Saint Anthony” and “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. Besides the recesses, there are phablets showing the videos. The result is a communication between Bosch’s ancient oeuvre and the recent production of Giovanna. Here the recipient can rediscover single elements of the paintings by the special attention attracted by the emphasis due to the videos.
Moreover, by the positioning of the monitors besides a special opening, one might find supplement connections between the two artists’ works: the dragonfly that in vain tries to desert the place corresponds formally to the windmill sails at the right panel of the painting of the temptations; the burning city in the background of the central panel finds its counterpart in an illuminated figure with fog around it.
This installation is accompanied by the original sculptures and drawings, which might be read as Giovanna’s comment to Bosch’s paintings. In the, at the occasion of the exhibition published book, these drawings are standing besides some of the texts, written by the artist at the beginning of her approach. All in all, the exhibition is the result of a long term personal investigation, where the contemporary artists searched resounding elements in Bosch’s oeuvre to stimulate her own creative process.
Giovanna Caimmi
Il male degli Ardenti – Intrusioni nelle Delizie e nelle Tentazioni di Bosch
Preface: Beatrice Buscaroli
Introductory essay: Angelo Antonio Fierro
2016, OM Edizioni
33 €
ISBN 9788899450229