We are delighted to welcome you all for another inspiring art talk with Artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov from New York and curators Arianna Rosica and Gianluca Riccio from Museo Madre in Naples, Italy. They will guide us through their fascinating and playful installation “The Observer” in Capri, Villa San Michele at Anacapri.

THE OBSERVER

Installation by Ilya & Emilia Kabakov

“In a beautiful garden of Villa St. Michelle,on the island of Capri the visitors suddenly encounter the little wooden shed nailed together out of old boards.

The shed turns out to be a strange observation point with a chair and a spyglass mounted on a secure base inside.

If one sits down on the chair, assuming the position of the mysterious observer/who, in all probability, established this observation point here a long time ago/ and looks into the eyepiece of the spyglass, then one will see a strange, even entirely extraordinary spectacle.

In the circle of observation there is a window vividly illuminated with a bright light from within. Through the window, you can see what is going on in the room. Right on the other side of the window is a table with food on it, a man and a woman sitting at the table can be seen, and next to them, at the same table, are two angels with large wings.

Apparently, this extraordinary scene attracted the attention of this unknown “voyeur”, and we, along with this observer, are able to witness this scene. This is a great deal that is strange and “ accidental” in this situation. We “accidentally” found this old shed; “Accidentally” discovered the secret observation point; “Accidentally”, out of sheer curiosity ,looked into it precisely at the time when the master of the look-out point had slipped away somewhere. And, of course, we “accidentally” witnessed that very scene which undoubtedly can only be seen very rarely.”

Arianna Rosica lives and works between Naples and Milan. She is currently in the curatorial team of the Mother - Donnaregina contemporary art museum in Naples. Arianna Rosica's curatorial research is mainly focussed on the analysis of Italian contemporary art in dialogue with the international contemporary, with the intention of promoting it and enhancing its multiple themes. In particular, she is attentive to the evolutions of the pictorial language, its transformations and the comparison with other artistic techniques and disciplines. In all the exhibitions she curated emerges the desire to highlight similarities, symmetrics or contrasts between artists who belong to different generations and who are radically different from each other in training and age, in order to compose a fresco rich in different poetics and different points of view.

Gianluca Riccio is an art historian and curator of contemporary art. He has taught contemporary art history at several Italian universities.He is currently a professor of Art History at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, a lecturer at the Master of Art of the Luiss Buisness School in Rome and Reasearcher of the Ethos Observatory at the same Roman university….