Giovanni Morbin's 'Indispensabile' at Bologna's Museo Civico Archeologico

The Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna hosts 'Giovanni Morbin Indispensabile,' a solo exhibition by the conceptual body artist, curated by Daniele Capra and running until February 25. The show features approximately 50 works from the mid-1980s to the present, including performances. Morbin, who turned 67 and retired from teaching at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Verona, presents 'defunctionalized' objects—tools that have lost their original purpose but gain new surreal functions. The museum's archaeological context is ideal for exploring archaic making and manual tools. On the first floor, works like 'Strumento a perdifiato' (1996), a circular brass instrument that channels sound from mouth to ear, reflect Morbin's fascination with objects serving conceptual purposes. Upstairs, the series 'Germogli' features stone or brick fragments sprouting thumbs—casts of the artist's body mixed with his blood and stone dust—symbolizing opposability and human evolution. Morbin describes these as 'hybridizations' where he partners with mineral, animal, or vegetable entities, granting equal dignity to both. The exhibition questions indispensability, function loss, and whether a conceptual artist can retire, as Morbin wryly notes: 'Art serves no purpose but humanity cannot do without it.'