Contemporary art at Villa Borghese, from Merz's igloos to Tresoldi's habitable sculpture

From September 15 to December 13, 2020, Villa Borghese Park will host the unprecedented exhibition project Back to Nature. Contemporary Art at Villa Borghese, curated by Costantino d’Orazio. The initiative aims to reflect on the future and the need to build a new relationship with nature.

Therefore, installations specially designed and created by international artists, such as Andreco, Mario Merz, Mimmo Paladino, Benedetto Pietromarchi, Davide Rivalta, Grazia Toderi, Edoardo Tresoldi, and Nico Vascellari, are placed in the park.

This is the first coordinated project with contemporary art installations as part of a strategy to enhance the historic parks of the Capital: the initiative is part of Romarama, is promoted and produced by Roma Capitale, Assessorato alla Crescita culturale - Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali and organized by Zètema Progetto Cultura. The project, which has Acea, Sport and Health with FISE and Inbetweenartfilm as partners, also benefits from the collaboration of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, which participated in the elaboration of the contents of the initiative and in the selection of the artists, the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo and the Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music, promoters of the program of performances that will animate the festival during the opening period, through appointments on weekends and some evenings.

The exhibition involves in particular the Deer Park and the Piazza di Siena area, as well as the Carlo Bilotti Museum and the Pietro Canonica Museum, with the objective of engaging visitors to rediscover the park’s spaces in a contemporary key. From Mario Merz ’s double Igloo to Mimmo Paladino’s new work, consisting of ten large flags inspired by the details of the park’s sculptures and nature, works designed for the occasion and works that find a new identity in the park dialogue in Back to Nature. Andreco presents Drops, an installation that will inhabit the Perspective of the Theater in Deer Park; Davide Rivalta exhibits a large bronze buffalo cast using the lost wax method, in dialogue with the lions displayed on the steps of the National Gallery ofModern and Contemporary Art; Grazia Toderi intervenesin the Loggia dei Vini with the nighttime video installation Red Map, curated by Alessandra Mammì; Edoardo Tresoldi, engaged for the first time in apublic installation in Rome, brings to Villa Borghese Etherea, a large, transparent and inhabitable sculpture that dialogues with the trees of the Parco dei Daini; Nico Vascellari presents at the Casa del Cinema a video work that aims to provide a nostalgic timeless itinerary, during which it is possible to live a controversial emotional experience between the expectation of an imminent event and reconciliation with the environment. Benedetto Pietromarchi has created a solo exhibition, curated by Paolo Falcone, inside the Carlo Bilotti Museum, with works made by recycling some of the villa’s tree elements.

The initiative is intended to be a festival, in which musical performances and street art interventions will take place around the large art installations.

In the image, Edoardo Tresoldi, Etherea, detail. Ph. Credit Simon d’Exéa.

Contemporary art at Villa Borghese, from Merz's igloos to Tresoldi's habitable sculpture

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