“Non si può essere incolti al punto di amare solo cose di alta qualità” (You can’t be so uncultured that you only love high quality things) is a sentence took from an artwork by Fabio Mauri made in 2008. The statement becomes the title of an exhibition by Martina Simeti gallery in Milan, thanks to the intervention of Valérie da Costa, art historian and Mauri’s scholar. 

Six are the artists showcased: Elisabetta Benassi, Alberto Garutti, Piero Gilardi and Fabio Mauri, and Mimosa Échard and Chloé Quenum, in Italy for the first time. All artworks are apparent domestic objects concealing a rupture’s message: as Benassi’s Cosciente Solidale, a carpet that has upon it the words used by Luigi Noto in 1968 for quitting the Biennale because of political reasons. Environmental protection’s urgency is expressed by Gilardi’s carpet (Incendio a Madeira), while Quenum, showcases Châtaignes, a mutable installation composed by fruit, vegetables and clay that reminds us that the matteri is living. And nature is alive.