Anatomia dell'irrequietezza

The visual arts exhibition Anatomia dell’irrequietezza [Anatomy of Restlessness], curated by Luca Beatrice, will be held at the Palazzo della Penna in Perugia from 30th September 2007 to 6th January 2008. The theme of the exhibition, which takes its title from the celebrated posthumous collection of essays and articles by the English writer Bruce Chatwin, art expert and tireless traveller, is dedicated to the myth of the journey through various periods of art history in the modern and contemporary age. Departure point is the 18th century Grand Tour that foreign painters made as an itinerary of initiation and apprenticeship: in an Italian journey they rediscovered the classical tradition filtered through the Romantic spirit. Arrival point is the future, the real and virtual journeys of the global era in the third millennium...

The Grand Tour was inaugurated in the enlightened 18th century as an educational, formative and diverting journey made by the young European and later American elite, the latter taking off for Europe as soon as they had graduated. The trip was seen as a rounding off and enrichment of their university studies. Italy, cradle of art and civilisation, was the favoured port of call. The travellers however were not only students but diplomats, philosophers, collectors, art lovers, novelists and poets. Anatomia dell’irrequietezza develops this topos, setting out from the canvases of landscape painters (Marco Ricci, Fabius Brest) and the so called “Orientalists” (Giuseppe Tominz, Salvo, Luigi Ontani, Aldo Mondino, Miquel Barcelò) right down to contemporary photographers (Gabriele Basilico, Wim Wenders, William Eggleston, Abbas Kiarostami, Boris Mikhailov, Brian McKee and Ferdinando Scianna). A section of the book deals with the journey in conceptual art (Richard Long, Alighiero Boetti, Hamish Fulton, Anne and Patrick Poirier) and, more in general, with the journey as encounter with people of different races and cultures (Beat Streuli, Massimo Vitali, Melanie Smith, Jang Zhi) and as a link with the territory (Claudio Costa, Renata Boero, Jimmie Durham, David Tremlett, Isola and Norzi).