Banditti dell’Arte: Italian Outsider Art at Halle Saint-Pierre

The exhibition 'Banditti dell’Arte' at Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris presents a panorama of Italian outsider art from the early 20th century to the present. Curated by Gustavo Giacosa, an Italian-Argentine born in Argentina, the show draws from historical collections such as the Museo Lombroso in Turin, as well as art workshops and popular art. Giacosa, a founding member of the Pippo Delbono theater company, conceived the exhibition as a 'museum in exile'. The term 'bandits' is used positively to describe creators marginalized by dominant culture, including mental patients, peasants, mystics, and even actual outlaws. Featured artists include Carlo Zinelli (1916-1974), who created drawings and writings in a workshop in Verona; Fernando Nannetti, who engraved a giant stone book at the Volterra psychiatric hospital; Franco Bellucci, who made knots from found objects; Francesco Toris, who sculpted bones into a 'New World' between 1899 and 1905; and others like Pietro Ghizzardi, Giovanni Battista Podesta, Melina Riccio, Bonaria Manca, and Giovanni Bosco. The exhibition also pays homage to psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, whose 1978 law led to the closure of psychiatric hospitals and the creation of art workshops. Giacosa's previous exhibitions include 'Due ma non Due' in Genoa (2008) and 'British Outsider Art' and 'Japanese Art Brut' at Halle Saint-Pierre. The show runs from August to October 2012.