PANORAMA L'AQUILA

From 7 to 10 September 2023, 18 venues in L’Aquila will host the artists and works of the third edition of Panorama, the city-wide exhibition that ITALICS - the first institutional network of art galleries in Italy - dedicates annually to some of the most extraordinary locations in our country. 

 After the experience of Procida (2021) and Monopoli (2022), ITALICS has chosen to bring L’Aquila’s past and recent history to the forefront, entrusting Cristiana Perrella - curator and art critic - with the task of creating art itineraries in the city that are in active and constant dialogue with the territory, its institutions and inhabitants. From the Caffè Fratelli Nurzia to the Casino delle Delizie Branconio, from the Castello Cinquecentesco to the Palazzo Rivera... but also bakeries, bookstores, record stores, restoration workshops, as well as museums and aristocratic palaces, all the way to the piazzas and the sky above the city: all these places will host works of ancient, modern and contemporary art, rendering a new image of the Abruzzi capital, a composite portrait made up of both its historical monumentality and the industriousness of daily life. 

 It is through this kaleidoscope that L’Aquila is preparing to host works, performances and site-specific contributions by more than 50 Italian and foreign artists from different eras, for an intense four-day marathon where art, artists and the city will be the ultimate protagonists. A multi-venue exhibition that blends diverse visions, poetics and languages, including the great names in Art History, international voices, established Italian artists, or those in mid-career or emerging. 

 This year too, the central focus is on the relationship of art with the city, still partially wounded by the 2009 earthquake, partly rebuilt and restored to its original splendor: an exhibition project, the one conceived by Cristiana Perrella, that starts with the idea of the term wit(h)nessing, coined by the feminist theorist, artist and psychoanalyst Bracha Ettinger. A word that here becomes an exhibition, extending the concept of witnessing, understood both as an affirmation of one’s knowledge and the telling of a story: a relational action that envisages a coexistence of cultures, places and people. 

 As in previous editions, during the event, Panorama will launch special projects and collaborations with L’Aquila’s cultural institutions, with the intention of establishing deep and lasting connections with the city’s living fabric, generating virtuous relationships capable of going beyond the four-day event. For example, collaborations with MAXXI L’Aquila and the Fondazione Giorgio De Marchis, which will host Panorama projects beyond the duration of the exhibition, came about in this way; or the integration with the programs of Performative03, the international festival of performance art, dance, music and theater at MAXXI L’Aquila, and Jazz Italiano per le terre del sisma, which will include Massimo Bartolini’s work in their programming; or the exchange with the “Alfredo Casella” State Conservatory of Music, the Academy of Fine Arts and the “D. Cotugno” National Boarding School, whose students, musicians and artists will be involved in the performances and various stages of the process of preparing and running the exhibition. The four days of Panorama will then be rounded out with a schedule of guided tours to explore the places and artists of Panorama, and a packed Public Program that will include breakfasts with the artists, book presentations, talks and film and documentary screenings. 

 Special initiatives include the return of the third edition of the Italics d’Oro, the award that each year celebrates the intense bond between an artist and the territory, and which this year will be awarded to Italian architect, artist, designer and theorist Ugo La Pietra, born in the province of Pescara (Bussi sul Tirino, 1938). 

Panorama L’Aquila continues to be a unique exhibition experience, an expression of the values of ITALICS, capable of bringing together the ancient, modern and contemporary, multiple styles, techniques and thoughts in art itineraries that help discover the most authentic and least known aspects of our country, continuing the extraordinary journey that began in 2020 on the web pages of the platform Italics.art. The member galleries in the consortium wanted and shared the format of Panorama with a view to collaborating with the territories. The intention is to gradually expand this commitment into a program and alliances that reaffirm the importance and role of art galleries in a local and global cultural system that continues to evolve. 

 The multi-venue exhibition Panorama L’Aquila is realized with the support of the City of L’Aquila and under the patronage of UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture, and with the support of Belmond as main partner. 

 In fact, Belmond continues to support ITALICS for the second year as its main partner. Belmond’s commitment to Italy and the arts community goes beyond hospitality and its properties. The renewal of the partnership with ITALICS further strengthens the common goal of promoting Italy, and its territories through art, inviting the public to see the profusion of culture and beauty throughout the country from a unique and original point of view. 

