Stone of Madness, Christian Fogarolli talks about mental health care with his installation in Bologna

From January 29 to March 3, Christian Fogarolli (Trento, 1983) is featured at the Museo di Palazzo Poggi in Bologna with Stone of Madness, a site-specific intervention curated by Lorenzo Balbi, director of MAMbo - Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna. Christian Fogarolli’s intervention creates a connection with the museum’s collections, with its function, and raises questions about the ways of approaching mental health care through the centuries to contemporary times, from old popular beliefs to today’s pharmacological solutions.

For the Camilla Room, Fogarolli presents the work Leaven (2015), a glass case containing all the manuals on mental disorder diagnostics and statistics from 1952 to 2015 that the artist collected and purchased. The title “leaven” symbolizes the exponential increase in self-reported mental disorders.

In the next Landscape Room, the artist presents the installation Allégorie de la Folie (2018), a sculptural self-portrait made of glass and natural quartz that react chromatically when exposed to specific light frequencies. The work is based on ancient folk beliefs for which a small stone, which for unknown reasons appeared inside the skull of certain individuals, caused their behavioral deviance, madness, strangeness and was considered a foreign body to be eradicated.

The project is promoted by Istituzione Bologna Musei | MAMbo - Museum of Modern Art of Bologna in collaboration with SMA - Sistema Museale di Ateneo. Access will be free to the rooms hosting the exhibition on the weekend of Art City Bologna. On other days full price 5 euros and reduced price 3 euros. Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For Art City Bologna extended opening until 8 p.m., and Saturday, Feb. 2 until midnight. For more info visit the Museo di Palazzo Poggi website.

Photo: Christian Fogarolli, Allégorie de la folie (2018; installation, glass cast, stones, light UV environmental dimensions)

Stone of Madness, Christian Fogarolli talks about mental health care with his installation in Bologna

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