Nature Forever

Piero Gilardi has recreated portions of nature in the form of carpets, reproduced the faces of politicians and industrialists in satirical masks, persuaded protest marchers to push a giant rock together and constructed stones that beat to the rhythm of our hearts. He believes in a militant, democratic art free from the market, a positive generator of social transformation. MAXXI is dedicating a major monographic exhibition to Gilardi, “Nature Forever”, curated by Hou Hanru, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Marco Scotini.

  The exhibition presents Gilardi’s 50-year career in which art, criticism and politics are intertwined. From the complex relationship between man and nature, it investigates the era of consumerism and the use of new technologies in a presentation tackling and exploring themes such as ecology, the relational nature of art and social and political commitment. It is divided into four sections, each of which includes both works and archive materials (sketches, texts, original photographs, small works) allowing a comprehensive overview of the artists thinking and poetic.

As the curators explain, “With over 60 works – from the famous Nature-carpets to the interactive installations and through to the Living Art Park of Turin, along with important pieces exhibited for the first time in years or reconstructed for the occasion – the exhibition reviews the career of a master for whom art and life are identified with and become militant commitment, starting out from that as an ecologist. An artist who is also a critic, researcher and political and social activist. For Gilardi, the artistic object goes beyond the purely aesthetic dimension: it is not made to be contemplated but experienced, shared and participated. And it is this interactivity that runs throughout the show.”

until 15 April 2017
Nature Forever. Pietro Gilardi
curated by Hou Hanru, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Marco Scotini
MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo
via Guido Reni, 4/a Rome