THE Gardens of Sardinia, Cyprus and Jerusalem is a project by Paolo Chiasera and Micaela Deiana which involves the MAN museum in Nuoro and the “De Vleeshal” Visual Arts Center in Middelburg (Holland). The work follows a path undertaken by the artist in 2011 with the development of the concept of exhibition painting, a pictorial genre, invented by him, characterized by the creation of exhibitions on canvas – which can include works by different artists, both already existing and commissioned for the occasion – conceived as a space for meeting and discussion between artists, curators and institutions .
In continuity with this research, the artist later developed the idea of II.STYLE , a artist run space with a nomadic character, which in the name refers to the developments of Roman painting of the second style period, characterized by a particular attention to the power of the imagination. The imaginary itself presents itself as an ideal place for experimentation and the definition of an artistic production according to new exhibition models.
With The Gardens of Sardinia, Cyprus and Jerusalem the II.STILE project enters a museum space for the first time, in which Chiasera orchestrates a reflection on circularityto of the life cycle, symbolized in references to the Paleolithic and Neolithic culture, permeated by a religiosityto closely linked to the cult of the Great Mother, to nature and its manifestations, with a particular predilection for waters and woods.
Starting from the suggestions aroused by a visit to the gardens of the eighteenth-century Villa d‘Orri (Sarroch – Sardinia) and from the atmospheres of the frescoes of the Augustan Villa di Livia (Rome), Paolo Chiasera creates an evocative nocturnal garden on canvas, in which space, together with the curator, offers a selection of works from the MAN collection. The path created, with works from the end of the nineteenth century to the latest acquisitions, aims to invite a different, diachronic reading of the cultural heritage. Cyclicity to of human life and history becomes an opportunity for reflection on the perception of cultural heritage in different historical moments and in different territorial contexts, resulting in a form of reinterpretation of the permanent collections of art museums, in a vision that intertwines archeology and the world contemporary.
At the MAN in Nuoro the “Giardini” will host works by Alessandro Biggio with J. Parker Valentine and Diego Perrone, Stanis Dessy, Salvatore Fancello, Antonio Mura, Costantino Nivola, Giovanni Pintori and Giacinto Satta.
The De Vleeshal Visual Arts Center will host the second event of the project in November 2014. On this occasion, the catalogue, created at the conclusion of the two experiences, will be presented.
Paolo Chiasera (Bologna, 1978) lives and works in Berlin. Since 2013 he has been carrying out the II.STILE project. His personal exhibitions in museums include: Ain’t No Serious Gonna Hold My Body Down , SMA K . Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent (2010); Unter Freiem Himmel / Under the Open Sky , MARTa Herfod, Herford (2009); Forget The Heroes , MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art Rome (2008); The Trilogy: Cornelius, MAMbo, Museum of Modern Art of Bologna (2006). In addition to his artistic research activity, he has collaborated as a lecturer with various institutions including the Kunsthochschule in Kassel (2013) and the Transart Institute in Berlin (2011).
