Alessandro Valeri's project sprung from an orphanage near Nazareth on display at MAXXI

From January 16 to 26, 2020, the exhibition project by Alessandro Valeri entitled An Iron Ring, curated by Fiorella Bassan and Giorgia Calò, will be open to the public at MAXXI’s Carlo Scarpa Hall - National Museum of XXI Century Arts.

An Iron Ring is the result of a path of research by the artist that began in 2011, when Alessandro Valeri first visited the orphanage in Zippori, near Nazareth, which welcomes children of all religions and cultures and is run by Catholic nuns with Jewish Muslim and Christian volunteers. Anisland of tolerance and interfaith cooperation, according to the artist.

During his visits to the orphanage, he takes photographic, film and audio notes, thanks to which he made Sepphoris in 2015, at Molino Stucky, for the 56th Venice Biennale. The exhibition also begins the concrete commitment, as Valeri donates his works to the institute.

The project for MAXXI takes the form of a physical and mental laboratory for children and adults and is structured in four moments, linked by narrative links that tell the audience the story of this artistic journey.

It begins with the video Sepphoris, where images, repeated in a loop and in strong contrast to each other, create a sense of anticipation and tension. The video is accompanied by a site-specific installation consisting of 80 thousand broken half-pencils, on which the visitor is invited to walk and reflect on the plight experienced by many of the world’s children.

In the center of the Carlo Scarpa Hall, the large photo-pictorial works on canvas, protagonists of the first Venetian installation, will be placed; the artist has intervened with signs and colors on the images representing decontextualized environments. The only image where there is human presence is the one depicting a row of children lined up on the soccer field. These are images that invite the viewer to ask questions and reflect. This invitation is continued in the recent work Curiosa Cabinet, a series of metal mini lightboxes sensitive to the viewer’s passage, each containing a photo printed on Apple glass/sapphire: small Wunderkammers intended to stimulate critical reflection on the success of the immaterial in consumerism, regarding social media. Next to the small screens will be placed latex casts, sculptures of the index finger and thumb of the artist’s right hand, i.e., the fingers one uses when taking a photograph, but also when one wants to give a warning.

The neon Parlami di te closes the exhibition: the viewer is asked to tell, after seeing, interacting and listening; the neutrality of the neon expresses the position of non-judgment taken by the artist.

With An Iron Ring, Valeri intends to invite us to take responsibility for our own gaze, our own emotions and our own being in the world.

The event is sponsored by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Israel in Italy and the Italy-Israel Foundation for Culture and the Arts.

For info: www.maxxi.art

Hours: Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Tickets: Full 12 euros, reduced 9 euros, 5 euros in the last hour.

Pictured is the site-specific installation consisting of 80,000 broken half-pencils

Alessandro Valeri's project sprung from an orphanage near Nazareth on display at MAXXI

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.