The exhibition, conceived by Lea Vergine, was produced and organized by MAN and the Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena.
The theme of the exhibition is the theme of the Shadow. From the tomb paintings of the Egyptians to today, artists have worked on this theme. The man who has lost his shadow is marked by demons and the woman without a shadow is sterile: thus in The Marvelous Story of Peter Schlemihl by Adalbert von Chamisso and in The Woman Without a Shadow by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Legend also has it that those who are unable to communicate with their shadow are destined to die, as are those who trample on it or misuse it. Therefore, we cannot ignore the shadow. Everything that is created or determined without a shadow has something disturbing; but the shadow (darkness or dark silhouette) also constitutes the secret part of people and objects. Every shadow is enchantment. Intact and recognisable, the shadow is like a ghost: like a ghost, it is not easy to decipher it.
Losing the shadow: buying it, finding it again, stealing it, erasing it, earning it, stealing it, throwing it away. But is the shadow an empty container? Does the shadow believe in our existence? Does the shadow go elsewhere?
One generally has a shadow (unlike the character of von Chamisso or other German symbolists); it grows with us and one day we will be our shadow, that is, our double and our interior. He who does not know the shadow of forms ignores the form itself. The shadow is its non-finity: the form lies hidden in the shadow.
The exhibition chooses to deal with this. It therefore excludes that branch of contemporary art where the light-shadow contrast favors the phenomena of visual perception. The exhibition offers works where the shadow is the primary motive and signifier of the representation, that is, where the shadow remains an intimate participant in the human psychological structure, alluding to the other side of personality and what is dark and enigmatic within it. The first major exhibition of its kind, D’Ombra offers the possibility of verifying how and to what extent the ancient theme continues to recur even in the works of contemporary artists.
Artists present in the exhibition: Mario Airo’, Doug Aitken, Carlo Alfano, Laurie Anderson, Stefano Arienti, Carlo Benvenuto, Christian Boltanski, Fabrizio Corneli, Gino De Dominicis, Fischli&Weiss, Ceal Floyer, Alberto Garutti, Mona Hatoum, Gary Hill, Joan Jonas , Nino Longobardi, Urs Luthi, Fabio Mauri, Sebastiano Mauri, Ottonella Mocellin and Nicola Pellegrini, Tracey Moffatt, Margherita Morgantin, Marvin E. Newman, Cornelia Parker, Claudio Parmiggiani, Gianni Pisani, Markus Raetz, Annie Ratti, Rosanna Rossi, Anri Sala , Susanne Simonson, Jana Sterbak, Fiona Tan, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, Francesca Woodman.
