Filippo Minelli's Flags at Spazio Leonardo in Milan

Filippo Minelli's exhibition at Spazio Leonardo in Milan, curated by UNA gallery (Paola Bonino and Marta Barbieri), presents 25 of the 44 flags created for Manifesta 12 in Palermo, plus a 45th flag made in Colombia in January 2019. The flags, displayed along a 20-meter wall at the entrance of Generali Assicurazioni's new space, result from a decade-long process involving collaboration between the artist and ordinary people who freely choose forms, colors, materials, and symbolic texts reflecting personal experiences and social critique. Minelli's work is inherently political, evident in his landscape perspective, relational approach, and use of words, as analyzed in Valentina Rossi's critical text accompanying the show. One flag, by Antigone Theodorou in Greece, staged by Click Ngwere at the intersection of Piazza Vittoria and Via Elpidos (meaning 'victory'), bears the motto HOPE VICTORY with three red hands on a blue background, translating a geographical border into a wish for hope's triumph.