LucillaMeloni
THREE-YEAR COURSE
The Coexistence of Languages
This course examines the coexistence of artistic languages that characterises the contemporary world. To this end, the lectures will explore a number of core themes that reflect the different fields of research, highlighting how the reading – that is, the interpretation – of the languages of contemporary art cannot disregard the principle of complexity.
What emerges is that contemporary art has definitively abandoned the ‘isms’ that characterised the era of the historical avant-garde and the neo-avant-garde, in order to embrace, within the same period, practices that can be very different from one another.
Starting with the redefinition of the figure of the observer, the core topics that will be explored in greater depth during the lectures can be summarised as follows:
– The various dynamics underlying the artist–work–observer relationship and the ways in which certain artists have approached these dynamics;
– Group art;
– The extended work: habitable environments and interactive environments;
– Public-participatory artworks in their many forms: from relational art to the concept of
community art; – The emergence of attitudes that place the relationship with nature at the centre, expressed in various ways; – Art in the face of migration, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean region; – The practice of citation in contemporary art; – The role of the observer in the context of participatory art; – The relationship between art and the public sphere.
manifested in various ways;
– Art in the face of migration, with particular reference to the Mediterranean region;
– The practice of quotation in contemporary art;
– The art system in the era of globalisation.
Both solo and group exhibitions, both national and international, will be examined, and these will be used to explore the individual research paths in greater depth. During the lectures, an additional reading list specific to the topic covered will be provided on a case-by-case basis for possible further study.
Atlante dell’arte contemporanea nel Mediterraneo (edited by Patrizia Mania and Roberto Pinto), Round Robin Editrice, Rome 2023;
Lucilla Meloni, Arte guarda Arte. Pratiche della citazione nell’arte contemporanea, Pratiche della citazione nell’arte contemporanea, Postmedia.books, Milan 2013 (available in the library);
Lucilla Meloni, Le ragioni del gruppo. Un percorso tra gruppi, collettivi, sigle, comunità nell’arte in Italia dal 1945 al 2000, Un percorso tra gruppi, collettivi, sigle, comunità nell’arte in Italia dal 1945 al 2000, Postmedia.books, Milan 2020;
Roberto Pinto, Nuove geografie artistiche. Le mostre al tempo della globalizzazione, Le mostre al tempo della globalizzazione, Postmedia.books, Milan 2012.
TWO-YEAR COURSE
The Expanded Work: The Art of Environments
This course examines the emergence and development of environments in contemporary art, starting with the historical avant-gardes.
The desire to transcend the physical boundaries of the painting and the sculpture entails the transformation of the artistic object, which, from a closed and delimited space, becomes part of the spatiality of reality, creating a new relationship of fruition for the viewer, who is phenomenologically immersed in it.
While the conceptual antecedents can be traced back to the first decades of the twentieth century (from Futurism to Duchamp and the Russian avant-garde), it is from the second half of the century that the extended artwork emerges as a favoured medium for numerous artists, representing diverse fields and artistic approaches, both in Europe and in America.
Landmark exhibitions document the emergence of the environment, of what Germano Celant, on the occasion of the exhibition Lo spazio dell’immagine (Foligno, 1967), described as ‘im-spazio’: image-space. To cite just a few examples: in 1969, the MoMA in New York dedicated its exhibition Spaces to the transformation of the exhibition environment by six artists; in 1976, at the 37th Venice Biennale, in the section curated by Celant, Ambiente /Arte. From Futurism to Body Art traces a path that extends from the early avant-garde to the contemporary.
Starting with Lucio Fontana’s Ambiente spaziale a luce nera (‘Spatial Environment with Black Light’), created in 1949, a transgenerational trajectory documents the numerous transformations of space undertaken by artists, as space becomes walkable, interactive, a place of changing events, sound and light, or an intimate space for contemplation.
Francesco Poli, Francesco Bernardelli, Mettere in scena l’arte contemporanea, Johan & Levi, Milan 2022;
Lucilla Meloni, Gianni Colombo. La modulazione dello spazio, Postmedia.books, Milan 2022;
Valentina Valentini, Studio Azzurro. L’esperienza delle immagini, Mimesis, Milan 2017.
TWO-YEAR COURSE
Group Art in Italy from the Post-War Period to the 2000s
This course, intended for students on the two-year programme, provides a historical overview of group art and examines how the very concept of the group, which appears to be one of the hallmarks of modernity, has evolved in the practices of artists from the post-Second World War period to more recent experiences.
The history of 20th-century Italian art appears to be significantly shaped by group art: from Fronte Nuovo delle Arti, Forma 1 and Origine, which were formed between the 1940s and the 1950s, and the kinetic and programmed groups active in the 1960s, such as Gruppo T and Gruppo N, to the collectives of the 1970s, which shared the movement culture of the decade, and on to the experiences of Gruppo di Piombino, Studio Azzurro, Premiata Ditta and Banca di Oklahoma, which spanned the 1980s and 1990s, we arrive at the transformation of the group into a fluid and temporary community, as would occur, for example, in the 2000s with the experience of Stalker Osservatorio Nomade.
Over time, the phenomenon of ‘collective’ art, which may be referred to as a group, a collective, an acronym or a community, has evolved, but the common thread linking these highly diverse entities – in terms of their ideals, their historical context and the formal outcomes they have achieved – can be found in the individual artist’s desire to embrace the adventure of a shared experience, where the ‘I’ gives way to the ‘we’.
Lucilla Meloni, Le ragioni del gruppo. Un percorso tra gruppi, collettivi, sigle,
comunità nell’arte in Italia dal 1945 al Duemila, Postmedia.books, Milan 2020.
One of the following texts, chosen by the student:
Flaminia Gennari Santori, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Osservatorio Nomade. Immaginare Corviale. Pratiche ed estetiche per la città contemporanea, Mondadori, Milan 2006;
Francesco Careri, Walkscapes. Camminare come pratica estetica, Einaudi, Turin 2006;
Valentina Valentini (ed.), Studio Azzurro. L’esperienza delle immagini, Mimesis, Milan 2017;
Alessandra Pioselli, L’Arte nello spazio urbano. L’esperienza italiana dal 1968 ad oggi, Johan & Levi, Milan 2015.
Additional study materials will be indicated during the lectures.