Art Club #12 Folies d'hiver

“Art doesn’t go on vacation and doesn’t care about dates or recurrences. Folies d’hiver is proof of this, as it aligns works by different authors, whose common denominator is to reiterate this concept, transforming the Villa into a stage where they can express their follies.

From the Citerne, where the Masbedo (Nicolò Massazza, 1973; Iacopo Bedogni, 1970; working in Milan since 1999) visual and sound performance I Have a dream, yet (2016) takes a utopian key to the theme of physical and social malaise. Painting is at the heart of the installations Known Unknown (2016) by Nick Devereux (Panama, 1978; lives and works in Paris) in the Salon des Pensionnaires (a series of portraits are added to those already in the room), Untitled (2016) by Nick Oberthaler (Bad Ischl, 1981; lives and works in Vienna) in the Music Room (a series of paintings placed opposite each other to create a single chromatic solution) and Untitled (2016) by Marieta Chirulescu (Sibiu, 1974; lives and works in Berlin) in the Atelier de Balthus (colored fabrics, in some cases marked by graphic traces, occupy the floor, completely altering the traditional vision of the pictorial plane). Achraf Touloub (Casablanca, 1986; lives and works in Paris) intervenes with Sans titre (conditions) (2016) in a room of the Appartement du Cardinal. In homage to Balthus’s rediscovery of the Villa’s historic rooms, and thus to his role as witness to the past, Touloub places a piece of fabric, similar to a bas-relief, on a piece of furniture in the room, completing in an idealized way the process of integration (technical and intellectual) initiated by the artist when he was director of the Academy.”

Pier Paolo Pancotto, Folies d’hiver, December 2016