Featuring works by Rolf Sachs, Corinna Gosmaro and Philippe Rahm the show Conversation Piece Part VI at Fondazione Memmo considers philosopher Maurizio Ferraris’ Manifesto of New Realism to question postmodern conceptions of reality.
The subtitle of the exhibition, Reality is that, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away, quoted from Philip Dick, reiterates a positivist vision of reality, anchored to the concreteness of objects.
The works presented in the show start from everyday objects or natural elements, and are then transformed and reassembled, freeing the materials from any decorative or socio-cultural associations, or historical perceptions. Marrying the opposites – reflection/absorption, cold/warm, soft/hard – objects are liberated from the constraints we are bound to in our minds. A photographic portrait installation, realized during the opening event, transformed the viewers into the creators and subjects of the artwork themselves, staging a live experimental social sculpture.
