Yayoi Kusama. Infinito Presente
17 NOVEMBER 2023 – 21 APRIL 2024
Palazzo della Ragione, Piazza Vecchia, Bergamo

To celebrate the year of Bergamo-Brescia as the Italian Capital of Culture 2023, The Blank Contemporary Art and the Municipality of Bergamo present within the festival ArtDate the exhibition-event Yayoi Kusama. Infinito Presente, curated by Stefano Raimondi. Acknowledged to be the most popular and acclaimed of living artists, the exhibition allows visitors to enter Yayoi Kusama’s famous Infinity Mirror Room featuring Fireflies on the Water (2002), for the first time in Italy, on loan from the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The Blank, in occasion of the annual Contemporary Art Festival ARTDATE, presents
STATEMENTS
by Stefano Raimondi

OPENING
Thursday 11 November, 7.00 pm
Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo

Cory Arcangel, John Armleder, Ed Atkins, Elmgreen & Dragset, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Cao Fei, Regina José Galindo, Ryan Gander, Kendell Geers, Shilpa Gupta, Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, Luigi Ontani, Yan Pei Ming, Diego Perrone, Jack Pierson, Paola Pivi, Pipilotti Rist, Pamela Rosenkranz, Marinella Senatore, Cally Spooner, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Goran Trbuljak, Nora Turato, Francesco Vezzoli, Lawrence Weiner are the artists who accepted the invitation to launch their own statement, in visual or textual form – a statement – from Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo – city that became a symbol for its battle against the pandemic.

Each artist’s statement is presented both inside and outside Palazzo della Ragione: each one is hung for a day on the balcony of Palazzo della Ragione, making it as a message sent to the whole world, and then placed inside Sala delle Capriate, where it is also possible to see the exhibition of all the other works.

Every statement will be included in a limited edition catalogue for a total of 250 copies published by The Blank Edition.

The exhibition, based on the installation project by Maria Marzia Minelli, is the result of a cultural agreement between the City of Bergamo and The Blank, aimed at enhancing and promoting Bergamo as a city of art and culture. The exhibition is also made possible by the support and contribution of Regione Lombardia, Fondazione UBI Banca Popolare di Bergamo, Fondazione della Comunità Bergamasca, Isocell. The exhibition would not have been possible without the generosity of the artists and the organizational support of the galleries: Galleria Continua – San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana, Roma, São Paulo, Paris; Massimo De Carlo – Milan, London, Hong Kong, Paris; Hauser & Wirth – Zurich, London, New York, Somerset, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Gstaad; Lia Rumma – Milan, Naples; Lisson Gallery – London, New York, Shanghai, East Hampton; Peola Simondi – Torino; P420 – Bologna; Spruth Magers – Berlin; M77 Gallery – Milan; Thomas Brambilla – Bergamo; ZERO… – Milano.

THE SENSELESS BODY
Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo
15.11.2019 – 6.01.2020
Opening 14.11.2019, h.7.00 pm

BOOK YOUR ENTRY WITH A FREE CATALOGUE

ArtDate – Contemporary Art Festival,
IX Edition
Being Part Of
November 14, 15, 16, 17 2019
Bergamo

Thursday 14th, Friday 15th, Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November, Bergamo hosts the ninth edition of the Contemporary Art Festival ArtDate, organized for the first time in autumn and with more than 30 events that will take place in Bergamo. The exhibition The Senseless Body, curated by Stefano Raimondi, will be inaugurated on this occasion at Palazzo della Ragione.

Thanks to a dialogue between the artworks of some of the most important contemporary artists and the frescos in the room, The Senseless Body offers a deep reflection about the body, how its perception has changed and how its classical idea and its presence have been called into question. This research is embodied in the artworks of Vanessa Beecroft, Mariella Bettineschi, Joseph Beuys, Maurizio Cattelan, Elmgreen & Dragset, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Regina José Galindo, Oscar Giaconia, Gilbert & George, Mimmo Jodice, Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, Barbara Kruger, Eva Marisaldi, Paul McCarthy, Jonathan Monk, Takashi Murakami, Hermann Nitsch, Thomas Schütte, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, Bill Viola and Sislej Xhafa.

The exhibition is organized by The Blank Contemporary Art and it is the result of a cultural agreement with the Municipality of Bergamo aimed at promoting Bergamo as a cultural and artistic place. The exhibition is also made possibile thanks to the support of Regione Lombardia, Fondazione 
UBI Banca Popolare di Bergamo, Fondazione della Comunità Bergamasca, Isocell S.p.A., Dielle Ceramiche S.p.A.