Appocundria: A Global Exploration of Nostalgia at Casa Testori

The exhibition 'Appocundria' at Casa Testori in Novate Milanese brings together artists from 22 nations to explore identity, memory, and new geographical sedimentations. Curated by Ginevra Bria, the show uses the Neapolitan dialect term 'appocundria'—defined by Treccani as a deep melancholy tinged with fatalistic acceptance and existential boredom—as an evocative but not fully aligned title. The sprawling villa's rooms are filled with installations, drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and documents that address distance and the concept of home, especially for those living far from their birthplace. The curatorial strategy traces a world map of inner worlds, from South America to Eastern Europe, though the quality and coherence of works vary from room to room. The exhibition's strength lies in creating a narrative prism that describes nostalgia without resorting to composed codes of identity. Casa Testori's original function as a home is leveraged to fuse the idea of 'appocundria' with the notion of dwelling in a foreign country. The show opened in 2019.