Is mentioning an art gallery always appropriate? The case of The restless Earth (La terra inquieta)

The Restless Earth (La terra inquieta) is an exhibition we would recommend you to visit and that will likely be remembered as a milestone, at least by the Italian audience. Promoted by the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, the eldest private art foundation among Milan’s fabulous four, hosted by La Triennale, a distinguished cultural institution with the most prestigious background, and supported by Fondazione Cariplo, a magnanimous philanthropic Italian institution, this exhibition “take on the task of describing the changes, conflicts, and tensions that cause wars, mass migrations, and natural disasters”, as stated by Clarice Pecori Giraldi, Vice President of La Triennale di Milano. Furthermore, it takes this serious cultural responsibility just shortly before the warm season, when the problem of migration traditionally peaks in the Mediterranean basin.

Massimiliano Gioni, the exhibition’s curator, gathered together more than 70 artists including installations, videos, documentary images, historical sources, and material artifacts, which create a unique “polyphony” of voices – the curator’s trademark – and unconventional narratives. In fact, problems of this nature are mostly known by the general audience through the lens of the mass media and their specific language, while this exhibition has the merit of giving you the opportunity to look at the problem from many different angles, each one bearer of a very peculiar artistic sensitivity.

We have been moved, for instance, by the Francis Alÿs’ installation ‘Don’t cross the bridge before you get to the river’, which is derived from a performance that took place at the Strait of Gibraltar in 2008. The artists set two lines of kids, each carrying a boat made out of a shoe. One line leaves Europe in the direction of Morocco, while the second line leaves Africa towards Spain. The two lines meet on the horizon. The project’s version at La Triennale includes two videos, some effective small pale green and baby blue paintings, a map of the area with two forks in the shape of a bridge connecting the two continents and a line of boats made of flip flops that a mirror turns into an endless one. It’s a masterpiece, and the context puts it in the best light.

The same goes for Rayyane Tabet’s ‘Architecture lessons’, which is part of a series titled ‘Five distant memories’ and relates to some personal memories of the artist – who was a kid during the Lebanon Civil War. This immersive floor piece made out of hundreds of small wooden toy bricks effectively conveys that same idea of fragmented multitude which is representative of all the city-based societies. A very few among the white bricks are coloured. They poetically stand for individuality, and effectively represent how it may feel to be part of that overwhelming multitude.

These are just two examples to clarify the kind of narratives here representing migrations, refugees and “how art can address social and political change, refusing the omniscient narratives of history and the media alike” (Gioni). We could go on describing the works by Adrian Paci, Bouchra Khalili, John Akomfrah, or Isaac Julien, just to mention some of the most effective voices in that “polyphony”; but to tell you the truth, at some point we also felt like being trapped into a bubble where reality was no longer that real, and migrating looked like a fascinating adventure.

It was but a passing feeling. The bubble popped when we bumped into some shots that reportage photographer Aris Messinis took in 2015 and 2016 portraying refugees crossing the Mediterranean sea into Europe. The description of the pictures reports about 700.000 human beings escaping to Europe between January and October 2015 and roughly 360.000 the year after. We saw fathers crying out of desperation, while trying to put their children in the hands of the rescue workers. We saw scared bodies packed like sardines into decrepit boats and other dead bodies lost among them. We felt touched. Images may hurt you deep inside, no matter whether they were programmed to arise compassion, or not – Messinis is a distinguished professional reporter, currently heading the Agence France-Presse’s photo office in Athens. But at that point we also had a disquieting thought and we went back to Francis Alÿs. We read again the caption describing his installation. It mentioned the work comes from David Zwirner Gallery. We checked Tabet’s Architecture Lessons, same story: courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery. What does it mean? What is the urge to mention a commercial art gallery within such a delicate frame?

In the second part of the show, on the first floor of the museum, a beautiful piece by El Anatsui is hanging alone on a big wall. Contemporary art from Sub Saharan Africa is hot at the moment. A couple of days ago a similar piece went on auction at Sotheby’s for almost one million Euro. But that piece is from 2011, while the one currently at La Triennale – titled New World Map – is bigger and from 2009. Again, courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Where the gallery was not mentioned we approached the work differently, as in the case of the iconic portrait of a migrant mother by Dorothea Lange picture (from the Washington DC library), or the expressive sculpture by Thomas Schutte, that is from the series Weeping woman fountains (courtesy of the artist).

We are not talking about a big issue and we are aware that business is business – according to a book published last year by Italian journalist Mario Giordano even rescuing refugees is a profitable business (Profugopoli, 2016). And we also have clear in mind that an exhibition of this scale, in such a museum, with these artists, would not be possible without the kind help of the art dealers, who are investing their money and time to make these and many other artworks come to life. But, wouldn’t it be better in this specific case, and due to the contents of this show, to step back and be happy with being mentioned on the introductory panel as lenders or patrons?

We don’t know who is responsible for that, perhaps it’s the art system itself, which resents the curators of Venice Biennale and Documenta 14 for putting their lovers in their shows, but doesn’t seem to care that much about this kind of minor ethical issues.

May 27, 2017