The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea launches its new season of exhibitions with Joint is Out of Time, a new grafting which redefines the current staging of the collections, renewing them with the works of seven contemporary artists of international provenance.
In October 2016, the opening of the exhibition Time Is Out of Joint, which brought the far-reaching process of transformation, reorganization, and the new installation of the museum’s collections to its conclusion, marked the start of a new chapter in the history of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea directed by Cristiana Collu.
The exhibition, which is still open to the public, has been the subject, over the course of time, of a certain number of changes – variants, additions, and replacements of works – which, by discreetly modifying the morphology of the event, has brought to light a project conceived from the very outset to be continually modulated.
As we await the release of the publication devoted to Time Is Out of Joint – which sanctions après coup the fruitful work carried out to transform Museum space and collection that was the subject of the eponymous event – a new project, entitled Joint Is Out of Time, curated by Saretto Cincinelli and Bettina Della Casa, restarts the game, so to speak.
Arranged throughout the various rooms of the Gallery, the works of Elena Damiani, Fernanda Fragateiro, Francesco Gennari, Roni Horn, Giulio Paolini, Davide Rivalta and Jan Vercruysse mingle with the pre-existing ones, thus delineating the emergence of a pioneering constellation whose design seems capable of finding a place for itself within the corpus of Time Is Out of Joint.
The aim of this new project is that of creating in what has already been created, a legible ‘exhibition’ that is a sort of a variation while the first event is still underway; a second event, that is, capable of making a place for itself within a context, of causing it to ‘resound’ by adding diverse and complementary nuances and tonalities. Hence, a unique exhibition format, whose value is paradoxically based on how it merges with the exhibition hosting it.
Through the works of seven artists, from different generations and countries: Elena Damiani (Lima, 1979), Fernanda Fragateiro (Montijo, Portugal, 1962), Francesco Gennari (Pesaro, 1973), Roni Horn (New York, 1955), Giulio Paolini (Genoa, 1940), Davide Rivalta (Bologna, 1974) and Jan Vercruysse (Ostend, 1948 – Bruges, 2018), and yet who share the same sensibility and the media they choose to work with, the aim of Joint Is Out of Time is both to renew and to preserve.
What distinguishes the previous “silent transformations” of Time is Out of Joint from those that now characterize the project lies in the close collaboration with the artists invited: Elena Damiani and Fernanda Fragateiro produced an ad hoc work for the Galleria Nazionale’s display spaces. Roni Horn and Francesco Gennari actively collaborated on the definition of their presence in the event. Belgian artist Jan Vercruysse – who passed away prematurely on February 27th, and had close ties to Italy – is instead the subject of a tribute finalized with those who were closest to him. Lastly, Giulio Paolini combined the presentation of a work conceived specially for one of the Gallery entrance halls with the re-installation of two works he showed in 1988 on the occasion of his solo exhibition in the museum’s Central Hall.
Davide Rivalta’s creative works continues; through the epiphanic presence of his sculptures and their disorienting appearance in the urban habitat, the artist competes within the complexity of contemporary time in relation with animal time.
The complex operation that relates Time Is Out of Joint with Joint Is Out of Time, explicitly underscored by the inversion of the terms expressed in the title, tends – by way of a sort of double bind – to instill a disjointed relationship between two projects that act as two independent yet inseparable moments in a single process: two simultaneous moments in an operation which aim is to bring out, at the same time, the precious heritage preserved by the Galleria’s prestigious collection on the one hand, and the deep incidence of the memory of art history that gives life to the new works exhibited, on the other.
A cultural mediation project in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome will offer guided visits to the public for all the duration of the exhibition Joint is Out of Time.
An agreement with Fondazione Bioparco, situated not far from the museum in the historical park of Villa Borghese, will allow the lowering of the entrance fee upon the showing of the Galleria Nazionale’s ticket on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 January 2019.
Elena Damiani (Lima, 1979. Currently lives in Lima) The Peruvian artist transforms found material into collages, sculptures, videos, and installations. Geology, archaeology, and cartography are the fields that Elena Damiani draws from in order to interpret scientific documents relative to the composition, evolution, and history of the Earth. The artist uses various means to explore natural events and their generative processes. She comes to terms with found material characterized by a narrative component, such as books, photographs, videos, and public records. Her research wavers between what is found and what is built, between the factual and the invented, between the personal and the collective. Elena Damiani has shown her work at MUAC Museo Universitario Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City (2015); MOCAD Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2015); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2013); MAC Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Lima (2013); Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia (2009); IVAM Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, (2007), Valencia; Kunstmuseum Bonn (2006). She participated in the Vienna Biennale (2015) and the Venice Biennale (2015).
Fernanda Fragateiro (Montijo, 1962. Currently lives in Lisbon) The Portuguese artist’s research focuses on a revisitation of modernism. She explores the social, political, and aesthetic history of movement by analysing objects, historical and micro-historical events, and archive materials. Abstraction, colour, and perception, modernist themes par excellence, are of core importance to her reflections. Fragateiro identifies sculpture and architecture as privileged means of expression, reinforcing the connection that is activated with the exhibition space, involving the visitor in a performative relationship. Her sculptural and architectural interventions in unconventional places (a monastery, an orphanage, a house in ruins) tell the forgotten tales of construction and transformation. Some of her projects are the result of her collaboration with architects, landscapists, and performers. Fragateiro has shown her work at Palm Springs Art Museum (2017); Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2016); Caixa Forum, Barcelona (2016); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris (2015); Bronx Museum, New York (2014); Institut Valencià d’Art Modern; Valencia (2008); Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (2007); Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela (2006); Serralves Foundation, Porto (2005).
