Massa, 49 Italian artists, young and established, redesigned the cover of Vogue

A singular exhibition that, in Massa, the Gigi Guadagnucci Museum is hosting from June 25 to August 29, 2021: it is titled Carta Bianca. A New History and exposes to the public 49 covers of the well-known Vogue magazine executed by 49 Italian artists. The project was born in April 2020 on the occasion of the Vogue Italia White Issue (the issue of the Italian edition of Vogue that came out with a totally white cover in that month, to express bewilderment, but also hope, in the face of the pandemic that has turned the world upside down) from an idea of the curator, Valentina Ciarallo, who invited the 49 artists (separated by a total age span of 29 years) to transform the magazine from content to container, writing a new story on white paper. The result was a choral endeavor, born “from below,” with the participation of, among others, established artists, such as Mario Airò, Stefano Arienti, Vedovamazzei and Flavio Favelli, and young authors, such as Bea Bonafini, Guglielmo Castelli, Romina Bassu and Riccardo Beretta, united by the desire to start again.

The 49 artist covers were published, within an article, by Vogue Italia in its March 2021 issue, dedicated to creativity, a theme shared by Vogue’s international community, with an introductory text by Federico Chiara and a critical intervention by Francesco Bonami. With this project, the spaces of Villa della Rinchiostra, home of the museum dedicated to sculptor Gigi Guadagnucci, open up to artists of the present, capable of putting themselves back in the game, finding new aspirations, reinventing other modes of expression.

The white image wanted by Vogue Italia for the April 2020 cover expresses through bewilderment the presence of the Covid-19 pandemic, an event antithetical to a context dedicated, by its specific nature, to beauty and the joy of living. This interrupted a custom established in Italy since 1962, which has nourished the visual imagery of thousands of readers: that emptiness, a clue to the absolute or a symbol of negation, manages to involve artistic realities among the most incisive and significant of our time. The white that represents the beginning of the vital phase, a signal of hope and trust, becomes a creative stimulus for artists capable of adhering to our contemporaneity. The surface, like a canvas, a sheet or in any case a space capable of accommodating innovative instances, thus becomes a collective narrative animated by different languages, techniques and materials. From painting to embroidery, from photography to ceramics, from collage to customization with A.I. The themes that emerged are translated into environmentalism, civil rights, Europeanism; the great authors of the 20th century (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Simone de Beauvoir, Italo Calvino) have been a source of inspiration. The number 49 was not chosen randomly: it touches on the round number, but leaves a door open, because it is a story to be told, a story to begin again, a story for tomorrow.

“The occasion of this exhibition,” says Nadia Marnica, Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Massa, “in addition to the great communicative value related to the difficult moment we are going through, it is also a great opportunity for a meeting between different ways of expressing art and disseminating messages: the love and passion transfused into marble by Gigi Guadagnucci and the desire for rebirth, the sense of hope of the works of the project related to the white cover of Vogue Italia in April 2020. An enrichment for our museum.”

“This project,” explains Cinzia Compalati, director of the Gigi Guadagnucci Museum, “closely reflects our recent past and those collective feelings of bewilderment and astonishment that accompanied all Italians in March 2020 on the occasion of the first lockdown. This is what the Gigi Guadagnucci Museum is doing today: creating shared experiences and establishing a privileged link with the community of reference, through actions that make the museum a mirror of contemporaneity in which to recognize itself.”

“White as emptiness, purity, rebirth,” writes Valentina Ciarallo. “The white canvas for the painter, the white page for the writer, the white marble for the sculptor. Everything begins with white, the virtual palette and sum of all colors. Light after darkness. An idea that blossoms and generates another and another. Among the white marble of the museum takes shape the choral tale animated by variety and diversity of languages, an expression of the sublimation of matter.”

The 49 artist covers were created by Mario Airò, Giulia Andreani, Salvatore Arancio, Francesco Arena, Stefano Arienti, Romina Bassu, Marco Basta, Elisabetta Benassi, Jacopo Benassi, Manfredi Beninati, Riccardo Beretta, Simone Berti, Bea Bonafini, Silvia Celeste Calcagno, Silvia Camporesi, Letizia Cariello, Guglielmo Castelli, Fabrizio Cotognini, Maria Crispal, Giovanni De Angelis, Federica Di Carlo, Stanislao Di Giugno, Rä di Martino, Mauro Di Silvestre, Matteo Fato, Flavio Favelli, Ludovica Gioscia, Goldschmied & Chiari, Corinna Gosmaro, Invernomuto, Giovanni Kronenberg, Diego Miguel Mirabella, Davide Monaldi, Matteo Nasini, Marina Paris, Alessandro Piangiamore, Donato Piccolo, Giuseppe Pietroniro, Gianni Politi, Marco Raparelli, Pietro Ruffo, Alice Schivardi, Vincenzo Simone, Sissi, Giuseppe Stampone, Lamberto Teotino, Eugenio Tibaldi, Patrick Tuttofuoco, Vedovamazzei.

On the occasion of the exhibition, podcasts with the artists’ testimonies can be heard at the Gigi Guadagnucci Museum. The exhibition will open on Saturday, June 25, at 7 p.m. in the Villa’s park, with limited admission to the museum spaces until 9 p.m. The exhibition will be open until Aug. 29, 2021 during the following hours: until Aug. 22 from Tuesday to Friday from 5 to 8 p.m., Saturdays from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., closed Mondays and Ferragosto; after Aug. 22 from Tuesday to Friday from 4 to 7 p.m., Saturdays from 5 to 8 p.m., Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., closed Mondays. The exhibition is free admission, for info call 0585 049757, 0585 490204, or email museoguadagnucci@comune.massa.ms.it or visit www.museoguadagnucci.it.

Below is a selection of the works on display.

Patrick Tuttofuoco, Windows(2020; steel profile, adhesive photograph on cover). Courtesy the artist. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Patrick Tuttofuoco, Windows (2020; steel profile, adhesive photograph on cover). Courtesy the artist. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Romina Bassu, Vague (2020; acrylic on cover). Courtesy the artist and Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri, Rome. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Sissi, Portrait in Bloom (2020; embroidery on cover, cotton thread). Courtesy the artist and Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Naples. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Eugenio Tibaldi, See beyond (2020; permanent marker on cover). Courtesy the artist. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Federica Di Carlo, Je suis la V ague (2020; French fossil shell, silver-plated iron vise on Vogue). Courtesy the artist. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Guglielmo Castelli, Tomorrow (2020; oil on cover). Courtesy the artist. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Letizia Cariello, Saving time (2020; pen, engraving and red embroidery on cover). Courtesy the artist Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Matteo Fato, PAINTING PRECEDES NATURE, from Gianni Garrera (ca. 2020; oil and steel screws on Vogue, plywood carrying case). Courtesy the artist and Monitor Gallery, Rome, Lisbon, Pereto (AQ).

Massa, 49 Italian artists, young and established, redesigned the cover of Vogue

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