13 Apr 2012

Milano Radicale curated by Radical Intention + Caterina Iaquinta

MILANO RADICALE

ANGELO CASTUCCI, TARA KABOLI, MARIA PECCHIOLI, RHAZE, IACOPO SERI, GIULIA TICOZZI, CLAUDIA VENTOLA

curated by RADICAL INTENTION + CATERINA IAQUINTA

from 16th of April to the 31st of May 2012

Opening: Monday April 16th at 6 pm.

Milano Radicale is a yearlong project curated by Radical Intention and Caterina Iaquinta that began in June 2011. For the third and final phase, the project promotes an exhibition and workshops with Angelo Castucci, Tara Kaboli, Maria Pecchioli, Rhaze, Iacopo Seri, Giulia Ticozzi, Claudia Ventola. The exhibition will be held from April 16th to May 31st at the Caravaggio Art School in Milan.

The notion of radicalism as oppositional behavior and antagonism is used here as a theoretical assumption. If, in fact, during the seventies, numerous artistic processes could be referred to as 'radical', it was mainly because they were reactionary towards an 'inimical' notion of power that was to be overthrown through practice. In this context, a good number of working artists could not refrain from discussing how their practices were engaged with social and political emergencies, thus creating a gap with standardized processes of art.

If we are to take into consideration the art events that took place in Milan between 1973 and 1979, its noticeable how as a result of those years not only the did the level of the political dispute become highly connected to that of artistic and cultural production, but art was also promoted as functional to cultural activity, aiming at reconsidering and reconstructing spatial and visual codes. This brought the city of Milan to be considered as home to an example of 'radicalism' within the wider European context.

Starting from these considerations, Radical Intention enabled a theoretical and practical investigation. During the first phase of Milano Radicale the collective invited Fernando De Filippi, Paolo Rosa, Giovanni Rubino and Roberto Lucca Taroni to discuss and re-contextualize methods, strategies and languages. This artistic reflection on the image and its production thus became an excuse to explore the legacy of those practices in the city's artistic and cultural production today. In the second stage, a group of young emergent artists working in Milan participated in a residency program at Corniolo Art Platform, in which they were asked to reflect and discuss issues and representational methods linked to the notion of radicalism. For the final stage, in order solicit students at the Caravaggio Art School, Radical Intention organized workshops in which the artworks on display were collectively and cooperatively produced.

The exhibition 'Milano Radicale' is thus the result of nearly a year of production and research on sites and methods in which the artistic practice can still express a radical character and on how such issues arise within aesthetic questioning. Within the educational context of an Art school, the exhibition expresses a collective sense of the term 'radical.' Maria Pecchioli, Giulia Ticozzi and Claudia Ventola reflect on the inheritance of certain strategies by creating new visual imagery and audio installations. Iacopo Seri enhances a participatory activity, which helps viewers dream once again about utopia. Angelo Castucci reflects on the figure of Don Milani through a research about the Barbiana School in Mugello in Tuscany. He activates collective reasoning with students on the text 'Letter to a Professor (Lettera ad una Professoressa)' (1967). Tara Kaboli compares Western and Middle East culture by asking groups of people from both geographies 'What does radical mean?' and the artistic group Rhaze reflect visually and conceptually on the political possibilities of the body, of the collective, and questions their freedom of expression.

In the exhibition, the value of diversity and collaborative production are to be seen as common traits. The activation of collective practices of production and reflection becomes the sign of an attitude that coud be called 'radical' today. The multiplicity of interpretation becomes an aesthetic form, represented by the active participation and knowledge sharing. Milano Radicale does not add, but opens up the term 'radical' to the many forms it can take for the generations of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Milano Radicale wants to emphasize on the complexity the term withholds, by liberating it from constrictive ideological structures.

The exhibition opening will be followed by a public discussion and a performance by Maria Pecchioli. The project will end with an online publication designed by Beto Shwafaty. It will be available from June 2012. The works on show have been co-produced by volunteers who supported the project on www.produzionidalbasso.com.

Program

Exhibition from the 16th of April to the 31st of May 2012

April 16th at 6,30 pm

May 15th at 6 pm performance by Maria Pecchioli and the students at the Caravaggio Art School

May 15th at 7 pm public discussion with Fernando De Filippi, Paolo Rosa, Giovanni Rubino, Roberto Lucca Taroni and Ugo La Pietra and the artists of MILANO RADICALE, moderated by Caterina Iaquinta and Aria Spinelli