In the whirlpool of the all-world

This group exhibition brings together the work of sixteen fellows artists and researchers working in a wide range of creative fields, including visual arts, design, architecture, music, film, literature and art history.

The projects presented are the fruit of research, activities and reflections nurtured by the residents during their time in residence at Villa Medici, and which in their content and expressive forms bear the imprint of the upheavals of the current year. The works on show highlight the link between individual creations and a shared project, building bridges between disciplines and tracing trajectories that bear witness to this singular moment of collective consciousness.

Dans le tourbillon du tout-monde is an invitation to the public, a rendezvous with an exhibition that sees the light of day after a period of uncertainty that gives it a special dimension.

Lorenzo Romito :

“The title of an exhibition we’re still trying to figure out if it’s ever going to take place comes from a dedication Édouard Glissant gave me on the back of a copy of his book Poétique de la Relation. At the time of this meeting, which took place in Rome shortly before his death, he, poet, prophet, already seemed to be at the center of the unexpected whirlwind of the first global pandemic to sweep away the whole world. A circumstance from which it is impossible to escape, and of which everything, even this exhibition, becomes a consequence.

An exhibition determined by the unexpected, which it attempts to welcome and share, while refraining from passing judgment or foreseeing its consequences. An exhibition that inhabits an “in-between” space: between what had to be done, what can be done and what remains to be done, between an already distant before and an after devoid of certainties. An exhibition that can also take other forms, such as a message addressed to those who feel the need, to express gratitude, support, help, or simply a presence. An exhibition that becomes a work in itself, collective, artistic, postal, perhaps even hand-delivered; an event that chooses its audience, goes out to meet them and speaks to them, showing attention for what they are experiencing and for what they are doing or can no longer do. Each mailing is a relationship to be woven.

But this exhibition may yet take place – you’ll know if you’re reading these words at Villa Medici or at home. An exhibition created under exceptional circumstances, which calls on artists to explore the sensitive, to act in the living flesh of change when it destabilizes us, when our pencils and our certainties become blunted, making us fragile. A change that does not yet offer itself to understanding, that rejects the distance, cleanliness and exactitude that is the signature of every artist.

It is in this suspended state that we are called upon to express ourselves before we have regained the language, the words and signs with which to understand and be understood, before the Logos, the word, the norm, is restored and before we know this logos to come.

The exhibition thus explores states, gestures and thoughts, proposing destabilized works that give it meaning, examining ways of doing things that could quickly become widespread social behaviors or just memories of an era that marked us, we who seemed to escape all imprints and thought we were the undisputed authors of our lives and our works”.

PODCASTS FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES

In this groundbreaking series of five podcasts dedicated to the residents’ exhibition, we’ll explore the projects carried out by the residents at Villa Medici in the form of stories, and reveal the most curious works of art to the little ones. Each podcast will explore one of the main themes of the exhibition, which focuses on different ways of experiencing and discovering the city of Rome.
The podcasts, each lasting 8 minutes, will be available in French and Italian.
Content adapted for an audience of 8-12 year-olds.

Discover the residents’ exhibition for children aged 8 to 12!