Christian Caliandro's 'Scene dalla Grande Stagione (IV)' Reflects on Collapse and Presence

Christian Caliandro, an art historian and professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, publishes the fourth installment of his column 'Scene dalla Grande Stagione' on Artribune. The text is a fragmented, stream-of-consciousness meditation on contemporary collapse, transformation, and the struggle for authentic presence. Caliandro references Felix Nussbaum's 1943 painting 'Orgelmann' and Jörg Immendorff's 'Café Deutschland XIII' (1982) as visual anchors. He revisits his own concept of a 'concrete ghost' (fantasma concreto), developed five years earlier for a show at the American Academy in Rome, describing it as an embodied, sensual, and material force opposing evanescence. The essay weaves in a quote from Carmelo Lopapa's article in la Repubblica (27 October 2018) about a political order to remain silent, linking it to the broader theme of impending collapse. Caliandro discusses the loss of political discourse, the degradation of a once-fashionable neighborhood, and the return of Italian irony and vernacular authenticity after decades of cynicism. He mentions a friend M. who speaks of the disappeared 'popolo' and the subtle bitterness of 1970s films like 'C'eravamo tanto amati'. The piece also promotes Artribune's newsletters: 'Incanti' (art market weekly), 'Render' (urban regeneration biweekly), 'PAX' (cultural tourism biweekly), and 'Lettera' (daily). The essay concludes with a reflection on the possibility of opening up a common wellspring of shared experience.