15 Apr 2016

'a due', Margherita Moscardini and Futurefarmers at the Italian Cultural Institute, Brussels

'a due'. Arte Contemporanea in Italia e Belgio. 1990-2015 ('in twos'. Contemporary Art in Italy and Belgium. 1990-2015), conceived and curated by Laura Viale and Maria Elena Minuto for the Italian Cultural Institute in Brussels, is a project that originated from the idea of creating a dialogue between a series of Italian and Belgian artists who have emerged since the 1990s up to the latest generations.

With a cycle of four appointments between November 2015 and June 2016, 'a due' hosts exhibitions, encounters linked to contemporary art and a series of performances, concentrating on the expressive and content-related possibilities offered by a 'dialogical dimension' and different languages between artists coming from different cultures, experiences and generations.

The artworks of the following pairs of artists are exhibited: Davide Bertocchi (Modena, 1969) and Joris Van de Moortel (Ghent, 1983), Enrico Gaido (Turin, 1971) and Freek Wambacq (Brussels, 1978), Margherita Moscardini (Donoratico, 1981) and Futurefarmers (Belgium-USA, collective founded in 1995), Laura Viale (Turin, 1967) and Stijn Cole (Ghent, 1978).


As part of this project, the exhibition Margherita Moscardini - Futurefarmers will open on 19 April 2016 with a selection of works (videos, drawings and artists' books), whose main subject is a reflection on the concept of 'transformation'. Using a variety of approaches and languages, the works focus on the contradictions resulting from the processes of urbanisation. The artists, who have a long-standing interest in studying urban spaces and their multi-faceted sociopolitical implications and investigating alternative ways of approaching the urban-rural divide, will be exhibiting for the first time in Belgium two emblematic works: Istanbul City Hills - On the Natural History of Dispersion and States of Aggregation (Moscardini, 2013-14) and Erratum: Brief Interruptions in the Waste Stream (Futurefarmers, 2010).


Margherita Moscardini (Donoratico, 1981) studied Cultural Anthropology and attended the XIV Advanced Course in Visual Arts (CSAV) of the Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como with Yona Friedman in 2008. She was a guest artist at the MMCA in Seoul and the ISCP in New York, and was a fellow at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University, New York. Her work has been exhibited at the IIC in Istanbul, the SongEun ArtSpace in Seoul, the Fondazione MAXXI in Rome and Palazzo Reale in Milan.

The Futurefarmers (Belgium-USA) is an artist collective founded by Amy Franceschini in 1995 which brings together artists, designers, activists and architects, whose works present alternative ways of seeing and inhabiting the spaces in large cities. Their works have been exhibited in numerous international museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim and New York Hall of Sciences in New York; the MAXXI in Rome and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.


Laura Viale (Turin, 1967), artist, and Maria Elena Minuto (Rome, 1981), PhD researcher at the University of Bergamo, art historian and independent essayist, live and work in Brussels.