TURIN.- Among the first artists to show work at the Castello di Rivoli when it opened in 1984, Giovanni Anselmo (Borgofranco d’Ivrea, Turin, 1934) presents a new exhibition at the Museum.

Conceived in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition takes place on the third floor of the Manica Lunga.

Today one of Italy’s most internationally acclaimed artists, Anselmo first emerged as part of the Arte Povera group during the second half of the 1960s while engaged in research aimed at highlighting the constant dialogue between the visible and the invisible. His visible materials are natural elements and industrial products, often seemingly modest—light projectors, magnetic needles, granite stone, photographs, dirt, and blocks of ultramarine blue—while his invisible materials include magnetic fields, gravitational force, and the surrounding space in which we happen to be. This makes Anselmo’s work as pertinent today as ever and of increasing interest to younger generations who have grown up in the age of immaterial virtuality.

Starting with the work Interferenza umana nella gravitazione universale (1969), Anselmo has put together a unique itinerary that enhances the building’s architectural flow and its orientation with respect to the apparent motion of the sun along the east-west axis. As part of this itinerary, which constitutes an entirely new installation, artworks are featured by the artist, including several important works from the past such as Particolare (Detail), 1972-2016, Il panorama con mano che lo indica (The panorama with hand indicating it), 1982-2016 and Mentre la terra si orienta (While the Earth finds its bearings), 1967-2016.

Moreover, the project is accompanied by the publication of a scholarly and artistic catalogue, as well as by a new edition of the rare artist’s book, Leggere (1971–1972). Published on the occasion of his first-ever solo exhibition at Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, the catalogue includes major essays by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Anne Rorimer. It also includes the reprint of the important text on the artist’s work written by Jean-Christophe Amman in 1979 for his exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel. Focusing on the specific project conceived by the artist for the Manica Lunga spaces of the Castello di Rivoli, this catalogue includes original texts by Marcella Beccaria, Maddalena Disch and Ilaria Bernardi about the artworks on exhibit. This book also features an extensive chronology with images of the artworks in the exhibition and a detailed chronological and bibliographic section.

In conjunction with the exhibition at Castello di Rivoli, at GAM - Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Torino, the exhibition “Archivi 1: Giovanni Anselmo” curated by Gregorio Mazzonis and Maria Teresa Roberto, is held from April 6 to September 11, 2016; here, a rare early version of the work Direzione (Direction), 1967 is on view.

Born in Borgofranco d’Ivrea in 1934, Giovanni Anselmo lives and works in Turin. In 1990 he received the Golden Lion for Painting at the 44th Venice Biennial.
Among the solo shows we highlight: Galleria Sperone, Turin (1968), Galleria Tucci Russo, Torre Pellice (1978) and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York (1984). The group shows he participated in include Arte povera + azioni povere, Arsenali dell’Antica Repubblica, Amalfi (1968); Conceptual Art – Arte Povera – Land Art, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin (1970); the Venice Biennial (1972, 1978, 1980, 1986, 1990 and 2007); documenta 5 (1972) and documenta 7 (1982); the Sydney Biennial (1976); the Istanbul Biennial (2015).