NATURECULTURES Art and Nature from Arte Povera to today

OGR Torino and Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
present

Naturecultures
Art and Nature from Arte Povera to today. From the Collections of the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT at Castello di Rivoli

Drafted by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Beccaria and Samuele Piazza

With the support of Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT
With the extraordinary contribution of Fondazione CRT

29.04 – 22.09.2022

Naturecultures. Art and Nature from Arte Povera to today. From the Collections of the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT at Castello di Rivoli: a redefinition of the relationship with the world around us and its evolution characterises the exhibition that will open on April 29th 2022 in Binario 1 and 2 of OGR Torino.

In parallel with other international artists active from the end of the 1960s of the last century, Arte Povera artists, many of them from Turin, investigated the reality of physical experience and channelled the invisible energy flowing through the world into their artworks. They used elementary techniques and common materials to bridge the gap between nature and culture. They achieved a bodily awareness of the sensitive world, and with their works they introduced the basic concepts of contemporary ecology. Sceptical of the acceleration of consumer society, they were aware of the need for a new environmental balance between humans and the world.  They were optimistic, energetic, pacifists and anarchists. They transformed the very definition of Art through the merging of painting, sculpture, performance, film and photography into the more open notion of installation art – a space that can be traversed and experienced by the public.

Jointly organized by OGR Torino and Castello di Rivoli, this exhibition brings together works mostly belonging to the collections of the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT. Thanks to the synergy between the Museum and the Foundation, this process has allowed Turin and Piedmont to build one of the most significant collections of contemporary art in the world in just over twenty years, and to share it with our community.

The exhibition includes works by Giovanni Anselmo, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Piero Gilardi, Amar Kanwar, Jannis Kounellis, Agnieszka Kurant, Richard Long, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto e Gilberto Zorio.

Credit: Amar Kanwar, The Sovereign Forest, 2012