Iniziare un tempo / To begin a time

The third event in the Duel cycle, conceived by the artistic director of the Museo Novecento, Sergio risaliti, and involving a contemporary artist invited to establish a dialogue with a work from the civic collection opens to the public on friday 16 november (through to 28 february 2018). the exhibition iniziare un tempo, curated by gaspare luigi marcone, features gianni caravaggio in “conversation” with piero manzoni.

on this occasion, an exception to the rule, the invited artist has chosen a work on show in the florentine museum’s current exhibition solo. piero manzoni, curated by gaspare luigi marcone (through to 13 december 2018). caravaggio “samples” and “updates” manzoni’s base magica (magic base) (1961; exhibition copy of the fONDAZIONE PIERO MANZONI, MILAN) THANKS TO WHICH ANY ONE OR ANYTHING MAY BE TRANSFORMED INTO A WORK OF ART. IN REALITY, THE POETICAL-CONCEPTUAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN cARAVAGGIO AND mANZONI HAS A DISTANT ORIGINS. in 2008, for example, in a text entitled L’opera d’arte come dispositivo per atti demiurgici (The work of art as a device for demiurgic acts), Caravaggio wrote: “the device induces the demiurgic act but is also its only permanent holder, comparable to the ability of piero manzoni’s magic base in defining the spectator as a living work of art. The artistic act as a demiurgic act remains in power. recreating the artistic act involves discovering the enigma of the device. the work of art as a device is creation that induces creation”.

the manzonian “interactive” work establishes a dialogue with the work by caravaggio Giocami e giocami ancora (play me and play me again) in which the spectator could play – sitting on an orbital shaped four layers cloth of diferrent blu a kind of dice game played with an ovoidal formed leather cup and small bronze sculptures that reference the five continents, forms moulded directly by the hand of the artist-demiurge.

one room features a new version of the work l’orizzonte si posa su una nuova mentre il sole attraversa (the horizon rests on a cloud while the sun crosses it) (2015-2018), a great mass of nylon thread that may evoke a number of achromes by piero manzoni as well as the great milanese artist’s linee (lines). in this work by caravaggio, a blue cotton thread lies on a tangle of fishing lines, following its jagged outlines, while another thread of yellow cotton pierces the could, maintaining an unvarying path.

in one of the largest rooms dedicated to the project, the artist has constructed a “scenario” with a number of his well-known works and new pieces. these include il mistero nascosto da una nuovola (the mystery hidden by a cloud) in a marble and icing sugar, described by the artist as follows: “the act of being veiled has always characterized the nature of mystery, that is to say, something that lives in the abyss of our imagination, not totally understood. the vision of mystery manifest itself in an obscurely open fashion, and for this reason, it is continuously vital. on the other hand, it is i this act of veiling itself, like the veiling on a chocolate cake with powdered sugar, that the mystery manifests itself. it manifests concretely, like the moment in which a mountaintop pierces a cloud, or a face is hidden by a veil. nature loves to hide itself – re-veil itself so to speak – it is precisely in hiding itself that it manifests as image – a paradox of logic. but here, i have the feeling that nature does not ask us for comprehension, but instead welcomes us, a relaxedness in which we allow ourselves to begin from that which appears as mystery.”