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Curated by: Angela Tecce
The show
December 16. A tale of the ancient made of copper, wrought iron, brass and more : to guide us, in this imaginative and light journey between past and present, can only be Riccardo Dalisi. European by vocation) is the protagonist, at the National Archaeological Museum, of the personal exhibition "Winning the time" : from 19 December (vernissage at 5pm) to next 27 February, Dalisi retraces his creative experience at the MANN, interpreted, in an inimitable way, among sculptures , design works , mosaics and sketches .
“We welcome maestro Riccardo Dalisi , always innovative architect, artist and designer, sensitive to the social and the environment, ambassador of Italian culture and creativity in the world, enlightened teacher of Federico II, a point of reference for generations of learners. The Archaeological Museum of Naples welcomes him with affection, giving Neapolitans and tourists a precious exhibition for the holidays, a tribute to an extraordinary artistic journey full of profound humanity and poetry ”, declares the Director of the MANN, Paolo Giulierini.
The leitmotif of the exhibit, curated by Angela Tecce, is the comparison between the subtle and stylized (almost aerial) works of Dalisi and the mighty statues of the Farnese collection of the Museum: in the exhibition, born from the collaboration with various universities and cultural institutions ( Department of Architecture and Industrial Design of the University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Department of Architecture of the University Federiciano, Academy of Fine Arts of Naples, SMMAVE Center for contemporary art Naples), a diptych in mosaic and over thirty sculptures. It starts from the Atrium, with two shepherds of a nativity, made in the 2000s as a result of the design of the cylinder of the famous coffee pot; continue in the Sala dei Tirannicidi, where a large figure of a praying Madonna, made of tin, copper and other metals sewn together according to the principles of the so-called “ultra-poor design”, enters into dialogue with the famous sculptural group of Armodio and Aristogitone. The dialectic between different creative expressions and distinct materials that support and embody the artist's work does not end here: always "in the presence" of the Tyrannicides, Dalisi proposes not only the highly original mosaic diptych, which reflects, on a surface of 2.7X1 .5 m, the iconography of the Pompeian frescoes (two scenes represented: the first, on a blue background, has a marine theme with fish; the second, on a yellow base, bears colored flowers), but also a panel with drawings and inspired sketches to the sculptures of Henry Moore. In the Garden of the Fountains, a new glance awaits the visitor with the "Gazebo", which recreates the ancient Vesuvian paintings in 3D, while many other references show how much contemporary imagination is nourished by classical iconography : not to be missed, the sculptures in copper, brass and green copper entitled "Cave canem", "Ulysses" and "Pompeii", which, with grace, lightness and irony, approach and desacralize the link with ancient culture.
Having overcome the diachronic criterion and adopting a premise of well-harmonized preparation in the MANN collections, the exhibition itinerary also presents some famous works that marked the "beginnings" of Dalisi's career: among these, "The great papier-mache throne" which, for beginning of the Seventies, marked the advent of what Germano Celant called "poor art". In a cultured and at the same time light itinerary, the visitor thus discovers not only the links between classical and contemporary art, but above all the experimental vocation by an author who has profoundly marked the Neapolitan culture (and not only) of recent decades: playing on materials and shapes, proposing an imaginative vision of reality, Dalisi defines the canons of an aesthetic that manages to find beauty and creative impetus in dimension of the newspaper. This simplicity, almost minimalist, is perhaps the key to understanding Dalisi's encounter with MANN: in the third millennium, according to the artist, there are still heroes and knights, but they are minute and thin figures of copper green, outstretched. , as in one of the sculptures presented in the exhibit, looking at a horizon that, until February 27, will coincide with the rooms of the Archeologico.
