The Rhetoric of 'Dialogue' in Art Exhibitions: A Critical Examination

Fabrizio Federici expresses his concerns regarding the curatorial practice of creating 'dialogues' between artworks that lack relevance, which he believes leads to unlikely pairings. He links this trend to the 'Caravaggio Bacon' exhibition held at Galleria Borghese in 2009-10. Additional instances include the 2014 Florence exhibition that connected Michelangelo with Jackson Pollock and the same year's 'Burri incontra Piero della Francesca.' At Galleria Borghese, Baroque pieces were displayed alongside Alberto Giacometti's sculptures. More recently, Fondazione Magnani Rocca combined Arnold Böcklin's 'Cleopatra' with Andy Warhol's 'Marilyn Monroe.' Federici criticizes such forced associations, referencing Marco Goldin's 2014-15 'Tutankhamon Caravaggio Van Gogh,' and emphasizes that meaningful juxtapositions require clear connections, as demonstrated in the 2016-17 Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition at Museo di Roma.