Group Exhibition

Curated by

Rossella Della Vecchia

Mu.Ca.M., Montella

3.8.2024-10.8.2024

The Irpinia Biennale Returns with Its Third Edition, Opening the Doors to ANIMALIA: A Contemporary Exhibition Showcasing an Unprecedented Contemporary Bestiary

In the province of Avellino, from August 3 to 10, 2024, the Irpinia Biennale returns. Conceived by Stefano Volpe and Guglielmo Mattei, this Contemporary Art Exhibition, now in its Third Edition, will explore the imaginary world of ANIMALIA through a collective Contemporary Bestiary that will take shape within the spaces of Mu.Ca.M. in Montella.

“Following the previous edition, centered on the theme of nature, ANIMALIA seeks to promote a new aesthetic sensibility related to the ongoing anthropological transformations — in a bestiary that is real, fantastic, metaphorical, or internal, where wild apparitions stand alongside theriomorphic, chimeric, hybrid figures and nonexistent fossil traces, or even the digital imprints of today’s social trends,”
writes the curator Rossella Della Vecchia in her curatorial statement.
“By eluding any merely didactic intent, the interpretation of these unprecedented animal forms — capable of surviving on the fringes of anthropization — will guide the viewer through a contemporary Wunderkammer that, through a carefully crafted experiential coexistence of interspecies scenarios and ecosystems, questions dominant categories and reifies our perception of the animal being and its salvific value.”

This edition features a rich selection of thirty works, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and video. The theme will be introduced through the works of the artistic directors Stefano Volpe and Guglielmo Mattei, along with Il giorno batte i suoi zoccoli tra le nuvole (“The Day Beats Its Hooves Among the Clouds”) by Benevento-based photographer Pasquale Palmieri.
Their works will be joined by those of the invited artists: Massimiliano Amati, Maria Rachele Branca, Aronne Comai, Annabella Cuomo, Giorgia Loccarini, Pierpaolo Miccolis, Andrea & Francesco Segreto, Alfredo Valerio, Luca Matteo Vernacchio, and Daniele Zonta.

Also on display will be seventeen competing works by the following artists (in alphabetical order): Stefano Baldinelli, Mariia Baskal, Marco Carrubba, Alessandro D’Aquila, Daniela Di Lascio, Daniela Di Lullo, Vincenzo Iacobelli, Enzo Lauria, Pietro Marchese, Pietro Marino, Roberto Picchi, Valentina Pietrolà, Filippo Saccà, Paolo Scarfone, Melania Storti, Stefano Zaratin, and Alessia Zolfo.

Daniele Zonta (Bassano del Grappa–Vicenza, 1987) presents an ambitious project that, by entering the debate on art, seeks to reconsider its human primacy. Black Crickets showcases a work literally devoured by 1,809 specimens of Gryllus campestris, translating onto (edible) paper “the vital impulse that renders every trace spontaneous and free from all premeditation.”

This is an extemporaneous action that can be ascribed to Process Art, and, through a reflection on forms of primary expressiveness, defines a singular Bestiary of Art — one in which the (human) artist participates with the curiosity of an entomologist, delineating the spatial-temporal, as well as the sonic, manifestation of a famished act.

After all, if we have managed to conceive of art reimagined by Artificial Intelligence, why not also contemplate the formal, structural, and processual elements of the animal kingdom?