“Un letto di frasche” is a solo exhibition by Giulia Mangoni, in dialogue with materials installations by architect Valerio Panella.

For her second solo exhibition on the gallery, Mangoni continues her exploration of the reminiscences related to the Ciociaria (territory which extends from Rome to Naples), which started with the exhibition “Bits and Cream. Metabolizzazione d’Archivio” in 2021, delving right into a magical-realistic imaginative and prescient the place the agricultural world and its characters come to life by materials installations and oil work. The artist approaches this exhibition with the urgency to “synthesize” the narrative whereas concurrently capturing the viewer’s consideration with 5 giant canvases, encapsulating fantastical and autobiographical components. Valerio Panella’s scenographic intervention locations supplies reminiscent of wooden, limestone, and straw of their elemental kinds inside the gallery house, introducing a “silent” actuality that leaves no escape routes; these interventions, mixed with Mangoni’s exhuberant work, accompany the viewer on a dynamic and distinctive journey.

The leitmotif of the exhibition “Un letto di frasche” takes inspiration from the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies, when the Ciociaria grew to become the stage for spaghetti western movies on account of their proximity to the Cinecittà studios in Rome. It’s amusing to notice how these movies abruptly gained immense recognition in these areas, because of an electrified and excited viewers witnessing their very own lands merge with the American dream, their valleys reworking into the huge and unknown Nevada, so typically seen in Hollywood productions. Out of the blue, Rocca Secca turns into the Mexican desert, and one thing light-years away takes on acquainted, homely connotations. Mangoni takes inspiration from this delicate deception and reverses it: in her works, components and landscapes from different territories are stolen, filtered, and juxtaposed with native landscapes to assemble representations that stage a type of “Ciociaro movie.“ As a substitute of taking her personal lands and turning them into “lands of others,” Mangoni takes pictures from in every single place and roots them in “her” territory, paradoxically commenting on the expectation for authenticity linked to the best rural panorama.

This play between actuality and fiction finds surprising freedom in her work, which not solely keep away from having a heavy and judgmental gaze in the direction of this dichotomy however by some means defend it, making it an integral a part of the modernization course of by which we’re all known as to take part. The theme of magic—at all times current in Mangoni’s works—suggests a form of “secret vitality” nestled on this dichotomy: the inventive power of man and nature mix, shaping one another’s kinds and colors, as if the connection between opposites isn’t solely passively accepted however virtually wanted because the cradle of those regenerative processes. Thus, Mangoni’s canvases come to life, in dialogue with materials components, and the scenography loses its useful position and turns into a part of the creation.

Giulia Mangoni has been exploring the concept of rootedness in relation to a particular territory for nearly a decade, specializing in narratives the place the periphery, the agricultural, and the ex-industrial converge to create layered and wealthy landscapes by which paradoxes are maintained in stability. Valerio Panella research the connection between the cultural, and agricultural landscapes, sustainability, and socioeconomic modifications, oscillating his observe between structure, artwork, and design. He believes it’s important to instantly experiment with completely different kinds, languages and supplies by his analysis which is strongly targeted on the exploration of pure components, utilizing completely different strategies of constructing and spatial consciousness.

at ArtNoble Gallery, Milan
till June 6, 2024