A WIDESPREAD PROJECT IN THE CITY OF BERGAMO* / CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2023

The event is coordinated and promoted by ArteMorbida Textile Arts Magazine

curated by Barbara Pavan

artistic direction Emanuela D’Amico 

consulting Stefano Piperno

From January 13th, contemporary fibre and textile art will peacefully invade the city of Bergamo with events that will arouse the public’s curiosity and engage this artistic medium’s enthusiasts until 12 February.

ArteMorbida has organised an exciting series of exhibitions and events with the dedicated curatorship of Barbara Pavan, an internationally renowned contemporary textile art expert.

FIBERSTORMING will be a literal storm of fibre that will see its incipit at BAF, Bergamo Arte Fiera 2023, to arrive, in an unprecedented guise, in the EX ATENEO halls.

During BAF (13-14-15 January) and IFA (13-22 January) you will be able to admire Inferno-Paradiso, a project of site-specific installations by eight contemporary Italian textile artists. In addition, at ArteMorbida’s booth, as many as 70 textile modules in 30×30 cm format, selected by an open call among the magazine artist supporters, will be exhibited as part of the XS project.

In Bergamo Città Alta, at the Ex Ateneo exhibition space, from 27 January to 12 February, a curated selection of works will lead the viewer to discover this multi-faceted and exponentially growing artistic movement.

The show will bring well-known names of the Italian and international textile art panorama to town. Different generations and modes of expression will be displayed: from installation to sculpture to two-dimensional works. You will be able to observe unconventional materials treated with traditional textile techniques or witness the integration of “regenerated” waste upcycled into a work of art; the curatorial choice aims to show this expressive medium’s vast context and reach

FIBERSTORMING is part of the celebration of 25 years of WTA-World Textile Art and presents 25 Italian artists in a cross-generational overview.

The FIBERSTORMING of its title, which encompasses the two projects and a series of events in the city involving artists’ open studios, is a full-scale invasion of fascination and emotions conveyed by the thousand expressive possibilities of this artistic medium.

At Bergamo Arte Fiera, Inferno-Paradiso creates a path across eight macro installations. The visitor will pass through spaces defined by independent works yet connected by an inherent narrative. Immersed in a hybrid-shaped Garden of Eden, the aesthetic pleasure might conceal the unsettling sensation of witnessing anti-natural manipulations. At the same time, a massive inferno of flames might offer divine elements. An enchanted or damned blue forest and a canticle of creatures to be observed from the bottom up can also be found in this uncanny journey of which one cannot give a single reading, instead hovering between opposing perceptions and interpretations. A playful interweaving that conceals a reflection on the etymology of words and their link with religion; the cracks of large rocks, vestiges of vanished solidity and future presences that twist the human notion of time, giving way to the hidden and obscure depths of the endless void. And again, the idiosyncrasies of contemporary human beings metamorphosed and revisited as monstrous beasts or in the form of a dress tattoo, a body indicating the impossibility the possibility of a being in a society. A journey from hell to heaven or vice versa, to be undertaken with the knowledge that you will definitely emerge transformed.

Fiberstorming at the Ex Ateneo will instead showcase 25 names of the Italian textile art scene within an exciting excursus on the history and evolution of this movement in our country. Furthermore, the exhibition connects to the celebrations of the WTA -World of Textile art- which ArteMorbida has joined on the 25th anniversary of its foundation, both as a media partner and as a promoter of the Salone Italia. In its 25 years of activity, the WTA has paved the way for a new conception of contemporary textile art.

The Salone Italia, strongly wanted by us, is this year, for the first time, part of the 10th WTA Biennial, an ideal stage for the promotion of textile art at an international level, capable of enhancing artists and influencing the way textile art is conceived and viewed.

Artists on show: Elham M. Aghili, Jorgelina Alessandrelli, Reyhaneh Alikhani, Elizabeth Aro, Silvia Beccaria, Susanna Cati, Cenzo Cocca, Kela Cremaschi, Daniela Frongia, Loredana Galante, Giulio Locatelli, Clara Luiselli, Camilla Marinoni, Florencia Martinez, Laura Mega, Lucia Bubilda Nanni, Giulia NellI, Federica Patera e Andrea Sbra Perego, Daniela Perego, Elena Redaelli, Valeria Scuteri, Maria Jole Serreli, Giulia Spernazza, Mimmo Totaro, Davide Viggiano.

FIERA DI BERGAMO   13 – 22 January FIERA DI BERGAMO – in conjunction with IFA and BAF

ARTISTS

EX ATENEO 27 January – 12 February 2023 (Under the patronage of the City of Bergamo)

ARTISTS

OPEN STUDIO:

CAMILLA MARINONI
Saturday 11 February
H 2:30–6 p.m.
Via Suardi 67 B
Bergamo

GIULIO LOCATELLI
4 February
from 10.30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Via Daniele Pesenti 1, Alzano Lombardo, Spazio Fase

CLARA LUISELLI
11 February
from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Some of the artist’s works will be exhibited at Traffic Gallery (in front of GAMEC), Via San Tomaso 92 (please call to be taken to floor +1)