I Do Not Love Nature

Curator Riccardo Passoni

with the patronage of the MiBACT – Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Cuneo
Monumental Complex of San Francesco, former Church of San Francesco
Saturday, May 27, 2017 – Sunday, October 22, 2017

Press preview: Friday, May 26, 2017 – 11.30 am

Opening: Friday May 26, 2017 – 5.30 pm

The Fondazione CRC (CRC Foundation) and the GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art) present " I Do Not Love Nature" - Italian Pop Art from the GAM collections - Torino - curated by Riccardo Passoni, and on view in the Monumental Complex of San Francesco in Cuneo, from Saturday May 27, 2017 to Sunday October 22, 2017.

The exhibition – promoted by the CRC on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its establishment, in January 1992 – is a journey across Italian Pop Art and a selection of fifty works that include paintings, sculptures and videos that all come from the GAM – Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea - Torino.

In the light of a recent revival of critical attention, the exhibition originates from the intention to look at the history and legacy of Pop Art in Italy. The main aspects considered by critics in re-reading the Pop Art phenomenon include, on the one hand, an analysis of the news accounts of the period, to find events that relate to the appearance and explosion of the American Pop phenomenon in Italy and, on the other hand, a focus on the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the Italian artists, drawing attention similarities and differences when comparing them to their international counterparts.

The exhibition aims to retrace the wide range of Italian proposals that developed in the early Sixties and it is set in the attractive spaces of the Monumental Complex of San Francesco, next to the Museo Civico di Cuneo. The Complex was restored and returned to the city in 2011, thanks to generous funding from the CRC Foundation − During the Sixties many analogies existed between the gradual but rapid success of American Pop Art and the Italian scene, especially in Rome and Torino, as well as in the circulation of artists and the many languages they proposed.

The exhibition provides examples of the variety of styles developed by artists that include Mario Schifano, Franco Angeli, Giosetta Fioroni, Tano Festa, Sergio Lombardo, Fabio Mauri, Mario Ceroli, who were all active on the Roman scene, together with influential figures like Jannis Kounellis and Pino Pascali. As to the Torino scene, the exhibition brings together work by Ugo Nespolo, Pistoletto, Aldo Mondino, Piero Gilardi, Antonio Carena. In the background, among the many other works on display there are also examples of pioneering research by Mimmo Rotella and Enrico Baj, which have the aim of presenting significant collateral forms of art that were not openly Pop but issued from the same background of development and research.

Further works from the Fondazione Guido e Ettore De Fornaris and from the Fondazione CRT per l'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (CRT Foundation for Modern and Contemporary Art - all of which are held by the GAM in Torino - complete the group of works on display.

«We are proud to promote this exhibition together with the CRC Foundation: it provides an opportunity to show the works from the prestigious holdings of our Museum in the truly unusual location of the monumental complex of San Francesco in Cuneo, allowing them to “re-emerge” within this a new exhibition setting" adds Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Director of the GAM in Torino.

"All the works on display are from the GAM" says Riccardo Passoni, the exhibition curator and Deputy Director of the GAM in Torino "and it is important to note that most of them have been in our collections for many years. This is mainly because of the collection of the Museo Sperimentale di Arte Contemporanea (Experimental Museum of Contemporary Art,) founded in 1963 by Eugenio Battisti at the Istituto di Storia dell’Arte (Institute of Art History) of the University of Genova, that was received by the Museum in the mid-Sixtie,. Re-reading this important collection from a new angle turned out to be quite a surprise for us because so many of its works are connected to Pop Art and its related culture.»

"We welcome this opportunity to partner with the GAM" states Giandomenico Genta, President of the CRC. "I’m not Fond of Nature is primarily an outstanding attraction for the tourist and cultural promotion of Cuneo and its province. Moreover, this year the CRC Foundation celebrates its first 25 years, an anniversary we have chosen to celebrate with this exhibition, a unique opportunity to bring the world of art to our fellow citizens, our young people and our schools. "

The exhibition will be accompanied with a catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale.

The exhibition has been organised with the patronage of the MiBACT – Ministry of Culture and Tourism