IF ARTE POVERA WAS POP:
ARTISTS’ AND EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA IN ITALY 1960–70
Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium, London
23-25 October 2015
This film season at Tate Modern proposes to investigate the roots and forms of circulation of arte povera, a deeply interdisciplinary artistic movement that opened itself to theatre, performance and cinema. If Arte Povera was Pop is a provocative supposition, which puts in evidence the movement’s closeness to time-based media and the existent dialogue between artists working across the visual arts and film. Alongside rare artists’ films, adventurous avantgarde works, and the documentation of seminal exhibitions, the season will focus on two major Italian cities, exploring the heterodox context of arte povera in Turin, and Rome’s cosmopolitan, eccentric scene, a city historically associated with pop art and marked by the experience of the Cooperative of Independent Filmmakers, founded in 1967. The eclectic voices of authors Tonino De Bernardi, Carmelo Bene, Alberto Grifi, and those of artists as Ugo Nespolo, Mario Schifano or Pino Pascali’s advertising commissions, express the vibrancy of a unique moment in the history of the European avant-garde, which the season explores, interrogates and reveals in greater depth. Organised as a dialogue with the The EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop, the season If Arte Povera was Pop presents archival premieres, sessions of expanded cinema and conversations with artists.
Carmelo Bene
HERMITAGE
Italy 1967, 35mm, colour, sound, 26 min
Cinematography: Giulio Albonico
Music: Vittorio Gelmetti
Featuring: Carmelo Bene, Lydia Mancinelli
Production company: Nexus Film
Umberto Bignardi in collaboration with Alfredo Leonardi
MOTION VISION
Italy 1967, 8mm transferred to video, colour, sound, 8 min
Adamo Vergine
CIAO, CIAO
Italy 1967, 16mm transferred to video, black and white, silent, 6 min
Sandro Franchina
MORIRE GRATIS
Italy 1968, 35mm, black and white, 83 min
Featuring: Franco Angeli, Karen Blanguernon, Mario Pisu
POOR ART – RICH LEGACY
ARTE POVERA AND PARALLEL PRACTICES 1968-2015
Nasjonal Museet, Oslo
13 March 2015–28 February 2016
Arte Povera’s conceptual views, approach to materials and working processes have influenced contemporary artists for the past 40 years. This is reflected in the history of the museum’s collection, which includes both acquisitions of significant Arte Povera works, as well as related practices within land art, post-minimalism and conceptual art. The rich legacy of Arte Povera’s influence resonates clearly in a number of more recent Norwegian and international works of art. A walk through the exhibition will allow the audience to experience the museum’s Arte Povera works, and compare and discover parallel practices such as Camilla Løw’s and Kristina Bræin’s play with minimalism, Ida Ekblad’s sculptures assembled from found garbage, the “formlessness” of Camilla Wærenskjold and Jeannette Christensen, and a critical and conceptual approach in the works of Matias Faldbakken, Gerard Byrne and Mario García TorresCamilla LowJeannette ChristensenIda EkbladMatias FaldbakkenMario Garcia TorresTriple Candie
