Mi prendo cura di me — Collective Exhibition

On the occasion of the 19th Contemporary Art Day, the major event promoted by AMACI – Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums and realized with the support of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, and the collaboration of the Directorate-General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Italian Cultural Institute of Madrid presents MI PRENDO CURA DI ME (I TAKE CARE OF MYSELF). The exhibition, curated by Recontemporary, presents the video work of five Italian artists – Francesca Lolli, Rä di Martino, Mara Palena, Lorenzo Peluffo and Fortuna De Nardo with Enrico Turletti and Eugenio Nicolella, and Megan Stancanelli – and a sculpture by Aurora Paolillo. The underlying theme of the 19th Contemporary Day is sustainability as nature to be cared for, where taking care of oneself is the first step towards taking care of the environment: during the experience, the spectator is invited to explore himself and the space thanks to the enjoyment of five works + 1 which, in addition to exploring the theme from different points of view, differ from each other in the language used.

The intimate sphere opens up to the collective in Mara Palena’s work, with the construction of immersive scenarios that empathetically welcome the viewer into a large, potentially infinite mnemonic archive: a study of trauma and its consequences on behavior and memory. The artist lays bare the most intimate psychic mechanisms of her unconscious that emerged during EMDR therapy, not neglecting the traumatic events of her experience, in order to accompany the viewer on a journey that retraces all the emotional stages. Megan Stancanelli, with Aride, through a few frames with strong emotional content and high cinematic quality, is able to show us in less than a minute how the earth is nothing other than the reflection of our body and of our way of taking care of it or not.
The earth as a cure in Francesca Lolli’s RiGenerazione. The suggestion is that of a great Mother, a Goddess of the earth, of agriculture, of fertility who heals the wounds of her children with her embrace, she does not erase them but makes them fertile, ready to receive new life.
The public is then immersed in a sensitive space: Lorenzo Peluffo and Fortuna De Nardo, as per their artistic practice, transform the environment giving life to a Sound Garden inside the Belvedere room, a site-specific installation created in collaboration with Enrico Turletti and Eugenio Nicolella. A sound transcription, perceptible to the human ear, of the emotional intelligence of plants: the result is an empathic garden in which humanity and plants find contact, perceive each other.
Digital and real meet in L’Eccezione di Rä di Martino, a bust of a severed statue in the desperate search for awareness of its own body. Movements hinted at in a continuous and unreal dance in which the physical is nothing but a metaphor for the environment that despite being mutilated perseveres in its natural cycle.
To conclude, Now you can touch me with care, a work by Aurora Paolillo, who confronts us with the fragility of the body and spirit with a delicate suspended sculpture, in memory of its creator, who recently passed away.