HERE TO STAY. New arrivals to the Collection
This exhibition presents a first selection of works as part of an ongoing effort to cement Museion’s future collection research and public/private partnership.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
HERE TO STAY
The exhibition captures and draws attention to two major clusters within the Museion collection that we have successfully secured by means of private donations and long-term loans.
HERE TO STAY highlights an intergenerational bridge, featuring signature installations, sculptures, and media art produced between 2000 and 2010 together with conceptual artworks from the second half of the last century.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
Central to our endeavors is a systematic interest in the conditions of art production and authenticity. For artists in the early 2000s, experiencing art was never a neutral affair but was instead shaped by social consensus and policed by public institutions.
By appropriating the broader context of art as their craft, artists were able to turn public formats that were normally seen as unbiased—such as display, education, or even distribution—into artistic techniques, making them personalized, speculative, and socially critical.
Essential to the exhibition are three presentations focusing on the artistic practice of Italian conceptual artists Berty Skuber, Franco Vaccari, and the artist group Poesia Visiva. HERE TO STAY marks their historic role in paving the way for the generation of artists mentioned above. Central topics addressed by the exhibition are introduced through their work.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
Display Art
Between the 2000s and the 2010s, the display, in other words, the means of presenting a work, became a key theme in artistic reflections. The process of selecting what to exhibit and in what way became the object of study for a whole generation of artists, who rethought the significance and implications inherent in the production, circulation, and impact of a work.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
The display highlights the relationships between knowledge and power, including the power relationships internal and external to the art system: from the architectural design of museum spaces to the choice of the elements to include in a work or an exhibition, through to the writing of press releases and the educational activities offered by the institution.
In Italy, artists have systematically included the exhibition display in their research since the 1960s, focusing on the role of supports (plinths, frames, canvases) or the conditions that allow for the works to unfold their impact. An element central to the debate was the book The Open Work by the semiologist Umberto Eco, who identifies in the model of the work that is open to the stimuli of the context and the involvement of viewers a new way for art to be produced and considered.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
Franco Vaccari
A pioneer of this approach is Franco Vaccari (Modena, 1936), a physicist by training, who in the 1970s anticipated what many artists would start to examine post-2000. In his research, which is always intensely narrative, he makes use of various media, ranging from photography to video, from film to participatory actions right through to his critical-theoretical production.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
In his Esposizioni in tempo reale (Exhibitions in Real Time), Vaccari triggered “situations” for the public, who, during the opening hours of an exhibition, had the chance to intervene in the creation of the work itself, thus subjecting it to continuous variations. At the end of the event, the artist would piece it all back together into a new work made up of each constitutive element of the exhibition.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
The role of collaboration and exchange in art
One of the characteristics of art in the new millennium is its opening towards new forms of collaboration, both between artists and with a range of other figures—not necessarily present in the shows or even members of the human world.
This approach constitutes a further passage towards the relational aesthetics theorized in the 1990s, linked to the creation of the work through the involvement of the public at the display venue.
The contributions that new technologies or the renewed interest in the inorganic and organic spheres brought to art left their mark on an entire generation, as HERE TO STAY testifies.
From a Legacy of Neglect (Time Capsule Project – Contract) (2006) by Ryan GanderMUSEION
Echoes of these interests were present in Italy as far back as the 1960s, when the desire to question the art system triangle—artist’s studio, gallery, and museum—drove artists to seek out alternative forms for the production and circulation of their works.
The international tensions of the Cold War and the ensuing climate of censure led artists to place greater emphasis on collaboration both inside and beyond the art world. The postal service, in the case of mail art, is one of the most famous examples.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
Berty Skuber
The room devoted to the work of South Tyrolean artist Berty Skuber in HERE TO STAY exemplifies this need to question authority and the tradition of artistic creation by exploring processes of exchange.
Berty Skuber started out in the 1970s producing an extraordinarily diverse range of works over the years; nevertheless, it features a number of perennial characteristics that have been there since the beginning, such as the role of linguistic signals, her reaction to everyday elements in her given environment, work processes that extend over longer periods of time, and lively exchanges with other people.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
Popular Media
In the new millennium, the internet, social networks, and sharing platforms have contributed to putting the mass media at the focus of artists’ endeavors. The medium used for artworks is often as important as the messages they convey. An analysis of these new media supplements that of the more traditional mass media such as newspapers, billboards, radio, and TV.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
The need to verify the truthfulness of news, as well as the ability to access archival materials unavailable for many years, have thus fueled recent artistic production.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
In Italy, artistic interest in these themes already burgeoned in the 1970s amidst the social tensions generated in the “Leaden Years,” and was prompted by studies on mass media carried out over the previous decade.
The practice of reusing materials produced by popular media was intended as a critique of the politics and society of the day. Artists often echoed the demands of workers, as well as those of the feminist, homosexual, and transgender movements.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
Visual Poetry
Visual Poetry provides an ideal bridge between artists from different decades who share an interest in analyzing how the popular media play a key role in the formation of citizens’ collective imagination.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
Collages of texts and images extrapolated from these media, accessible to artists and the general public alike, make up part of the sizeable body of works of the “Poesia Visiva” movement, presented here as part of HERE TO STAY.
Poesia Visiva is a special variety of visual poetry that began to gain popularity in 1963, especially in Florence. The artists worked predominantly with material taken almost exclusively from the mass media. In this respect, the works display an affinity with Pop Art, but unlike Pop Art, Poesia Visiva aimed to give new meaning to found material through specific combinations that would unleash its socio-critical potential.
"Here to Stay", exhibition view, Museion 2021MUSEION
The exponents of Poesia Visiva worked in the context of postwar Italy, with its resurgent industrial mass production accompanied by new mass-media channels (newspapers, magazines, TV). This presentation of works includes some of the foremost Italian and international protagonists of Poesia Visiva: Lamberto Pignotti, Lucia Marcucci, Mario Diacono, Stelio Maria Martini, Ketty La Rocca, Sarenco, Paul De Vree, Alain Arias-Misson.
Video Tour
Experience the HERE TO STAY exhibition on our video tour with the Museion's director Bart van der Heide in collaboration with Elena Bini and Andreas Hapkemeyer.
VIDEO TOUR
HERE TO STAY
Many thanks for visiting the exhibition HERE TO STAY, which draws attention to a selection of new donations and long-term loans to the Museion collection. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge everyone involved in this exceptional project, securing a sustainable future for the museum.
HERE TO STAY
A cura di / kuratoriert von / curated by
Bart van der Heide
in collaborazione con / in Zusammenarbeit mit / in collaboration with
Elena Bini e/und/and Andreas Hapkemeyer
Progetto allesimento / Ausstellungsarchitektur / exhibition architecture
Pietro Ambrosini, Campomarzio
Gestione del progetto / Projektleitung / project management
Brigitte Unterhofer
Testi in mostra / Texte in der Ausstellung / texts in the exhibition
Stefano Cagol Collicelli, Elena Bini, Andreas Hapkemeyer
Coordinamento testi / Textmanagement / text management
Susanna Piccoli
Produzione / Produktion / Production
Petra Guidi
Conservazione opere / Konservierung Werke / Conservation artworks
Daniela Ferrari
Transport / Trasporto / Shipments
Katja Vigl
Allestimento / Aufbau / exhibition set up
Carlo Degasperi
Cristian Micheloni
Tomasiarte
Google Arts & Culture stories & elements
Katia Cont
