Press Release

THE ENLIGHTENING IMAGE

Works by Arduino Cantàfora and his students

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the establishment

of the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio

Museo d’arte Mendrisio, 10 February – 25 March 2007

Press conference: Thursday 8 february 2007 at 11.00

Vernissage: Friday 9 february 2007 at 18.00

This exhibition will be one of a series of events held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio. Arduino Cantàfora, architect, artist, and long-term collaborator of Aldo Rossi, is one of the leading lights at the Academy who has worked there for many years. His classes are a very personal, enlightening and stimulating way of interpreting the role of the teacher, of the “maestro”; this is reflected in the title of the exhibition , whose main objective is to underline the great importance of the teacher in the learning process.

The display focuses on a selection of works by Cantàfora, the artist, and by his students who have taken part in various workshops he has held at the Academy in recent years.

However, this event should not be seen merely as pedagogical. In fact, the exhibiton considers Cantàfora’s poetic language as a starting point for revealing his art in terms of a “new figuration”, where the quest for a way to interpret the world, and the capacity of his visual exploration to convey models and techniques, or “savoir faire”, are of equal importance

Thus, the main focus of the exhibition is to show, using unorthodox methods, that Cantàfora’s art is also art of the paideia - namely education as a means of creating the tools for a visual interpretation of the world, and of its forms both from nature and architecture. The works by Cantàfora and his pupils, seen together, are able to focus the visitor’s interest on one of the central themes of artistic culture: how knowledge can be passed on.

Cantàfora’s oeuvre can be seen as a deliberate and erudite “anachronism”, which distances itself from the canons and principles of much of contempory art. Through this “anachronism” of figuration, developed by Cantàfora after pondering at length on the representativeness of architecture, he interprets artistic practice as an alternative canon where ability returns to centre stage, not merely as a technical skill, but also – and above all – as inspiration from natural, mechanical and architectural forms.

What makes Cantàfora’s work so popular and frequently displayed in important public collections (the Centre Pompidou in Paris recently acquired a group of his works) is his ability to teach people to see. So the exhibition will also teach us how to use our eyes, because Cantàfora’s art - as the excellent results of his workshops show – is precisely his ability to teach.

Works and materials on display

The exhibition comprises 20 oil paintings by Arduino Cantàfora and about 40 paintings by his students. The latter were produced during several intensive courses on five themes: the Sacromonte in Varese, the cemetery of Balerna, the Cantine of Salorino, choleoptera, and railway locomotives.

The oil paintings are accompanied by materials which show the cognitive and expressive processes of the finished works: the representational tools and techniques, records of the exploratory stages and the themes chosen.

Catalogue

A catalogue will be published for the exhibition, of about 120 pages, with 50 colour and 20 black-and-white illustrations. In addition to the institutional prefaces there will be three texts: one by Cantàfora on the relationship between his art and pedagogical methodology, one by Bruno Pedretti (the catalgue’s editor) on the theme of art as memory and the abilty to pass on artistic knowledge, and a text on the “new figuration” and “painted architecture” which distinguishes Cantàfora’s art.

The catalogue will conclude with a short bibliography of Arduino Cantàfora and a brief account of the experiences of the workshops held by the artist at the Academy of Architecture.

Bruno Pedretti - Simone Soldini