Sculpture in Action: Eliseo Mattiacci in Rome
Book launch
With Lara Conte, Daniela Lancioni, Stefano Chiodi and Cornelia Mattiacci
#Agora
Sculpture in Action: Eliseo Mattiacci in Rome is a fresh examination of Mattiacci’s sculpture from 1964 to 1986, the years he spent living and working in Italy’s capital, experimenting with a horizon of research that spanned both action and a process based practice.
Edited by Lara Conte and published by Ridinghouse, the book is the result of a research undertaken in dialogue with Studio Eliseo Mattiacci and includes previously unpublished materials by the artist.
It is an editorial project by Il Teatro degli Artisti and is supported by Italian Council, the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity within the Italian Ministry of Culture. The book includes texts by Penelope Curtis, Valérie Da Costa and Christian Rattemeyer, together with critical essays by Bruno Corà, Mario Diacono, Vittorio Rubiu and Fabio Sargentini.
LARA CONTE teaches History of Contemporary Art at Roma Tre University. Her research focuses on the study of art and criticism in the second half of the 20th century, researching alternative narratives in the dynamics of reception, transnational relations, the history of sculpture and the relationships between artistic practice, criticism and feminism. Her publications include: ateria, corpo, azione. Ricerche artistiche processuali tra Europa e Stati Uniti. 1966-1970 (Electa, Milan 2010); Carla Lonzi: la duplice radicalità. Dalla critica militante al femminismo di Rivolta (with V. Fiorino and V. Martini, ETS, Pisa 2011); Carla Lonzi. Scritti sull’arte (with L. Iamurri and V. Martini, et. al, Milan 2012); Paolo Icaro. Faredisfarerifarevedere (Mousse Publishing, Milan 2016); rtiste italiane e immagini in movimento. Identità, sguardi, sperimentazioni (with F. Gallo, Mimesis, Milan 2021).
DANIELA LANCIONI lives and works in Rome. She is senior curator at Azienda Speciale Palaexpo. Between 1997 and 2002, she founded and directed Spazio per l’arte contemporanea Tor Bella Monaca in Rome (managed by the Beat 72 Association on behalf of the Municipality of Rome), where she curated the exhibitions Fuoricentro, 1997; 20 mostre a La Salita tra il 1960 e il 1978, 1998-1999; Giacinto Cerone, 1999-2000; David Tremlett, 2000; Giuseppe Penone. Spoglia d’oro su spine d’acacia, 2002. Exhibitions curated at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni include: Giulio Paolini. Gli uni e gli altri (L’enigma dell’ora) 2010, Carlos Amorales, 2011, Anni 70. Art in Rome, 2013-2014, Cesare Tacchi. A retrospective, 2018, Exhibitions in exhibition 1, 2019, Jim Dine, 2020. She has also curated Contemporary Italy. Officina San Lorenzo, MART, Rovereto 2009, Tano Festa. Da Mondrian a Michelangelo. Works from 1963 to 1978, Cinecittàdue arte contemporanea, Rome 2005, 72nd Michetti Prize. Michetti, Spalletti e altri paesaggi con o senza figura, Francavilla al Mare 2021. Her publications include: Roma in mostra 1970-1979. Materiali per la documentazione di mostre azioni performance dibattiti, Roma 1995; Giulio Paolini. Quadrante, Rome 2002, Incontri…Dalla collezione di Graziella Lonardi Buontempo, Rome 2003; Giuseppe Penone, Rome 2008; she has collaborated on the monographs: Spalletti, Naples 1999; Giuseppe Penone The Inner Life of Forms, New York 2018.
STEFANO CHIODI has published numerous essays on art and visual culture between the early 20th century and the present day; publications include, Genius loci. Anatomia di un mito italiano (2021); La bellezza difficile (2008), Una sensibile differenza (2006). He has edited editions of texts and catalogues, including the recent senzamargine, (with B. Pietromarchi, 2021); Marina Ballo Charmet, Con la coda dell’occhio. Scritti sulla fotografia (2017; Engl. ed. 2019); Alberto Boatto, Ghenos Eros Thanatos e altri scritti sull’arte” 1968-2015 (2016); Marcel Duchamp. Critica, biografia, mito (2009). Recently curated exhibitions include: Alberto Boatto, Lo sguardo dal di fuori, MAXXI, Rome 2020-21. He writes in ‘il manifesto’, ‘il verri’ and other newspapers; in 2011 he co-founded www.doppiozero.com. He has translated texts by Jean-Christophe Bailly, Pierre Bourdieu, Jean Clair, Georges Didi-Huberman. He teaches History of Contemporary Art at Roma Tre University.
CORNELIA MATTIACCI Exhibition Curator at Fondazione Prada, Milano, she collaborated to the shows: Post Zang Tumb Tuuum, curated by Germano Celant, 2018; Il Sarcofago di Spitzmaus, project by Wes Anderson and Juman Malouf, 2019; K, curated by Udo Kittelmann, 2020. As curator at Studio Eliseo Mattiacci, she collaborated to the retrospective shows Eliseo Mattiacci, curated by Gianfranco Maraniello, MART, Rovereto, 2016, and GONG, curated by Sergio Risaliti, Forte di Belvedere and Museo Novecento, Firenze, 2018. Member of Il Teatro degli Artisti cultural association, whose recent projects are: Against Sun and Dust, Villa Imperiale, Pesaro, series of exhibitions co-curated with Alessandra Castelbarco Albani; Sculpture in Action. Eliseo Mattiacci in Rome (Ridinghouse, London), book edited by Lara Conte.