Stefano Arienti's Joyful Subversion of the White Cube at Palazzo Te

Stefano Arienti, born in Asola in 1961, has curated an exhibition at Palazzo Te in Mantua that breaks with the dominant white cube logic of contemporary museology. Taking inspiration from 19th-century picture galleries, he has brought to light numerous previously hidden works. The exhibition, titled 'Quadri da un'esposizione. Stefano Arienti interpreta l'arte a Mantova nel Novecento,' runs until June 26, 2016. Arienti's approach is joyful and unembarrassed, aligning with his artistic practice that explores everyday materials, primarily paper, which he subtly modifies, inverts, or transforms. The display defies conventional hanging rules: paintings are not hung perfectly horizontal or parallel to the floor, but arranged in curvilinear, diagonal, or figurative patterns. The exhibition draws from the Vindizio Nodari Pesenti and Domenico Pesenti donations, with some walls more compact and others extremely fluid. A guide to the show, designed by Arienti, includes author, year, and technique for each work, with schematic reproductions of the walls. This is not Arienti's first engagement with a public collection; in 2010, together with Massimo Bartolini, he unveiled works from the Museion in Bolzano, a more organic collection presented as if welcoming a researcher into museum storage.