Italian Pavilion

58^th International Art Exhibition

 of La Biennale di Venezia

11 May – 24 November 2019

Neither Nor: The challenge to the Labyrinth

curated by Milovan Farronato

Enrico David, Chiara Fumai, Liliana Moro

Director General DGAAP and Commissioner Italian Pavilion

Federica Galloni

Neither Nor: The challenge to the Labyrinth is the title of the exhibition, curated by Milovan Farronato for the Italian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in which three Italian artists are taking part, presenting completely new works along with ones from the past: Enrico David (Ancona, 1966), Chiara Fumai (Rome, 1978 – Bari, 2017) and Liliana Moro (Milan, 1961).

The Italian Pavilion will be inaugurated Friday May 10 at 12pm by the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities Alberto Bonisoli along with the President of La Biennale di Venezia Paolo Baratta, the Director General for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Peripheries and Commissioner of the Italian Pavilion Federica Galloni and the curator Milovan Farronato.

The subtitle of the project alludes to “La sfida al labirinto” (“The Challenge to the Labyrinth”) a seminal essay written by Italo Calvino in 1962 that has been the inspiration for Neither Nor. In this text the author proposes a cultural work open to all possible languages and that feels itself co-responsible in the construction of a world which, having lost its traditional points of reference, no longer asks to be merely represented. To visualize the intricate forms of contemporary reality, Calvino turns to the vivid metaphor of the labyrinth: an apparent maze of lines and tendencies that is in reality constructed on the basis of strict rules.