1 November 2008 - 15 February 2009


Admission hours: every day, 10 am - 7 pm closed on Tuesdays

Admission fee: full 5 € reduced 4 €

The exhibition, curated by Marco Bazzini, is an itinerary through works which from 1968 to the present day have been part of history. A journey through contemporary art seeking to pick up some of the threads that link 1968 to today.

Works by Nanni Balestrini, Vanessa Beecroft, Anna Valeria Borsari, Gea Casolaro, Michele Dantini, Daniela De Lorenzo, Piero Gilardi, Ketty La Rocca, Fabio Mauri, Liliana Moro, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pietro Ruffo and Andrea Salvino, to illustrate a "story by images" of the last forty years based on issues that emerged in those years of controversy or which have been picked up directly from then and projected on to our lives today.

Conceived as a series of mini one-man shows the exhibition itinerary which encompasses forty years of Italian art, illustrates the various periods of each artist's work, and creates an original dialogue between the works on show and the generations they belong to.

Far from the stereotypes that typify 1968 as a time of rebellion, youthfulness and utopia, certain theme issues are examined whose roots are in that very season and which today are enjoying assessment and revaluation within contemporary debate.

1968 was above all a very important and controversial political period in which many seeds were sown, some of which grew to bear fruit in later decades. Beginning with the major commotions that artistic language encountered in those very years, the exhibition leads us along an artistic and theme-related pathway that goes from participation in social issues to the acknowledgment of female emancipation, from involvement in the issues of democratic psychiatry to the birth of awareness about environmental sustainability up to the widespread attitude of being against it typical of the day in a fluidity of movement that is not always violent (somewhere between the two extremes of contestation and volunteer work).

The exhibition features works and events that made history like the Teatro delle mostre (La Tartaruga, Rome, 1968, from which the Luna and Il muro della Sorbonne installations by Fabio Mauri and Nanni Balestrini respectively will be exhibited), the birth of the Pecci Centre in the late 'Eighties (the title of this exhibition comes from this period, and there are artists like Pistoletto, Gilardi, Liliana Moro, Daniela De Lorenzo who exhibited in those years and who have pieces in the permanent collection). There are also important personages from the 'Seventies (such as Ketty La Rocca and the lesser known Anna Valeria Borsari) up to the latest generations (Pietro Ruffo, Andrea Salvino, Michele Dantini and Gea Casolaro), and the aim of the exhibition is to bring together themes that link '68 to the present day.

During the exhibition, a series of meetings complementary to the project will be held in which high-profile personalities and intellectuals will contribute to a debate which forty years on is still important.
The conference acts will be published in the catalogue by Giunti Editore and will be an integral part of the project.

Programme (lectures and meetings)
Free entrance

November 20th, 2008 5 p.m. : meeting with the artists Nanni Balestrini and Andrea Salvino. A visit to the exhibit will follow.

December, 5th, 2008 5 p.m. : lecture of the writer Anna Bravo, author of "A colpi di cuore. Storie del sessantotto". Editori Laterza

January 9th, 2009 5 p.m. : meeting with the artists Anna Valeria Corsair, Gea Casolaro and Michele Dantini. A visit to he exhibit will follow.

Next lectures in programme will be led by Toni Negri, Lamfranco Pace and Marcello Veneziani.


FACT SHEET
Title of the exhibition: "1988: vent'anni prima, vent'anni dopo"
Curator: Marco Bazzini Venue: Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato
Period of the exhibition: 2 November 2008 / 15 February 2009
Inauguration: 1 November 6 pm
Admission hours: every day 10 am - 7 pm closed on Tuesdays
Admission fee: full 5 € reduced 4 €
Catalogue: Giunti Editore Organizers: Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci
Info: +39 0574 5317
e-mail: info@centropecci.it