When one enters an exhibition, one expects to find a sequence of well-arranged works, ready to reveal their essence in the brief moment our gaze encounters them. After all, one assumes that an exhibition should above all show. But art, fortunately, knows other ways. It can tell the story of a work, preserve traces and memories in the form of an archive, suggest the motives and conditions that generated its birth – its how – or inspire, inviting the visitor to demonstrate creativity in turn.
VV.AA. “Where I have never been, there I am”, installation view, ground floor, Fondazione Elpis, Milano © Fabrizio Vatieri Studio, courtesy Fondazione Elpis
Dove non sono mai stato, là sono (Where I have never been, there I am) at Fondazione Elpis in Milan does not simply show, it provokes curiosity. In presenting the fruits of Una boccata d’arte – the diffuse art project born in 2020 from an idea by Marina Nassim – it rekindles that subtle inclination that moves us towards what we do not yet know. In this case, what we do not know are the hundred artists and the hundred Italian villages that have welcomed them – the two poles of a relationship that is as unexpected as it is stimulating. Each artist selected over the past five years has been entrusted with the task of transforming that relationship into a work of art. It was a twofold challenge: to bring contemporary art away from institutional circuits and to trigger a ‘frontier’ dialogue between the artists and the local communities.
VV.AA. “Where I have never been, there I am”, installation view, ground floor, Fondazione Elpis, Milano © Fabrizio Vatieri Studio, courtesy Fondazione Elpis
The result was a process of reciprocal transformation, weaving together materials, relationships and stories, redesigning a new cultural geography, also involving those who find themselves visiting this exhibition today. Crossing the threshold of Fondazione Elpis, the visitor is greeted by the evocative formula Abracadabra, a work by the duo GRJB, a discreet invitation to allow oneself to be crossed by this journey of geo-artistic contaminations. Curiosity is already aroused on the ground floor, where the works begin to narrate fragments of the project. Simone Carraro’s site-specific panels, for example, evoke the ‘creative nomadism’ of the artists of Una boccata d’arte, heralding the sense of exploration that runs through the entire exhibition. After curiosity has been triggered by the first fragments of art, the entire mosaic is revealed.
VV.AA. “Where I have never been, there I am”, installation view, first floor, Fondazione Elpis, Milano © Fabrizio Vatieri Studio, courtesy Fondazione Elpis
Going up to the first floor, in fact, the mosaic-archive curated by Atelier Tatanka and arranged along the entire floor of the room takes shape: a living archive, which recounts, through heterogeneous materials and visual tesserae, the fabric of relationships born from the encounter between foreign artists and host lands. Each tile bears witness to a stage in the relationships from which the art on display was generated. The most fascinating aspect of this mosaic lies in its apparent incompleteness. Not all the works created in the project are physically present or visible. In many of the photographs of the art residencies, the work is veiled by brightly coloured backgrounds that erase its form and at the same time emphasise it. This is where art shows its subtlest strength: it is not always necessary to see in order to be amazed. The dualism between presence and absence, between vision and intuition, invites the visitors to change their gaze. The work then becomes not so much a finished object, but an open relationship; the exhibition, from a place of simple enjoyment, is transformed into a generator of curiosity.
VV.AA. “Where I have never been, there I am”, installation view, basement, Fondazione Elpis, Milano © Fabrizio Vatieri Studio, courtesy Fondazione Elpis
The tour continues in the basement, where the archive is enriched with the editorial products produced in the five editions of the project. Juxtaposed in symbiosis with Sabrina Melis’s sculptures (La sera, dalle 7 alle 9), these publications do not follow conventional formats, but offer an alternative narration of the experiences of which, ultimately, Dove non sono mai stato, là sono constitutes the plastic memory. It is a memory destined to expand its mosaic of works – from sound to video by F. Bellomo, E. Marisaldi, E. Mazzi and others – and narratives. It is a memory made to follow the trace that art leaves in its passing and in its becoming a relation.
Info:
VV.AA. Where I have never been, there I am
05/08/2025 – 07/06/2025
Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday, 12-19
Free admission
Fondazione Elpis
Via Lamarmora 26, Milano
www.fondazioneelpis.org
Graduate in Philosophy from the University of Milan, where she currently lives, she specialized in aesthetics and contemporary criticism. Passionate of the art world and devoted to research, she believes in the potential of the interdisciplinary gaze, which intertwines critical thinking, typical of philosophical backgroud, and the communicative power of art to shape the evolving identity of its time.
NO COMMENT