March 24_April 18 2022 "Sentieri di Pace" Villa Bernasconi Cernobbio

In the rooms of Villa Bernasconi a journey to discover works
of art that rejects any kind of war.

artagainstwar

24th March – 18th April 2022
By Aldo Premoli

“I worked to build an exhibition accessible to everyone,
from three to a hundred years old.”
Aldo Premoli

Which message the artists want to communicate through the exhibition?

The 30 works of art, apparently lined up randomly in the rooms of Villa Bernasconi, tell not only about the nearby war in Ukraine that worries us so much in this moment, but also about conflict situations in general.

Painting, drawing, sculpture, video are the techniques they used to represent how ambiguous and complex the world we live in is.

Filippo La Vaccara, Giovanni Viola and Rossana Taormina’ works talk about nature, often offended and wounded, Fabrizio Musa and Giuseppe Veneziano’s ones about religion, Vanni Cuoghi’s about obscure mythologies, Federico Fusj and Graziana Toscano’s about science and medicine, Giovanna Brogna Sonnino’s about anthropology. Filippo Borella, instead, created a surreal cartography.

Surreal are also the crowded canvases by Ignazio Schifano. Fabio Sciortino and Jano Sicura discover an abstract and poetic vein. Francesco Di Giovanni and Lucia Scuderi launch a direct message. Enrico Cazzaniga and Fulvio Di Piazza scream their pain. Alfonso Leto uses the register of irony.

These works of art give us visions sometimes captivating and sometimes repelling, they can generate feelings of compassion or indignation.

This is exactly the role of art: in every time and at every latitude, artists have represented the world around them with passion and courage. The beautiful side but also the bad one, the “good” but also the “evil” characterizing the human condition.

Sentieri di Pace (Paths of Peace) reminds us that war rarely arises from the madness of an individual. It can explode unexpectedly, but it is always prepared by the entire people’s psychic and/or economic ills.

Listening to the world is what the artists exposed have done. This is what we should all do together with them: empathize with everyone around us. To respect nature, which is not just something to plunder in order to enrich ourselves at the expense of everything and everyone. To make ourselves active and aware in the civil community we are part of.

These are the paths to be taken. The only ones that lead to the main road to take in order to preserve peace…before it is too late.

Artists and artworks on display
Filippo Borrella, Silky world, 2005, fabric zippers and wooden support (Courtesy of Le Tre Fontane)

Giovanna Brogna Sonnino, Carnevale (in guerra), 2000, 2′ mini DV color

Enrico Cazzaniga, Neonascita, 2008, bleach + aluminum on black fustian

Vanni Cuoghi, Mental cut, 2016, China ink and acrylic on paper

Francesco Di Giovanni, Resistance, 2019, mixed technique on paper

Federico Fusj, Moral Portrait II, 2014-15, siena white marble

Filippo La Vaccara, Senza titolo #1, 2019, acrylics on paper

Filippo La Vaccara, Senza titolo #2, 2019, acrylics on paper

Fulvio Di Piazza, Piccolo Ucraino, 2022, oil on canvas

Alfonso Leto, Confine, 2015, Oil on linoleum on panel

Alfonso Leto, Trincea di rose, 2012, oil on plasterboard

Fabrizio Musa, Urbi et Orbi txt II 8, 2020, acrylic and ceramic coating on wood panel

Fabio Sciortino, Tenebre I, 2022, mixed technique on paper

Fabio Sciortino, Tenebre II, 2022, mixed technique on paper

Ignazio Schifano, Palcoscenico, 2020 oil on paper (Courtesy of Dario Ricciardo)

Ignazio Schifano, Carousel in gold, 2021 oil on canvas (Courtesy of Collezione Bucalo)

Lucia Scuderi, Stato di natura/stato di diritto, 2022, watercolor on paper

Jano Sicura, L’abbraccio, 2018, natural iron

Rossana Taormina, Notturno, 2022, four acrylics on paper (Courtesy of La Cernobbina Art Studio)

Graziana Toscano, Cure, 2021, photos taken inside hospital facilities

Giuseppe Veneziano, La Madonna della Guerra, acrylic on canvas (Courtesy of Chiara Canali)

Giovanni Viola, Si bruciano pezzi di cielo, 2022, crayon and tempera on paper applied on cardboard

The Curator
Aldo Premoli, journalist, writer and art manager. Under his direction L’Uomo Vogue becomes an internationally recognized magazine thanks to its ability to combine text, photography and art. In 2000, he founded Apstudio that provides marketing and communication consultancy to Made in Italy companies. In 2013, he became editor in chief of TAR, a magazine of international resonance that covers topics such as art, science and ethics. Thanks to his experience in the organization of cultural and artistic events in international fairs, he has collaborated with the Institute for Foreign Trade in the set-up of events in Milan, Moscow, Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. He is currently a blogger for Huffington Post Italy and a columnist for Artribune and Linkiesta.

The Cernobbina Art Studio is Premoli’s house gallery in Cernobbio. It is opened periodically to the public with contemporary art exhibitions of great quality. Premoli is also a founding member of the Association Mediterraneo Sicilia Europa Onlus, and believes in culture as a tool to enhance the territory. Since 2016, the Association has already produced exhibitions, workshops, and events on the following topics: contemporary art, data journalism, migration, educational poverty and extreme poverty mainly in Sicily.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to the contribution of:
La Cernobbina Art Studio and Associazione Mediterraneo Sicilia Europa