As part of the annual programme dedicated to research into contemporary languages, which in recent months has seen the MAN in Nuoro present artists such as Massimo Grimaldi, Alice Guareschi and Luca Spano, as well as the special residency planned in partnership with the Fondazione Monte Verità in Ascona, the museum is proud to announce a solo exhibition by Cristian Chironi (Nuoro 1974) exactly ten years after his last project for the MAN. Winner of Strategia Fotografia 2023, a call for entries launched by the Italian Ministry of Culture that made it possible to acquire nine of his early works, Chironi will develop a brand-new exhibition at the MAN entitled Inhabiting is a Language and dedicated to the “Art of inhabiting”.

Indeed, for some time now, Cristian Chironi’s research has been centred around projects in which the artist lives and works in homes and art residencies in various parts of the world. The best-known is My house is a Le Corbusier, in which Chironi’s life is interwoven with architecture designed by Le Corbusier in twelve countries.

Chironi has also been a resident at Casa Wabi, a building designed by Tadao Ando near Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca. He has lived in the home of architect, designer and town planner Pierre Jeanneret in Chandigarh, India. He has stayed at the home of writer Victoria Ocampo in Buenos Aires, designed by architect Alejandro Bustillo and considered the first house representative of the modern movement in Argentina. Chironi also developed a residential project for the grottini in Cagliari’s public gardens, a place steeped in history that served as an air-raid shelter and even a safe haven for artworks during the Second World War.

In line with this narrative, the artist’s exploration of historic and important pieces of architecture also led him to inhabit a Brownstone building from 1850, a distinctive structure located in Brooklyn and today considered among the best-preserved examples of nineteenth-century urban design in the United States.

Chironi’s experience of these architectural structures is punctuated by moments of solitary work and moments of exchange with visitors, in which the interpretation of architecture is rendered through the narration and direct grasp of its dimension in space and time. In these places, works and events are developed on the spot, with a deep interest in combining different styles and experimenting with unusual materials. His research is consistent, focusing on the concept of inhabiting explored from different perspectives. In this way, dwellings become a privileged vantage point for the artist to understand the profound meaning of inhabiting, and to reflect on issues linked to gentrification and urban change. A relationship is thus established with both the human and environmental context, leading the artist to face ever-changing cultures and customs.

Chironi has come up with the Living is a Language exhibition for the MAN, coordinated by Elisabetta Masala, in which each of the eight rooms on the second floor of the museum hosts works from various previously explored dwellings, with new works created for the occasion.

An outlying part of the project can also be seen at the Autocarrozzeria Santino Angioi in Ottana, a village not far from Nuoro, where Chironi has always customised his Fiat 127 Special, in keeping with the colour combinations typical of Le Corbusier’s houses. It is no coincidence that the historic car has been renamed the “Chameleon”, precisely because of its ability to change the colour of its bodywork depending on where it stops.

On Friday 1 December, Chameleon will be at the centre of a new version of the itinerant project Drive, which unites the artist and participants on a journey of urban reflection and imagination incorporating the themes of travel, mobility, social transformations, housing and the crossing of borders. Together with Chironi’s stories at the wheel of Chameleon, participants will also be able to listen to sound compositions created in collaboration with various musicians and sound-artists: Francesco Brasini, Alessandro Bosetti, Massimo Carozzi, Daniela Cattivelli, Chœur de Radio France, Paolo Fresu, Stefano Pilia, Francesco Serra, Henrik Svedlund, Dominique Vaccaro, Sophie Vitelli, and the unprecedented contribution of Nuoro-based multi-instrumentalist Gavino Murgia.

Le Corbusier’s slogan “a house is a machine for living in” is thus reinterpreted in Nuoro Drive, creating a mobile environment that condenses signs of travel and transit in a remix of stories, trajectories and values.

The publishing part of the project will come to fruition in 2024, with the contribution of US artist Charles Ray, with whom Chironi has started working on a bridge for sheep and shepherds to be built in Sardinia.

Colour keyboard - FIAT 127 Special (Chameleon)

Autocarrozzeria Santino Angioi

zona P.i.p. Lotto 12, 08020 Ottana (NU)

from Monday to Friday, 9:00 – 18:00

Tel. +39.07841786478

01.12.23_ Nuoro Drive

itinerant performance. Departure from the MAN.  

There will be five 30-minute journeys.

Times:
15:30>16:00; 16:15>16:45; 17:00>17:30; 17:45>18:15; 18:30>19:00

To book, please contact: info@museoman.it

Thanks to:

Fondation Le Corbusier - Paris

Fundación Casa - Mexico City

Lacasapark Art Residency - New York

La Casa de la Cultura del Fondo Nacional de las Artes and BIENALSUR- Buenos Aires

Pierre Jeanneret Museum - Chandigarh

Istituto di Cultura Italiano - Mexico City

Collezione Andrea Boghi - Brescia

Collezione Anna e Francesco Tampieri - Nonantola

Olnick Spanu Collection - New York

Cristian Chironi is a multidisciplinary artist who divides his time between Mexico City and Italy. He uses various media including performance, photography, video, architecture and design, often establishing a sort of interaction between them. Forthcoming exhibitions: Istituto Italiano di Cultura, in Mexico City; CAMERA - Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Turin. Forthcoming performances: Ivrea (Olivetti) Drive, Ivrea. www.cristianchironi.it