Castello di Rivoli Mounts Major Retrospective on Achille Bonito Oliva

The Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea in Turin has opened a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to Achille Bonito Oliva (born 1939), the Italian critic, curator, and theorist who coined the term Transavanguardia. Curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Andrea Viliani, the show draws from the museum's Centro di Ricerca, which houses Oliva's archive. The exhibition traces his career from early poetry collections like Made in mater (1967) and Fiction Poems (1968) to his groundbreaking curatorial projects, including Contemporanea (1973), held in a parking garage at Villa Borghese in Rome, and the 1993 Venice Biennale I punti cardinali dell'arte, co-organized with Harald Szeemann. Oliva's theoretical contributions—such as his 1979 Flash Art essay "La Transavanguardia Italiana" and the book L'ideologia del traditore (1976)—are contextualized alongside his performative public persona, including nude appearances in Frigidaire magazine. The exhibition positions Oliva as a key figure in the shift from critic to independent curator, paralleling his friend Carmelo Bene's theatrical innovations. It follows the museum's earlier retrospective on Szeemann, reinforcing Rivoli's role as a site for curatorial history.