Marisa Albanese
PANORAMA | Procida
September 2 — September 5, 2021
ITALICS, the first consortium in Italy to unite more than sixty of the country’s most influential galleries of contemporary, modern and ancient art, presents its first in-person project: PANORAMA, an island-wide exhibition on Procida (off the coast of Naples) from Thursday, 2 September to Sunday, 5 September 2021, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis, Curator and Associate Director of Programs, Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
It is the first in a series of exhibitions, each with the title PANORAMA, organised by ITALICS to tell the story of some of the most fascinating places in Italy, in an offline continuation of the extraordinary journey begun in October 2020 on the pages of the website italics.art. The first exhibition in the PANORAMA series is taking place on the island of Procida, a picturesque location distinguished for its intellectual bent and natural surroundings, in the form of a long conversation between the curator Vincenzo de Bellis and Agostino Riitano, director of Procida: Italian Capital of Culture 2022.
The exhibition brings together about forty-five works of art spanning sculpture, painting, video, performance and installations from a wide range of historical and production contexts. The itinerary stops at twenty sites island-wide, including public and private buildings, churches, historical palazzos and more, all pivoting around the fortified village of Terra Murata, dominated by Palazzo d’Avalos (1563), a former prison citadel. Through constant dialogue and comparison of notes, Vincenzo de Bellis and Agostino Riitano highlight a few of the key features of the project: the relationship between work of art and a highly distinctive space like that of the island, social potential, understood as an attempt to update communication and the use of art and, lastly, dialogue with institutions. Spreading the project throughout the island, PANORAMA presents not just Procida’s works of art but also its houses, churches, streets, terraces, piazzas and even residents.
With PANORAMA, ITALICS is renewing its commitment to promote the beauty of Italy in all its profound complexity, through the eyes of Italian gallerists. PANORAMA is made possible by Intesa Sanpaolo, ITALICS’ project Partner, with additional support from the Region of Campania and the Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee - museo Madre, and the sponsorship of the Municipality of Procida. The exhibition is part of the program “Towards Procida 2022”.