Changing landscapes, exhibition in Palmanova

Double inauguration Saturday 21 January for the conclusion of the DARS project – Donna Arte Research Experimentation of Udine: a Palmanova at 11 o’clock at the Napoleonic powder magazine Garzoni it’s at Gorizia at 18.00 to the Santa Chiara Museum.

The exhibition in Palmanova can be visited with free admission until February 5, 2023on Fridays from 3 to 6 pm, on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 to 12 and from 3 to 6 pm.

The DARS – Donna Arte Ricerca Sperimentazione has created, within the 2022 cultural activity focused on the VI biennial international review of the Artist’s Book “Come un tale – Students & Masters” aimed at the younger generations (14-35 years), the section theme Changing landscapes welcoming the proposal of the FVG Region to carry out actions to be conceived as approaches to “GO!2025 / Nova Gorica – Gorizia / European Capital of Culture”. In addition to the inclusion of the theme in the call for tenders “Like a story”, defined for the participation of students of Italian and European high schools and academies of fine arts, the event was developed by proposing to the partners six exhibitions scattered throughout the region, launching a call for mail art / postal art and drafting the third teaching manual of good practices. An impressive exhibition activity that took place over more than 6 months, involving 11 national and international partners, interested 5 different locations in the region (Gorizia, Palmanova, Pesariis, Pordenone and Udine) presenting in public and private galleries a total of 221 artists who presented 27 works and 174 Artist Books plus 318 postcards received for Mail Art.

In Palmanovain the space of Napoleonic powder magazine Garzoni, six large wall-mounted works are exhibited for the first time, including paintings, photographs, tapestries and installations created by Friulian artists who express their vision of borders. You can admire the works of Paola Bellaminutti, Sylvia Collavino, Silvana Croatian, Manuela Gauls, Antonella Peresson and the very young Palmarina photographer Camilla Jussa invited by DARS which has always been committed to giving voice and space to the new generations of creatives.

These are flanked by eight Artist books, specially selected for the topic covered, and created as part of the “Come un tale” review by students of the Academies of Fine Arts in Bologna, Lecce, Palermo, Rome and of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the prestigious Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) . Finally, considering the success achieved with the previous tender, 165 will also be exhibited Postcards Mail Art by students of the Artistic High Schools of Udine and Belluno, of the School of Applied Arts of Fiume (Croatia) and of the users of the Onlus “Fraternità&Amicizia” of Milan.

The event was made possible thanks to the support of the FVG Region and the Friuli Foundation which has been supporting the Committee’s activities for years.

They will attend the inauguration the president of DARS Lucrezia Armano And Silvia SaviCouncilor for Culture of the Municipality of Palmanova who is a partner and collaborator of the DARS for the 2022 project.

The exhibition, which will close with a finissage on Sunday 5 February and will be accompanied by two related events. The meeting will be held on Friday 3 February at 18.00, introduced by Simone Cuva (Qudulibri publishing house), The Black Flame – How a Graphic Novel is born with the intervention of the authors Ivan and Zoran Smiljanić. There will be a creative workshop on Sunday 5 February from 10.00 Creating Artist Books edited by Susi Piazza, professor at the International Graphics Center in Venice.

writes the Councilor Silvia Savi on the catalog which contains all the works of the six themed exhibitions: “…Borders / Time / Nature / Walls is the project chosen by DARS which ends in a 2023 in which global economic hostilities have multiplied the scenarios of war up to push them into Europe. The daily chronicle of events bounces from medium to medium, takes on redundant echoes so much as to elude its very purpose – complete and correct information – to rather assume the tones of addiction. The spectator public, constantly subjected to narratives, expresses the need to understand and to restore incisiveness to rights conquered during the short twentieth century, above all the right to lasting peace. A task that DARS fulfills by elevating art to all voices, almost a cry that draws the attention of that public spectator to its active role as a citizen. In this mission, the Municipality of Palmanova does not limit itself to granting the spaces, albeit metaphorical, of a Napoleonic powder magazine converted into a place of art, but includes the message of the works of DARS in a cultural journey that sees it engaged in the promotion of multiculturalism, of inclusion, of critical thinking. …”

DARS President Lucrezia Armano on the project he specifies that Friuli Venezia Giulia has always been considered a “borderland” but, by virtue of the participation of national and international female artists, the topic has been divided to broaden the interpretative possibilities. Changing landscapes summarizes all the divisions / reunions both from a historical, anthropological and naturalistic point of view, and introspective and personal. The subtitles Borders/Time/Nature/Walls – Borders/inTime/inNature/Walls they allowed the participants to investigate their own realities and global issues related to walls/borders inside and outside individuals, recounting the past/present/future with the eyes of creativity.

The development of the project was then implemented, thanks to the collaboration of the partners and the support of the Region, with 6 exhibitions: Pesariis Watchmaking Museum with works exclusively on the Time/inTime, July 2022; GrabGroup Upgrading Cultures exhibition space in Pordenone, September 2022; Galleries of Palazzo Morpurgo in Udine, review of Artist’s Books selected by Italian and European Art Schools and Academies, December 2022; Polveriera Napoleonica Garzoni in Palmanova and, simultaneously from 21 January 2023, the Museum of Santa Chiara in Gorizia, a great summary event of the whole theme which is accompanied by a further exhibition related to the Prologo Gallery in Gorizia and focused on the didactic part (Manual of Good Practices, Photography, High School Artist’s Books) which completes the actions of the activity.

All the works presented, although apparently very heterogeneous, find a unifying element in the themes of nature and walls that dominate the entire exhibition and in the expressive genres adopted which favor the Artist’s Book and Mail Art. to varying degrees, they explore the contaminations between written, visual and, often, also plastic languages. And exploration, research, experimentation are the distinctive and peculiar character of DARS which, with its initiatives, has always sought to promote and favor the advancement of the state of the art.