In Milan, Anne and Patrick Poirier pay homage to Dante Alighieri

In January 2023, Anne and Patrick Poirier will return to Milan for an exhibition project curated by Lóránd Hegyi and Angela Madesani, dedicated to Dante Alighieri ’s Divine Comedy and realized under the patronage of Institut français Milano. Following the subdivision of the poem, the pair of artists dedicated to Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso a body of works capable of returning a personal and modern reflection and interpretation of Dante’s journey into the otherworldly world. Each cantica (this is how Dante defines the three chapters of his narrative) will be hosted in three locations in the city of Milan:Inferno at Casa degli Artisti, Purgatorio at Galleria Fumagalli and Paradiso at Antonini Milano’s headquarters in Palazzo Borromeo.

This is how curators Lóránd Hegyi and Angela Madesani announce the project, entitled Hommage à Dante. Enfer Purgatoire Paradis: “Following a long reflection and free interpretation of the three canticles of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, French artists Anne and Patrick Poirier have created an impressive work that makes use of the different languages used by the artists over the years. It all started during the first year of Covid, when the pandemic hit the world. During months of isolation in their home in the Provence countryside, the two artists, who have been working together for more than 50 years, decided to reread one of the most important works of Western literature. They, in fact, thought that, for the first time, humanity had received a clear message about its end. They have, thus, created three coherent and different cycles. In a more or less linear structure of representation of the scenes of Hell, the imaginary and highly symbolic journey enacted and narrated by the medieval Poet seems to be identified. The dramatic situation proposed in Inferno, a bande dessinée, a long comic strip, 80 cm high and 30 meters long in which there is no solution of continuity, is described with only two emblematic colors, red and black, blood, life and death. All this is in line with the dystopias proposed in their research in recent years. Purgatory presents a less dramatic, more pictorial dimension, exploiting the effects of wild imagery and multicolored richness. It consists of works that are independent of each other, in which the situation of suspension emerges. The nonrepresentational character and immateriality of the third part of the monumental work corresponds to the abstract spirit of Dante’s Paradise, in which words evoke intelligible spheres and intellectual and philosophical perspectives instead of representing figures and actions. The artists work here with non-mimetic images, which also reflect light and atmospheric phenomena, as well as with texts that activate references of highly symbolic scope related to Dante’s culture but also to that of our time.”

Anne and Patrick Poirier pay homage to Dante, the father of literature from the country that hosted them in their youth (during their residency at the Academy of France - Villa Medici in Rome, from 1968 to 1972), which has long inspired them and where they often return in search of closer contact with the past and classical history. The homage to Dante’s work fits perfectly within the scope of Anne and Patrick Poirier’s artistic investigation: since the beginning of their joint work in the late 1960s, they have been critically reflecting on contemporary society and the fragility of common memory, drawing on metaphors, images and great narratives of the past, ranging from classical mythology to ancient architecture, as well as the cornerstones of Western literature.

The two artists were born in Marseille in 1941 (Anne) and in Nantes in 1942 (Patrick). Winners of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1967, after their studies at theÉcole nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs in Paris, they spent four years at the Villa Medici in Rome (1968-1972), invited by then-director Balthus. From the beginning of that residency they decided to unite their artistic vision, jointly signing works. Travelers and passionate scholars of history and archaeology, they address the sense of fragility of civilizations, cultures, anthropological time and nature through such heterogeneous media as photography, drawing on paper, resin and wood sculpture, neon, maquette, oil and acrylic painting... In fifty years of working together, their solo exhibitions have been held in the most important institutions, among the most recent: Ludwig Museum, Koblenz (2022); Musée de La Roche-sur-Yon (2022); MRAC Occitanie, Sérignan (2021); Château La Coste and Abbaye du Thoronet, Provence (2021); Academy of France - Villa Medici, Rome (2019); De Pont Museum, Tilburg (2018); Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire (2018); MEP, Paris (2017); Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal (2016); MAMC, Saint-Étienne (2016); Musée Jean Cocteau, Menton (2015); Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo (2013); MADRE Museum, Naples (2011).

Anne and Patrick Poirier have also exhibited in international events such as documenta in Kassel (1977) and the Venice Biennale (1984, 1980, 1976). Anne Poirier is a member of the Sculpture section at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris (elected in June 2021 and officially invested on October 26, 2022); Patrick is elected “correspondent” of the same section. Since 2017 they have been represented in Italy by Galleria Fumagalli, which paid tribute to them with their first gallery exhibition “Dystopia” in the same year. In 2021, critic Lóránd Hegyi includes the French pair in the eight-exhibition program MY30YEARS - Coherency in Diversity: among the twelve artists followed or represented by Galleria Fumagalli, the Poiriers offer unprecedented dialogues and new perspectives devoid of categorization on contemporary art.

Below are the locations, contact details and opening hours of the various venues

CASA DEGLI ARTISTI - Via Tommaso da Cazzaniga / corner of Corso Garibaldi, 89/A, Milan

Tuesday through Sunday: 12:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.

info@casadegliartisti.org | casadegliartisti.net

GALLERIA FUMAGALLI - Via Bonaventura Cavalieri 6, Milan

Monday through Friday: 1 - 7 p.m.

+39 02 36799285 | info@galleriafumagalli.com | galleriafumagalli.com

ANTONINI MILANO - Palazzo Borromeo, Piazza Borromeo 12, Milan

Tuesday to Friday: 11 - 13, 14 - 18 and by appointment

+39 02 7712901 | events@antonini.it | antonini.it

In Milan, Anne and Patrick Poirier pay homage to Dante Alighieri

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