A double solo exhibition of Giuseppe Stampone's 30 years of work in Castelbasso

The Malvina Menegaz Foundation for Arts and Cultures in Teramo, chaired by Osvaldo Menegaz, transforms Castelbasso, in the province of Teramo, into the Village of Culture every summer. This year the event is scheduled from July 27 to August 31, 2024, at Palazzo De Sanctis and at Palazzo Clemente with a major solo exhibition by Giuseppe Stampone(Cluses, 1974), entitled Giuseppe Stampone. Game Over, curated by Ilaria Bernardi. The event is in collaboration with the Primo Riccitelli Music and Theater Society, Abbazie Jazz festival, the Abruzzo Symphony Institution, organist Roberto Marini and FLA - Festival of Books and Other Things. For Castelbasso 2024 Stampone presents a double exhibition conceived as a retrospective on his 30 years of activity, from 2004 to 2024.

Through works of various kinds, including drawings made with the Bic pen, sculptures, installations, participatory projects, and videos, Stampone dialogues with ancient iconographies and contemporary symbols, investigating the social responsibility of art, which, in a participatory dimension, takes on the role of educating the community. The walls of the first three rooms of Palazzo Clemente host the tablets drawn by the artist with Bic pens in A4 format, while the last room makes explicit how drawing is for the artist an instrument of social re-education through the installation of some drawings on school desks that are part of The 18+1 inventions that will change the world (2008), as well as through the neon sign Global Education (2024) that since 2012 constitutes the methodological basis of Stampone’s entire production. At Palazzo De Sanctis, on the other hand, the exhibition is designed to show how the essence of Stampone’s production is conceptual, and therefore how the drawings on paper or on tablet, for which he is best known, are only one of the multiple modes of operation used by the artist, with the aim of going back to the origins, and then re-constructing the world in a different way. Hence the title of the exhibition Game Over. In addition to historical works such as Portrait of a Mythomaniac (2004), Greetings from L’Aquila (2011), Italian Art Abc (2011), Emigration Made Pavilion 148 (2015), and Via Crucis (2017), of particular relevance is the large room on the second floor that was specially transformed by Stampone into an immersive, site-specific work: it consists of drawings, writings, wall diagrams accompanied by framed drawings and hanging works that refer to artists important to him with the intention of reconstructing his family tree as an artist. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Gli Ori, with a critical text by the curator, photographs of the works on display and exhibition views of the two venues.

There is also no shortage of Castelbasso events for this summer. It begins on Sunday, July 28, with the Istituzione Sinfonica Abruzzese with Pink Floyd’s Legend, a crossver concert featuring some of the legendary songs from the history of the British group, enhanced by the sounds of the Symphony Orchestra through new arrangements signed by the eclectic Roberto Molinelli. August 2 and 3 will be the turn of two Abbazie Jazz Festival concerts, the first with Francesca Tandoi, the second with guitarist Frank Gambale, a member of Chick Corea’s Electric Band and his All Star band. Sunday, Aug. 4 double concert with singer-songwriter Mirkoeilcane followed by Perturbazione with their album-tribute to De Andrè, “La buona novella.” Friday, Aug. 9, for FLA in Castelbasso, will feature Luca Barbarossa, in the company of Vincenzo d’Aquino. Saturday, Aug. 10, will be the turn of Chiara Civello with her Sempre Così Tour, a concert, in collaboration with La Riccitelli. Closing the events on Sunday, Aug. 11, is a concert for voice and organ with Manuela Formichella, soprano, and Roberto Marini, organ.

“To challenge cataloguing and social homologation, alongside pre-established models of semantic relations, I pose the hypothesis of a new literacy (oral and experiential) by questioning the usual conventional relationship between signifier and signified, challenging pictorial illusionism and creating ironic disconnections between visual and verbal naming. My will is to re-create a new literacy not given and created by a few for the many (the Western dictatorship of Gutenberg’s typeface) but re-created through the active participation of people; in other words, a shared alphabet,” Stampone says.

Notes on the artist

Giuseppe Stampone (Cluses, France, 1974) lives and works between Teramo, Brussels and Rome. He teaches Painting Techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and collaborates with universities and academies, such as IULM University in Milan, Federico II University in Naples and in the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology in Toronto. He develops research and experimentation interventions in art and new media with Alberto Abruzzese and Derrick De Kerckhove. He is an associate member of the American Academy in Rome and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in New York. In 2020 he is the first Italian winner of the residency at Villa Romana in Florence, funded by Deutsche Bank. In 2013 he won the first edition of the “Pacco d’Artista” Award, promoted by Poste Italiane, and his work was reproduced on one hundred thousand of the company’s parcels. His work has been exhibited at numerous international art festivals including: 59th Venice International Art Exhibition, Cuba Pavilion (2022); London Design Biennale (2021); 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, South Korea Pavilion (2021); Seoul Architecture Biennale (2017); Ostend Triennial (2017); Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum, Boston (2016); 56th Venice International Art Biennale (2015); Liverpool Biennale (2010); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kerala, India (2012); 11th Havana Biennale (2012); 14th and 15th Quadriennale d’Arte, Rome (2004-2008). Solo exhibitions held in public spaces include those at: MAC, Lissone (2022); CIAC Museum, Foligno (2018); Calcografia Nazionale, Rome (2014); Palazzo Reale, Milan (2014); GAMeC, Bergamo (2014). His works can be found in important collections, including: Mfah Museum of Fine Arts Houston; MAXXI - Museo Nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome; GAMeC - Galleria D’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo; Calcografia Nazionale - Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Rome; Biennale of Sydney; Kochi Biennale Foundation; Wilfredo Lam Center, Havana; Artnexus Foundation, Bogotá. His reference galleries are Ida Pisani’s Prometeo Gallery (Milan-Lucca) and Marie-Laure Fleisch’s MLF Gallery.

For info: www.fondazionemenegaz.it

Hours: Thursday through Sunday 7 p.m. to midnight Free for children under 6.

Admission: €5, reduced €4

Image: Giuseppe Stampone, Global Education (2023, Bic pen on board, 180 x 170 cm; Rome, private collection)

A double solo exhibition of Giuseppe Stampone's 30 years of work in Castelbasso

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.