September 5 - November 13, 2021

Press conference: September 3, 2021, h. 11.30
Private view: September 4, 2021
Opening day: September 5, 2021, h. 11.00 - 18.00

Galleria Michela Rizzo is pleased to present the double solo exhibition Il viaggio nell’ancestrale (The journey into the ancestral), which combines works by Claudio Costa and Hermann Nitsch in an unusual pairing that explores the affinities and differences between the bodies of work of these two protagonists of late 20th-century and present-day artistic research. The exhibition includes monographic rooms dedicated to each of the two artists and moments of encounter in which they dialogue with each other.

With regard to Claudio Costa, a selection of works from different stages of his career is presented, from assemblages to large-scale installations. It is thus possible to grasp the consistency but also the evolution of his lingo, which ran in parallel with his personal life, from the ‘archaeological/anthropological’ to the ‘alchemical’ phase.

Hermann Nitsch presents a body of work that represents both his past and present research. Alongside a wide range of ‘Relics’, namely objects that are both testaments to his performances and autonomous works, there are examples of his painting practice, ranging from the most immediately identifiable of his styles, which is characterised by the spreading of colour, to his latest innovations, which are rich in chromatic transitions.

Costa’s and Nitsch’s bodies of work, as different as they may be, find common ground in the presence of the object, in the ‘anthropological’ research that renews and challenges the usual criteria of the humanistic approach, in the evocation of human presence through artefacts, traces and relics. Costa introduced, well in advance of present-day research, the idea of an ‘extended’ anthropology capable of giving equal dignity to all cultures. Nitsch directly engages with the bodily dimension in its most brutal form to give life to a renewed idea of the ‘tragic’ that touches on aspects of denunciation and catharsis. The two artists combine and mix the rationality of their intellectual research with elements belonging to dimensions that are ‘alternative’ to the common approaches of contemporary art: witness alchemy in Costa’s case, and rituality and sacrifice in Nitsch’s case.

Claudio Costa was born in Tirana in 1942 and died in Genoa in 1995. The experience of May 68, his numerous journeys and his practice in the field of art therapy played a fundamental role in his personal life and work. In addition to numerous personal exhibitions in private galleries and public institutions, his resume includes participations in Documenta and the Venice Biennale.

Hermann Nitsch was born in Vienna in 1938. In the 1970s, he shook up the art world with Viennese Actionism, thereby achieving unprecedented levels of radicalism in the field of performance. His practice as a performer, painter and composer developed over the following decades, giving rise to an uninterrupted ‘total art’ project called Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries. His works are featured in the collections of major international museums.

In collaboration with Archivio Claudio Costa and Atelier Hermann Nitsch.

The exhibition is in memory of Massimo Melotti, who came up with the original idea of bringing the two artists together and the title.