Emilio Isgrò

Curated by Germano Celant and produced by Fondazione Cini in association with Intesa Sanpaolo as part of Progetto Cultura project and the Emilio Isgrò Archive, the exhibition explores and provides a wide overview of the creative and aesthetic journey taken by Emilio Isgrò from the 1960s to today. This comprehensive exhibition begins with Isgrò’s earliest erasures of books in 1964, continues with his visual poems on emulsion-coated canvas and the Storie rosse, and culminates in his erased texts in historic volumes of the L’Enciclopedia Treccani (1970), with the ethnic pages of the Codici ottomani (2010).

It is enriched with works from prominent public and private collections in Italy and beyond, including four important works from the Intesa Sanpaolo collection on display at the Gallerie d’Italia in Milan.

Isgrò’s experimental, linguistic journey is explored through a spectacular and highly unusual approach in an inclusive, enveloping architectural setting: the rooms of the Foundation’s Napoleonic Wing, embellished with transversal and diagonal walls to break up and modify the space like lines on a piece of paper; they have been specially designed as the backdrop for an enormous new erasure project, once again involving literary material, inviting visitors into a giant book that the artist has visually modified.

For many years now, Intesa Sanpaolo’s Progetto Cultura project has been passionately dedicated to the work of one of the greatest names in contemporary art and culture: Emilio Isgrò. The dialogue is inspired by a series of the artist’s works held in the banking Group’s art collections – from early acquisitions in the 1970s to the more recent “erasures” donated to the Bank – charting key moments in his creative pathway.