The experimental research of Giulio De Mitri (Taranto, 1952) is fuelled by questions relating to a cosmogonic repertoire that spans mythical and sacred visions, reaching a dimension of Social, Relational and Participatory Art. His extensive and composite research has been analysed by a number of historians, critics and writers. Among these, we mention here Gillo Dorfles, Enrico Crispolti, Luigi Paolo Finizio, Massimo Bignardi, Matteo Galbiati, Barbara Tosi, Antonio D’Avossa, Lorenzo Canova, Marcello Venturoli, Sandra Orienti, Filiberto Menna, Bruno Corà, Giorgio Di Genova, Miriam Cristaldi, Achille Bonito Oliva, Gérard George Lemaire, Renato Barilli, Luciano Caramel, Alberto Fiz, Arcangelo Izzo, Alda Merini, Luciano Marziano, Pierre Restany, Paolo Aita, Francesco Vincitorio, Pietro Marino, Antonella Marino, Anna D’Elia, Gabriele Perretta, Lucia Spadano, Cesare Biasini Selvaggi, Ilaria Bignotti, Giorgio Bonomi, Claudio Spadoni, Valerio Dehò and Italo Tommasoni. His works and projects have been supported by important galleries and institutions: Studio Arti Visive by Sylvia Franchi, Cesare Manzo, Lucrezia De Domizio Durini, Roberto Peccolo, Pino Casagrande, Fondazione Città Italia, Fondazione Museo Pino Pascali and Pinacoteca Metropolitana di Bari.
Giulio De Mitri, “Memories of a Traveler in the Waters of the Mare Nostrum”, 2023, site-specific environmental installation. Photo by Giorgio Ciardo, courtesy of the Artist and CRAC Puglia
From 2007 to 2011, he was invited to three events at the Venice Biennale; in 2008 he was invited to the 15th Rome Quadriennale; in 2013, he was invited to the “Fin del Mundo” Biennale in Mar de Plata (Argentina); in 2016 to the “Utopia and Reality” Biennale in Labin (Croatia) and to Expo 2015 in Milan. In 2016, he was awarded the 54th Campigna Prize. For Giulio De Mitri, artistic practice is ultimately a flow running through our daily lives: emotions, thoughts, reflections, knowledge and information that silently influence our innermost secret lives, only to emerge in a whole series of choices, responsibilities, awareness, moral and ethical orders, which become the tangible expression of what the artistic experience gives us. To talk about CRAC Puglia in Taranto we met with artist Giulio De Mitri, president and director of the Scientific Committee.
View of the exhibition “Michael Goldberg. Works 1957–2007” at CRAC Puglia, 2023. Photo by Giorgio Ciardo, courtesy of CRAC Puglia
Roberto Vidali: Can you tell us how CRAC came about?
Giulio De Mitri: CRAC Puglia (Centre for Contemporary Art Research) is a “project museum” and part of the Apulia Region’s library and museum complex. The institution was born from the substantial experience – over thirty years – of the Rocco Spani ETS Foundation in Taranto, which operates between art education and social inclusion, and from the contribution of a group of cultural operators, intellectuals and artists who believe in the possibility that art can build a better future. Such aesthetic renews itself in ethics to offer new generations opportunities for growth and social cohesion. CRAC is a permanent institution that over the past fifteen years has organised several events, seminars, workshops and exhibitions. It is a work in regress that has retraced the millennial history of the territory and a work in progress that through visual culture seeks to stimulate a better quality of life, which today is barbarically affected by ignorance as well as sinister provincialism.
View of the exhibition “Winfred Gaul. Recycling 1981-1997” at CRAC Puglia, 2022. Photo by Giorgio Ciardo, courtesy of CRAC Puglia
What are the aims of this institution?
CRAC is a permanent institution that serves the local area, creating a model of true “cultural welfare”. It offers a different model of cultural approach, one that is sensitive, sustainable and inclusive. In this regard, the recent exhibition Omaggio a due grandi maestri tarantini: Nicola Carrino e Pino Spagnulo has provided a great symbolic and spiritual added value, as they were among the first artists to support the CRAC project. CRAC also acts as a tool that can compare with the best practices at a national and international level, carrying out urban and environmental regeneration projects and interventions, as well as actions to restore the historical and cultural heritage. Research and design in a variety of activities (educational workshops, artist residencies, exhibitions of historical and experimental significance) become a methodological tool, a mental and physical place. As Bruno Munari, a lifelong friend of the Foundation, said: “Thinking upside down, creating affinities between different semantic fields, changing the coordinates of an object to discover new possibilities, especially new points of view on things,” helps to overcome the numerous stereotypes that habitually, out of laziness, accompany our daily lives.
Getulio Alviani, “Circle on Square – Square on Circle”, 2013, colored cardboard, 17 x 25 cm. CRAC Puglia Collection, photo by Giorgio Ciardo, courtesy of CRAC Puglia
Let us recall some of the most significant exhibitions hosted by CRAC in recent years…
Among the exhibitions held in recent years, we should mention the solo shows dedicated to the work of Guido Strazza, Carlo Lorenzetti, Daniel Spoerri, Ettore Sordini, Winfred Gaul, Bruno Ceccobelli, Michael Goldberg, Georges Noël, Oscar Piattella and the exhibitions: Ceramica. Terraformata (with Vittorio Corsini, Ugo La Pietra, Nanda Vigo, Antonio Violetta, etc.), Memorie d’artista (with Orlan, Lamberto Pignotti, Grazia Varisco, Arrigo Lora Totino, etc.), Segni di pace. 24 presenze nell’arte contemporanea per una cultura della non violenza (with Gianfranco Baruchello, Renato Mambor, Pino Pinelli, Wolf Vostell, etc.), Opere&Opere. Omaggio a Mario Lodi (with Pietro Fortuna, Marco Pellizzola, etc.), Pier Paolo Pasolini: tempo presente. Cinque presenze nell’arte contemporanea (with Fernando De Filippi, Gianluca Murasecchi, Pippo Patruno, etc.), Imago. Visioni inattese (with Getulio Alviani, Pietro Coletta, Massimo Barzagli, Giulia Napoleone, Iginio Iurilli, Mauro Staccioli, etc.), Il respiro della libertà – In memoria della Resistenza (with Franco Angeli, Enrico Baj, Luigi Bartolini, Gastone Novelli, Alik Cavaliere, Terry Atkinson, Peter Willburger, etc.), Sculture in Campo. Progetti & Opere (with Lucilla Catania, Vittorio Messina, Andrea Fogli, Paolo Grassino, Fiorella Rizzo, etc.) and Relazioni possibili nel contemporaneo. Linguaggi interconnessi tra contaminazioni e sconfinamenti (with Mario Schifano, Mimmo Paladino, Umberto Mastroianni, Robert Indiana, Piero Gilardi, Luca Maria Patella, Giulio Paolini, Man Ray, Toti Scialoja, Kengiro Azuma, etc.).
(translated by Paolo Cecchetto)
Info:
CRAC, Centro Ricerca Arte Contemporanea
c.so V. Emanuele II, n 17
74123 Taranto
Tel 099 471 3316
www.cracpuglia.it
He is editorial director of Juliet art magazine.
NO COMMENT