primo conti - masterpieces of italian futurism exhibition - fiesole, florence, italy

From 18th April to 31st May the Basilica of Sant'Alessandro in Fiesole will be hosting the exhibition "Primo Conti. Masterpieces of Italian Futurism" to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Futurism and bring to light the multiplicities of an avant-garde capable of touching every aspect of culture, endowed with a global artistic and extra artistic ideology.

The exhibition (supported by the Florence Provincial Council, Florence City Council, Fiesole Town Council and the Primo Conti Foundation of  Fiesole and curated by Chiara Toti in collaboration with Maria Donata Spadolini) offers to the public the most important and significant futurist works made by the artist from the autumn of 1917 onwards, when he joined the Florentine Group  "L'Italia Futurista" after meeting Giacomo Balla and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
The exhibition will begin with paintings such as Cocomeraia, Simultaneità di ambienti, Profughe alla stazione and Strade di paese (painted in a phase of technical and compositional experimentation developed along side his literary activity), then moving on to the experiences that marked the passage between 1919 and 1920 such as Oste burlone or Demetrio felice and ending with the original metaphysics "da osteria", echoed at the time by the journal founded by Primo Conti and Corrado Pavlini, Il Centone.


As well as the paintings, the exhibition also includes a selection of forty drawings (among which some unpublished works from notebooks and manuscripts) which testify to Conti's artistic development, from his initial approach to the futurist vocabulary, up to his formal instatement in the Twenties.
The exhibition concludes with a documentary section that remembers the futurist circles frequented by the artist and some of the events that marked his artistic becoming, such as the exhibitions "Lacerba" and "Boccioni scultore" at the Gonnelli bookshop in 1913-1914.
This then will be an interesting exhibition whose aim is to give resonance to the movement and its memory both through the exhibition devoted to the specific experience of an artist such as Primo Conti, and events that will examine and explore Florentine futurism.

The exhibition is in fact just one of the events organised between Florence and Fiesole to celebrate the 100 years since the most modernist movement of the early Twentieth Century and that is, Futurism. Other appointments:
from 14th May to  15th June the exhibiton Bruciamo le biblioteche... Il libro futurista nelle collezioni pubbliche fiorentine (Let's burn the libraries... The futurist book in public Florentine collections)  will take place at the Gabinetto G.P. Vieusseux in Florence.
On 28th May the DVD, Il Futurismo a Firenze (Futurism in Florence) made by the Jorio Vivarelli Pistoia Foundation, will be presented to the public.
Lastly, on 23rd July in Fiesole at the Primo Conti Foundation there will be a Futurist dinner in the studio of the Maestro Primo Conti, promoted by the Foundation.

Primo Conti. Capolavori del Futurismo e dintorni
Basilica di Sant'Alessandro
Info: 055 597095
www.fondazioneprimoconti.org