Francesco Gennari (Pesaro, 1973. Currently lives in Pesaro and Milan) Gennari’s artistic universe is existential and subjective, albeit free from any historical and social reference. Within the context of a poetic dimension that is an end in itself, the only protagonists are the artist himself, his studio, his everyday life. The works – photographs, drawings and sculptures – become self-portraits of the artifice as universal subject. A subject that is defined by the relationship with three unique factors: life, death, the aspiration towards eternity. The foundational themes of Gennari’s research are a metaphysical position, nurtured by cosmic and mundane references at the same time, together with the idea of the artist as demiurge, he who, in Greek mythology, shapes the world from amorphous matter. Gennari has had solo shows in international museums like Galerie Stadtpark, Krems (2016); Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin (2015); Museo Marino Marini, Florence (2014); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle (2009), and Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne Métropole, Saint-Etienne (2008).
Roni Horn (New York, 1955. Currently lives in New York and Reykjavik) Major themes in Roni Horn’s output are nature and its cycles, and the individual in his or her emotional dimension, both of which she explores through the identical-different binomial, the double, and the series. The artist uses her own original and autonomous language to create drawings, photographs, sculptures, installations, as well as artists’ books and works that include words and sentences. For the past thirty years, Roni Horn has spent a great deal of time in Iceland, a land whose geographical, climatic and cultural characteristics have influenced the artist intimately, and are aptly expressed in her cycles of works. Horn has shown her work in the most prestigious international museums, including Pinakothek der Moderne Kunst, Munich (2018); Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (2016); Fundacio Joan Miró, Barcelona (2014); Whitney Museum of American Art (2009); Tate Modern, London and Collection Lambert, Avignon (2008); Museion, Bolzano (2005); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2003). The travelling show ‘Roni Horn aka Roni Horn’ was hosted by Collection Lambert, Avignon; Tate Modern, Londra; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2009); ICA - Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2010). Roni Horn has also participated in international events such as the Whitney Biennial (1991, 2004), Documenta (1992), and the Venice Biennale (1997).
Giulio Paolini (Genoa, 1940. Currently lives in Turin) A leading Conceptual artist who began working in Turin in 1960. His poetics focuses on themes that question the conception, manifestation, and vision of the work of art. From his early studies on the elements that make up a painting, he then turned his attention to the act of exhibiting, to the consideration of the work as a catalogue of its own potential, as well as to the figure of the artist and his lack of contact with the work, which pre-exists and transcends him. Paolini’s major retrospectives include ones at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2014); Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2005); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2003); Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz (1998); Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (1988); Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (1986); Nouveau Musée di Villeurbanne (1984); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1980). He has been invited to four editions of Documenta, Kassel (1972, 1977, 1982, 1992) and to nine editions of the Venice Biennale (1970, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2013). He has also produced set designs and costumes for theatrical performances, in particular with Carlo Quartucci in the 1980s, and with Federico Tiezzi for two works by Wagner in the 2000s.
Davide Rivalta (Bologna, 1974. Currently lives in Bologna) He attended the Academy of Fine Arts based in Bologna from 1992 to 1996 where he’s currently teaching Sculpture. His works are basically sculptures and drawings. His works are based permanently at Palazzo di Giustizia, Autorità Portuale, Museo Nazionale and Sant’Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna; Palazzo del Podestà e dell’Arengo in Rimini; Rocca Estense, Comune San Martino in Rio, Reggio Emilia, in Neuchâtel in the Bibliothèque publique et universitaire and in front of the Collégiale. Rivalta has shown his works in GAM, Bologna (2005); MAN, Nuoro (2005); Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Monfalcone (2008 and 2009); Galleria Civica di Modena (2010); Galleria Civica, Trento (2014) and Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome (2016, 2017, 2018). Among other major exhibitions in important art centres, he has participated in the first Aichi, at Triennale, Arts and Cities, Nagoya and in 2016 at Arte alle Corti in Turin. In 2017 he began to “contaminate” with his works urban areas: Antibes and, in 2018, Neuchâtel and Gstaad.
Jan Vercruysse (Ostend, 1948 – Bruges, 2018) Vercruysse, who recently passed away, is a key figure in contemporary Flemish art. He studied law and dedicated himself to poetry, and in 1974 he began to exclusively conduct visual research. His work was based on the idea of the need to refound the place of art, starting from an ontological and linguistic dimension, beyond social vision or communicative intent. His work can be divided into separate series: from his first photographs – self-portraits, still lifes, mythological scenes – characterized by an evident scenic register, to architecture that has no function – plinths, frames, everyday objects, various structures – connoted by a physical presence in a specific space which is at the same time seen as a non-place. Jan Vercruysse had solo shows in international museums including Museum Leuven (2009); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1998); Krefelder Museen, Krefeld (1995); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (1992), Kunsthalle, Berne (1989). He represented Belgium at the Venice Biennale in 1993.

Opening time : Tuesday to Sunday: 8.30am – 7.30pm
last admission 45 minutes before closing
closures every Monday, 1 January, 25 December