Perugia, an exhibition dedicated to the element air at the Museo Civico di Palazzo della Penna

For the fourth consecutive year, Arpa Umbria, in collaboration with theArt Monsters Association, presents the contemporary art exhibition Isola Prossima, which in 2024 focuses on the element air under the title Aere. The exhibition, curated by art historian and critic Massimo Mattioli, is hosted from Sept. 25 to Dec. 1, 2024, at the Museo Civico di Palazzo della Penna in Perugia, a venue that already boasts a prestigious collection of works by Gerardo Dottori, master of Aeropittura. This edition of Isola Prossima focuses on one of the most topical and debated natural elements: air, the protagonist of environmental issues related to pollution and climate change. The works of 26 artists aim to offer a 360-degree view of the atmospheric element, from 19th-century romantic depictions to contemporary reflections on climate emergencies.

Opening the exhibition will be a gouache by Neapolitan landscape artist Giacinto Gigante, depicting a cloud, an element that has inspired several works on display. Prominent artists include Argentine Leandro Erlich, known for his participation in the Venice Biennale, with his installation The Cloud - Heart, which creates a three-dimensional cloud in glass. Dutchman Berndnaut Smilde also reinterprets the cloud, placing it in everyday and decontextualized contexts. Luca Vitone’s works, left exposed to the elements, and those of Indian artist Shilpa Gupta, reflecting on pollution, emphasize ethical and environmental aspects.

There is no shortage of bold experimentation such as that of Donato Piccolo, who recreates hurricanes in vitro, and Arcangelo Sassolino, who challenges the limits of matter through compressed air. Finally, artists such as Virginia Zanetti, Giovanni Gaggia, Gino De Dominicis and Aldo Grazzi explore air as a “medium” for performative actions and existential reflections: Zanetti is present with his photographic series The Pillars of the Earth, by De Dominicis it is possible to see the video of the famous Tentativo di volo, Gaggia is present with a performance in which the artist hovers shreds of flags in the air, while Grazzi offers finely chiseled canvases.

Starting with Leonardo da Vinci’s studies on flight, young Olga Lepri offers small works and a large painting inspired by Gerardo Dottori’s Aeropittura, where bodily and relational dynamics intertwine. Painting, as a form of expression, becomes the main ground for exploring atmospheres and tensions. Bruno Ceccobelli builds spiritual scenographies suspended in an impalpable context. Paolo Manazza, with his focus on the sky, translates the changing atmospheric variations into shapes and colors, while Arturo Casanova develops a minimalist synthesis where abstraction merges with spirituality through the representation of climatic variations. Pablo Candiloro focuses on the sun and constellations, while Massimiliano Poggioni uses air as a contrasting element in a strongly architectural composition.

In the exhibition, some artists incorporate air into technological designs. Mariateresa Sartori, for example, creates drawings with a pen animated by an anemometer, and the sound component is central in the work of Juan Pablo Macías, who uses audio tracks to imitate wind and birdsong, creating a multisensory atmospheric experience. Artists such as Edoardo Cialfi and Casper Faassen focus on the more lyrical aspects of atmospheric elements. Cialfi explores the sensuality of landscapes, always marked by the unpredictability of the air, while Faassen combines photography and painting in layers that evoke the plasticity of atmospheric sensations. Irony emerges strongly in the works of Mario Consiglio, who uses his soft lettering to convey incisive socio-political messages, and Corrado Bonomi, with his “Castles in the Air” that smile at the serious world of art, echoing Calvinian imagery.

Finally, Piero Manzoni, the most iconic representative of the relationship between art and air, with his famous Fiato d’artista, continues the path inaugurated by Marcel Duchamp with Air de Paris, offering a biting critique of the relativism of contemporary art.

The exhibition itinerary invites visitors to reflect on how air is not only a physical element but also an aesthetic, ethical and philosophical issue. The exhibition opens Tuesday through Sunday: September and October hours 10am-7pm, November and December hours 10am-6pm. Closed Mondays. Tickets: full 10 euros, reduced A 5 euros, reduced B 4 euros.

Perugia, an exhibition dedicated to the element air at the Museo Civico di Palazzo della Penna

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