Agostino Arrivabene's 'L'ospite parassita' at MAC Lissone

The Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Lissone presents 'L'ospite parassita', a solo exhibition of recent works by Agostino Arrivabene (born 1967, Rivolta d'Adda). Curated by Alberto Zanchetta and Chatia Cicero, the show features about twenty oil-on-wood paintings and two small sculptures in silk, plaster, and wax, rich in biomorphic and surreal details. The title derives from an installation of a skull with a flight of multicolored butterflies, interpreted as a regenerative omen. The exhibition explores the dual meaning of 'parasite': the artist drawing creative nectar from 'meravigliosi' objects belonging to 17th-century categories of Naturalia and Artificialia, and the object finding new justification through the artist's visionary faculties. Displayed alongside the works are objects from Arrivabene's Wunderkammer, housed in the 18th-century building where he works in Gradella, Cremona. These include an ancient Burmese wooden wheel, taxidermied crocodile and turtle, assembled skulls of crocodile and wild boar, a mangrove root, and graphic and photographic works. They evoke dialogues with masters like Bosch, Dürer, Moreau, Redon, and Ernst, under the sign of perpetual formal and semantic mutations.