MAMbo Bologna Recreates Rosanna Chiessi's Home as Performance Art Archive

MAMbo in Bologna, curated by Lorenzo Balbi, recreates the domestic environment of Rosanna Chiessi's (Littoria, 1934 – Reggio Emilia, 2016) countryside home in Cavriago, Reggio Emilia, where from the 1970s avant-garde international artists gathered. After opening a small gallery, Chiessi discovered Joseph Beuys' performative art during a vacation in Düsseldorf, leading her to host Fluxus and Viennese Actionism artists. In 1976, Cavriago became, according to Renato Barilli, a world capital of performance. The exhibition includes works by Hermann Nitsch, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, Philip Corner, and Franco Vaccari, with photographs, videos, objects, and documents from the Archivio Storico Pari & Dispari and Biblioteca Panizzi di Reggio Emilia. A table with shoes used by Shozo Shimamoto in a performance recalls his encounter with Chiessi at a solo show in Trevi. Chiessi, who criticized museums as places of privilege and arrogance, continued to feel artworks even after losing her sight. The exhibition runs at MAMbo, Bologna, 2018.