Silvia Argiolas's 'Promiscuità e Compassione' at Adiacenze, Bologna

Silvia Argiolas (Cagliari, 1977) presents 'Promiscuità e Compassione' at Adiacenze in Bologna, curated by Domenico Russo. The exhibition pays homage to John Giorno and his poetry, while also serving as an empathetic tribute to those who have lost loved ones. Developed during a residency and reflecting on a year of isolation, the site-specific show features works on canvas and paper that blend sensuality, materiality, and eroticism. The former textile laboratory space becomes an intimate album of human relationships, with a gallery of unframed portraits and self-portraits lining the walls. A monumental piece, 'Riempi quel che è vuoto, svuota quel che è pieno' (mixed media on canvas), showcases Argiolas's signature style—female figures, grotesques, monsters, and mocking nature swirling in a late-Renaissance-like vortex of livid colors. In the space's cistern, a small Indian temple adorned with ex-voto phrases, feathers, colors, and images houses a sanctuary of ancient wax masks, colorful, feminine, frightening yet tender. These faces—unknown, disfigured, or from the artist's past—represent the 'family' she built during lockdown, totems of a remote, archaic time.