Aldo Tambellini: The Black Diamond of Italy's Pavilion

Vincenzo Trione's curatorial project for the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale includes fifteen artists, among them Aldo Tambellini (born Syracuse, 1930). Trione stated he dislikes group shows, yet the selection remains heterogeneous and the unifying 'Italian code' unclear. The article criticizes Trione for not dedicating the entire pavilion to Tambellini, an Italian-American pioneer of multimedia art. Tambellini, active between the 1960s and 1970s, combined video, painting, cinema, poetry, and performance into a total art form. His work explored technology, perception, and the mediation of reality through screens and analog devices, often using black and white to evoke cosmic chaos and social issues. He is associated with Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol, Allan Kaprow, and Bill Viola. His series 'Black Is' (1965) featured radical abstraction through manipulated film and cathode-ray distortions. Institutions like Tate and Centre Pompidou have celebrated his work. The article argues that Tambellini's inclusion in a group show dilutes his impact, missing an opportunity for a bold curatorial statement.