We are pleased to inform you that Greta Schödl will be the protagonist of the exhibition event Time does not exist, sponsored by Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna.
The project explores Schödl's artistic process and her ability to express herself through multiple techniques: mosaic, drawing, illustration, writing, painting, sculpture and, last but not least, performance. A worldview closely connected to her own cultural roots and characterized by the exploration of the domestic and feminine dimension.
The exhibition, curated by Silvia Evangelisti and Valentina Rossi, will be open to the public free of charge from January 26 to March 17, 2024 at Palazzo Paltroni (Via delle Donzelle 2, Bologna).
The exhibition project departs from a traditional chronological approach. In fact, it explores Schödl's artistic process and her ability to express herself through multiple techniques: mosaic, drawing, illustration, writing, painting, sculpture and, last but not least, performance. One of the themes covered by the exhibition is the exploration of the domestic and feminine dimension, intimately connected to the artist's personal sphere, which enacts an ongoing research on everyday objects such as bed sheets, curtains, tea towels, ironing boards and music records. At their juxtaposition, an idea of domestic work emerges that is not intended as a sign of political protest, but rather as a recovery of practices closely connected to feminine making. The objects lend themselves to a change in perspective: from common tools they are transformed into a source of new energy and meanings rooted in the female condition.
«Objects are able to communicate with us. We approach them both unconsciously and consciously; they possess a memory and an energy composed of vibrations», Greta Schödl comments. In this period, her experience is intertwined, both in ideological and practical terms, with that of many women artists who participated in Mirella Bentivoglio's famous 1978 exhibition, Materialization of Language, made for the Venice Biennale. Another focus is on writing. It is through the gesture of writing that, according to the artist, it is possible to rework and trap the energetic dynamics of objects. Writing brings attention back to the hidden, the invisible and gives new life to things.
A section of the exhibition is devoted to the artist's archive, with materials that contextualize her work in a crucial period for Italian art: the 1970s, a decade characterized by a profound contamination between art and collective socio-political mobilization. In this context, two relevant artistic events take place in Bologna: the exhibition Metafisica del Quotidiano (Metaphysics of the Everyday), curated by Franco Solmi in 1978, in which Greta Schödl took part, and the celebrated Performance Weeks.
Through documents and photographs, including a nucleus of shots by the great Bolognese photographer Nino Migliori, visitors will also have the opportunity to get in touch with the performance practice of Greta Schödl, who was engaged between the 1970s and 1980s in three historic performances, Tubo (1978), Bidone (1978) and Straßenpoesie (1980), made in Bologna and Basel.
These performances will be the subject of a reenactment, in the presence of the artist and Nino Migliori, in collaboration with students from the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts, on Saturday, Feb. 3, at 12:30 p.m. in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna.
On Feb. 1 at 10 a.m., the artist and the curators, moderated by Fabiola Naldi, will be present at the third edition of the ARTalk CITY series of meetings, coordinated by Maria Rita Bentini, created to delve into the poetics of some of the protagonists of the 2024 edition of ART CITY Bologna. The meeting will be held in the Aula Magna of the Academy of Fine Arts (via delle Belle Arti 54).