After several closures and reopenings, the exhibition featured at the Fondazione Ragghianti in Lucca is now available online through a virtual tour. On show are several artworks by two significant figures of the Italian scene in the period between the 60s and 80s: the Milanese Cioni Carpi (1923-2011) and the Florentine Gianni Melotti (1953) whose research is united by transmediality, creative audacity and wild experimentation.

The first exhibiton, curated by Angela Madesani, reconstructs Cioni Carpi’s history, born Eugenio Carpi de’ Resmini, the Narrative Art’s only Italian exponent (with Franco Vaccari), which in its production has brought together heterogeneous languages, from photography to video. In the exhibition are shown about forty large-scale works including paintings, installations, photographic works, films, installations, drawings, projects and books created by the artist in a single copy, but also volumes and catalogs that document the activity.

The retrospective on Gianni Melotti, however, is curated by Paolo Emilio Antognoli, and focuses on the first period between 1974 and 1984, telling the meetings with the characters of the time, from Lanfranco Baldi to Luciano Bartolini from Giuseppe Chiari to Bill Viola. The exhibition is the result of historical and archival research that aims to tell the artistic side of Melotti (so far known only as a photographer to most) also thanks to unpublished works.

Video of the exhibition “The adventure of new art | 60-80 years. Cioni Carpi | Gianni Melotti”