The romantic rebellion of Arte Povera: Italian Landscape

More than 50 years since Arte Povera was first introduced to the world, the rebellious ripples set off by this subversive artistic movement continue to resonate today.

A pivotal point in the history of Italian contemporary art, born from the turbulent socio-political scene of the late 1960s, Arte Povera broke conventions and canons with its presentation of art as something that exists outside both the literal and proverbial frame, and how it had challenged the idea of art as something static that’s meant only to be viewed and admired. The curiosity of its pioneering artists regarding the use of “impoverished” everyday materials and the dynamic, organic, even alchemic processes that could be involved in creating art also embodied the movement’s rejection of commercial parameters and previously unquestioned tenets.

With its intuitive approach and inherent openness to reaction and change, Arte Povera remains relevant to the contemporary art scene, not just in Italy but all over the world.

Manila is lucky to be the first stop of a major exhibit that presents masterpieces from Arte Povera artists to Southeast Asia for the first time. Presented by the Italian Embassy in Manila and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Arte Povera: Italian Landscape showcases works by 12 Italian artists, 10 of whom comprise the core of the Arte Povera movement: Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Marisa Merz, Mario Merz, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Gilberto Zorio. The two more recent works come from contemporary artists Francesco Arena and Gianni Caravaggio, which were included for how they fit right in with the art movement’s radical stance. Under the curation of Danilo Eccher, only one artwork was chosen from each artist’s oeuvre, selected carefully for their significance.

“This exhibit took two years to put together,” discloses Ambassador Giorgio Guglielmino of the Italian Embassy in the Philippines. “We wanted to present something contemporary, because classical Italian art is already well-known, and of course, it’d be impossible to bring works by Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo here for people to see. We wanted to present Italian art as always evolving. Within the last 50 years, Arte Povera was one of the two important art movements that came about in Italy.” The other is Transavanguardia, which swept through Italy and the rest of Europe during the late 1970s until the 1980s.

The 12 works on view at Arte Povera: Italian Landscape are:

“Stella per purificare le parole” (1978) by Gilberto Zorio

“Lu Prisenti” (1985) by Alighiero Boetti

“Senza titolo / Untitled” (1976) by Marisa Merz

“Struttura del tiempo / Structure of Time (1992) by Giuseppe Penone

“Europa 11 novembre 2015” (2015-2016) by Francesco Arena

“Senzo titolo / Untitled” (1991) by Mario Merz

“Senzo titolo / Untitled” (2005) by Jannis Kounellis

“Tuba da mettere tra i fiori / Tube to Place Among Flowers” (1963-2001) by Luciano Fabro

“L’orizzonte si posa su una nuvola mentre il sole l’attraversa” (2015-2018) by Gianni Caravaggio

“Orchestra di stracci / Orchestra of Rags” (1968) by Michelangelo Pistoletto

“Senza titolo [1° secondo giorno come gli orienti sono due] / Untitled [1st and second day as the Orients are two]” (1970) by Pier Paolo Calzolari

The artworks are presented in a layout that allows viewers to move through a panorama with no set directions to observe, no strict historical timeline to follow in order to experience it.

In his curator’s notes, Eccher describes this visual summary as “[a] unique ‘Italian Landscape’ …. a single territory with a dense network of paths.” The paths range from macro—such as an overhead view of the exhibit from the Met’s second floor—to micro, with up-close inspections presenting the dichotomies that encompass each piece: How Marisa Merz had used the painstaking and time-consuming craft of knitting to create small, delicate-looking squares out of copper, which is a superconductor of energy; how Alighiero Boetti’s creative vision for his silk tapestries were made material by the groups of women artisans he had worked with in an act of collective realization; the scarring and the grooves from the chemical reaction that occurred after Gilberto Zorio had funneled acid to flow between the metal base and the leather covering of his massive star; the dialogue between the natural and the artificial, the past and the present, there (Italy) and here (the Philippines) in Luciano Fabro’s site-specific work. 

“These kinds of works still shock us a bit now, so imagine how it was 50 years ago,” Ambassador Guglielmino says. “Some of these artists—and this was the basic idea of Arte Povera—believed that the concept is much more important than the material and even the production process.” Beneath the initial shock factor of presenting something rogue, however, is the “romantic attitude” with which the Arte Povera artists strove to create a cultural shift, as art critic Germano Celant had discerned. “[Arte Povera] was an attack and an offensive aimed at subjectivity, to offer more points of identity and support for the expressiveness of the person and more ways of developing a work,” he tells Eccher in the exhibit notes.    

With its active arts scene, Ambassador Guglielmino is optimistic about Manila’s positive reception to Arte Povera: Italian Landscape. “Every work of art must be seen in the flesh, but with Arte Povera, it is really important to experience the works in person. I also hope that the exhibit inspires Filipino artists to be driven to create changes. While there is a need to have that strong basis in tradition, there is also a need to continue to move forward, to be open to new reactions and their surprising effects.”

This piece was a press release commissioned for the show Arte Povera: Italian Landscape at the Metropolitan Museum of the Philippines in February 2020. Lead image is courtesy of the Italian Embassy.