The interview
twelve o’clock, May 17, 2021 – 12:59 pm
Neapolitan, 46, will curate the Italian Pavilion of the next Biennale
of Mirella Armiero
In Naples he was a bit like the terrible boy of the art world, outside the box and conventions. Probably Eugenio Viola, 46, will carry this subversive role also in the role of curator of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, scheduled from 23 April to 27 November 2022, under the guidance of Cecilia Alemani. The appointment was announced yesterday morning by the Minister of Culture Franceschini: Viola bearer of a creative, ambitious and innovative vision, capable of thoroughly investigating the profound changes triggered by the pandemic in our society. Eugenio Viola’s phone started ringing repeatedly, immediately after the announcement, in his home in Bogot, where he runs the Mambo, a museum of modern art. Prior to his experience in Colombia, he was Senior Curator of Pica – The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in Perth, Australia, as well as curator at the Madre in Naples, from 2009 to 2016. As a guest curator he has collaborated with numerous Italian and international institutions.
Viola, his appointment, as Franceschini says, rewards creativity, innovation, demonstrates attention to the international context. A turning point, a rejuvenation compared to the past?
I don’t know if it is right to talk about rejuvenation, even if my appointment may certainly seem a less conventional choice, or if you prefer, definitely breaking with the past. And this will also be demonstrated by the Italian Pavilion 2022, I can assure you.
What will you bring with you from your Neapolitan experience? Both as training and as a work experience.
Much of my training took place in Naples. where I studied, with Angelo Trimarco and then again with him the doctorate in Salerno. Here I took my first steps as a curator, first with Lorand Hegyi, during his experience at the Pan, and then at the Madre, where I would then work for several years, both with the direction of Eduardo Cicelyn and with that of Andrea Viliani. I am proudly a son of the South. The South is an unavoidable part of my work and existential experience. a part of my destiny: I was born in Naples, then I moved to Perth, Australia, in the southern hemisphere, and now I live in Bogot in Colombia, in South America. Long live the South !.
From its privileged observatory, from one continent to another, in what direction is contemporary art going? In emerging countries, the research guidelines of the most interesting artists are very different from those of Western art … what are the newest themes?
The artists rework the reality that surrounds them in aesthetic terms. They are careful seismographs of their time. the context in which they operate which inevitably shapes their work, especially if marked by deep lacerations and contradictions. I can give a practical example: here in Colombia, a country marked by 60 years of armed conflict, violence, civil war, tragedy, pain, trauma, loss, are recurring themes that have inevitably conditioned the search for generations. of artists. I would therefore not speak of themes but of contexts.
On social media, his appointment was greeted with great enthusiasm, especially by young artists and curators … involving many travel companions?
I am happy that my appointment was received with enthusiasm and with great curiosity. I am an outsider. I have worked hard, in all these years, and I have tried to carry out a coherent research work, which is confronted with the real in a dialectical way and, why not, provocative, if necessary. I have many travel companions, some of them, of course, will accompany me in this new adventure.
A memory of the Mother compared to other great contemporary museums where you then worked?
The Madre was the first institution where I worked continuously and for several years, from 2009 to 2016. I made my bones, as they say. I always carry it with me. I had the opportunity to take care of some of the most demanding projects of my life in Naples and it allowed me to accumulate experience, not just curricular, which then came in handy throughout my subsequent career. In Naples to operate you have to be a fighter, and thanks to this experience, I was able to subsequently confront even more difficult and problematic realities, like the Colombian one. I consider Bogot an ‘extreme’ version of Naples, both are dominated by this creative entropy that informs every aspect of urban and social reality. Well, maybe I am so at ease here because I was born and raised in Naples.
What imprint will your pavilion have?
The Italian Pavilion will obviously have an imprint marked by the uncertain present we are experiencing, but it will also offer a strong breath of optimism. I believe – and more than ever in these times – that optimism is an ethical necessity, almost a moral obligation. And I have always defined myself as an optimist by compulsion. The call for proposals for the 2022 Italian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale explicitly asked the curators invited to the selection to tackle urgent issues related to the present, exploring them through the transversal and interdisciplinary nature of contemporary languages. And this will also be, goes without saying, my viaticum….
May 17, 2021 | 12:59
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