Italics | PANORAMA

Maggiore g.a.m. is happy to take part to PANORAMA | Procida, an island-wide exhibition on Procida (off the coast of Naples) from Thursday, 2 September to Sunday, 5 September 2021, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis, Curator and Associate Director of Programs, Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis with the artworks "Vasi Madre" by Sissi.

 

"Vasi Madre are organs for vital liquids, amphorae standing up to the contents. By exposing bony arms outwardly, they evoke the gesture of taking the hand that reassures and strengthens the milky life of the human". Sissi

 

Sissi explains Vasi Madre: "While I model the clay I always try to pull out the bone, the rib that generated us. The manipulation creates a chain bone movement, which I call“ Bone Motifs”. Vasi Madre are open organs that donate their vital fluids.
The work refers to the anatomical motifs found in the famous eighteenth-century pharmacy of the incurable in Naples where alchemical preparations and expert pharmaceutical research were born. A preciously decorated environment in carved wood with gilding, painted ceramic vases, saplings and hydries that accentuate the esoteric-Masonic function of the Great Hall, where the operated uterine matrix makes a fine show of itself. This is the allegory of the salvific caesarean section that emphasizes the pregnant role of women in Neapolitan history.
Vasi Madre throw out ribs, bones to protect and strengthen the vital opening ".

Sissi's Vasi Madre represent an evolution of the artist research starting from the large site-specific installation Motivi Ossei created at the Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m. of Bologna in 2016-2017 and related to the performance L'Imbandita, a "thematic dinner" held inside the Oratory of San Filippo Neri in Bologna in 2015. Sissi's works in ceramic are the proof of her performances which develop an "emotional anatomy": an investigation into the social and emotional construction of the body.

The exhibition brings together about fifty works of art spanning sculpture, painting, video, performance and installations from a wide range of historical and production contexts. The itinerary stops at twenty sites island-wide, including public and private buildings, churches, historical palazzos and more, all pivoting around the fortified village of Terra Murata, dominated by Palazzo d’Avalos (1563), a former prison citadel. Spreading the project throughout the island, Panorama presents not just Procida’s works of art but also its houses, churches, streets, terraces, piazzas and even residents. With Panorama, ITALICS is renewing its commitment to promote the beauty of Italy in all its profound complexity, through the eyes of Italian gallerists.

September 22, 2021