 Back again as a media partner is Il Giornale dell’Arte as well as the collaboration with Treccani Arte, which, with the Treccani Arte x Panorama project, will talk about the key concepts that inspired the exhibition through Dictionary definitions on social networks. 

 For their collaboration, we wish to thank Fondazione De Marchis, MAXXI L’Aquila, Studio Fabio Mauri and for special participation, Academy of Fine Arts L’Aquila, “Alfredo Casella” State Conservatory of Music, “D. Cotugno” National Boarding School and Førma Bakery. Special thanks go to the De Nardis family, Vincenzo Rivera and Fratelli Navarra. 

 VENUES 

Caffè Fratelli Nurzia, the Casino delle Delizie Branconio, the Castello Cinquecentesco (former Spanish fort), the Fondazione Giorgio De Marchis, Førma Bakery, Largo Tunisia, the Libreria Polarville, MAXXI L’Aquila (Project Room and Courtyard), the store on 29 Via Roio, the Oratorio De Nardis, Palazzo De Nardis, Palazzetto dei Nobili, Palazzo Rivera, the Sound Garden record store, the Stile Novecento restoration store and Studio Marcello Mariani. In addition to these are venues for performances: the Castello Cinquecentesco (Sala del Mammut) and the sky above L’Aquila. 

 ARTISTS 

Carlo Albacini, Eleanor Antin, Darren Bader, Giacomo Balla, Yael Bartana, Massimo Bartolini, Jacopo Benassi, Cristiano Bianchin, Ambrogio Borghi, Alberto Burri, Gasparo Cairano, Michele Cammarano, Chiara Camoni, Lucia Cantò, Mircea Cantor, Gianni Caravaggio, Stefania Carlotti, Vincenzo Castellini, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Joan Crous, Enzo Cucchi, Radha D’Souza, Alberto Di Fabio, Lucio Fontana, Christian Frosi, Piero Golia, Diego Gualandris, Shadi Harouni, Paolo Icaro, Emily Jacir, Chantal Joffe, Armin Linke, Christiane Löhr, Master of the Madonna in the Cathedral of Spoleto, Beatrice Marchi, Nicola Martini, Fabio Mauri, Mario Merz, Ad Minoliti, Davide Monaldi, Giorgio Morandi, Maurizio Nannucci, Nunzio, Alek O., Nicola Pecoraro, Diego Perrone, Robin Rhode, Carl Borromäus Andreas Ruthart, Anri Sala, Vincenzo Schillaci, Neapolitan Sculptor (circle of Luca Giordano), Jonas Staal, Giuseppe Stampone, Haim Steinbach, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Marco Tirelli, Luca Trevisani, Tatiana Trouvé, Alessandro Varotari, known as il Padovanino. 

 GALLERIES 

ADA; Galerie Rolando Anselmi; Alfonso Artiaco; Bacarelli; Galleria Alessandro Bagnai; Bottegantica; Botticelli Antichità; Galleria Canesso; Cardi Gallery; Alessandro Cesati; Clima; Galleria Continua; Galleria Raffaella Cortese; Thomas Dane Gallery; Massimo De Carlo; Galleria Tiziana Di Caro; Alessandra Di Castro; Galleria Umberto Di Marino; Ermes Ermes; Federica Schiavo Gallery; Galleria Fonti; Galleria Fumagalli; Gagosian; Galleria dello Scudo; Giacometti Old Master Paintings; kaufmann repetto; Laveronica Arte Contemporanea; Galleria Lia Rumma; Magazzino; Martina Simeti; Mazzoleni, London-Turin; Francesca Minini; Galleria Massimo Minini; Monitor; Maurizio Nobile Fine Art; Galleria Franco Noero; Galleria Carlo Orsi; P420; Peola Simondi; Peres Projects; Giorgio Persano; Pinksummer; Porcini; Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani; Richard Saltoun Gallery; SpazioA; Studio Sales di Norberto Ruggeri; Studio Trisorio; Caterina Tognon Arte Contemporanea; Tornabuoni Arte; Tucci Russo Studio per l’Arte Contemporanea; Federico Vavassori; Victoria Miro Venice; Galleria Carlo Virgilio & C.; Vistamare; ZERO...