Biblioteca Laudense | Collezione anatomica “Paolo Gorini” | Santa Chiara Nuova | Chiostro di San Cristoforo | Museo della Stampa – Lodi (IT)
10.5.2025 – 29.6.2025
ANDREA MARICONTI | ATLAS ABDA | Anna DeFrancesco
Atlas Abda is the title of the solo exhibition by Andrea Mariconti (Lodi, 1978), a multi-disciplinary project curated by Alessandro Beltrami and Paolo Torre, promoted by the Municipality of Lodi and the Province of Lodi, with the collaboration of Asst Lodi, Pro Loco, and the Museo della Stampa, and the support of Animula Design and Federico Rui Arte Contemporanea. The exhibition will feature monumental sites and little-known historical spaces in the city. A series of the artist’s recent works, sculptures and paintings, including some site-specific pieces, animate and reinterpret the Baroque spaces of the Biblioteca Laudense, the rooms of the “Paolo Gorini” anatomical collection (famous for the anatomical preparations produced by the scientist between 1842 and 1881) and the Ospedale Maggiore, the Rococo church and the 15th-century choir of Santa Chiara Nuova, the Renaissance Cloister of San Cristoforo, and the Museo della Stampa. The underground space of the Hall of Columns of the former monastery of San Domenico is reinterpreted through images and sound.
“The name of the Adda River, the river of Lodi,” says Andrea Mariconti, “derives from the Celtic abda, meaning ‘water that flows impetuously.’ And the unstoppable flow of time has always been associated with that of a river. But what happens if we try to go upstream, if not stem the current? How can art become a form of archaeological tool capable of making the city a resonant field of history and its contemporary essence?”
The fascinating Archive Room of the Ospedale Maggiore, on the upper floor of the 15th-century cloister, is the subject of a comprehensive exhibition; the ground floor of the Laudense Library becomes a picture gallery (though other works can be searched for and discovered in the monumental rooms); the Printing Museum (starting June 1st) hosts a selection of the artist’s graphic works. The cloister of San Cristoforo, seat of the Province of Lodi, features long sheets of paper on which the artist has recorded, using frottage, the surfaces of the Hall of Columns of the former monastery of San Domenico, usually inaccessible to the public, and reworked them as forms of liquid memory. A special intervention is scheduled for the weekend of May 24th and 25th only: Mariconti will work on the display cases in the Paolo Gorini Museum, partially veiling the bodies petrified by the 19th-century scientist. Titled Col tempo (With Time), the work invites us to take a fresh look at these remains, removed from the natural course of things for study purposes, and to establish the possibility of recognizing their perhaps repressed humanity.
“Within the exhibition,” explains curator Alessandro Beltrami, “we can trace several key themes, from humanity’s relationship with time and its possible forms, to the river as an atlas and the body of the city and the land. This is the meaning of our relationship with history, not necessarily remote, continually called upon to reshape itself. It’s not simply a matter of placing works of art in fascinating places worthy of discovery, but of suggesting a new perspective, new interpretations of what we thought was known. This is, after all, the task of archaeological practice: excavating to rewrite the present.”
The project’s ideal driving force is, in fact, an experimental concept of “sound archaeology” thanks to the lost-wax bronze sculptures of the Naeuma-Antimatter series. The artist has brought these works, capable of resonating like real musical instruments, to a symbolic location in the underground of Lodi: the Hall of Columns of the former monastery of San Domenico, making the spaces vibrate with them. This performance is available for listening on the artist’s website andreamariconti.com and also through QR codes scattered throughout the exhibition.
Photos by Marco Previdi https://www.marcoprevidi.eu/
ANDREA MARICONTI | ATLAS ABDA | Federico Rui arte contemporanea
You can download the catalogue from Federico Rui Arte Contemporaea, (ARCIDUCA editions) at this link:
https://www.federicorui.com/exhibitions/cataloghi/cat_mariconti_atlas_web.pdf
