The Pecci Center dedicates a major monographic exhibition to Massimo Bartolini

From Sept. 16, 2022 to Jan. 8, 2023, the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato is dedicating a major exhibition to Massimo Bartolini (Cecina, 1962), entitled Hagoromo, curated by Luca Cerizza in collaboration with Elena Magini. This is a new chapter in the cycle of monographic exhibitions that the Center offers annually to introduce the public to works by Italian artists.

Produced in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, the exhibition presents a new installation, the largest ever made by the artist, designed specifically for the spaces of the Prato museum venue: a sort of new ’spine’ that guides the viewer around works made at different times in his career. The exhibition is intended to be an unexpected sequence of surprising and revealing encounters that goes beyond a chronological and thematic retrospective.

Hagoromo is the title of a well-known Japanese Noh play that tells the story of a fisherman who one day finds hagoromo, or the feathered cloak of the Tennin, a female celestial spirit of supernatural beauty who belongs to Japanese mythology. When the spirit asks for her cloak back without which she cannot return to heaven, the fisherman replies that he will return it only after he sees her dance.

Hagoromo (1989), what Bartolini considers his first mature work, takes its inspiration from here: inside his old studio on a well-lit stage, a musician improvises music for saxophone. A dancer reacts to the music, moving inside a parallelepiped on wheels that looks like a tiny house. This performance already anticipates some of the themes and hallmarks that still characterize his experimental work: a story based on quotations, references, drawings of other stories, artworks and biographies; the relationship with architecture and space; the relationship with theater and performance art, including through the use of sound and music; the way the work brings together seemingly irreconcilable opposites.

Accompanying the exhibition is the most comprehensive publication ever dedicated to the Tuscan artist. Edited by Luca Cerizza and Cristiana Perrella and published by NERO, the volume is a project supported by the Italian Council (10th edition, 2021), a program to promote Italian contemporary art in the world curated by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture. It includes contributions by Fiona Bradley, Luca Cerizza, Laura Cherubini, Carlo Falciani, Chus Martínez, Jeremy Millar, Cristiana Perrella, Marco Scotini, David Toop and Andrea Viliani.

For more info: www.centropecci.it

Image: Massimo Bartolini, Caudu and Fridu (2018). Courtesy of the artist and Fondazione Volume! Photo by OKNO Studio

The Pecci Center dedicates a major monographic exhibition to Massimo Bartolini

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