22 July 2015
From a former bank to a temporary art gallery. The metamorphosis undergone by the premises at number 23 Via Monte di Pietà in Milan could not have been more radical and unpredictable, in part because what are occupying these spaces belonging to the Max Mara group (which is promoting the initiative together with the Collezione Maramotti) are drawings of a large size made by the kids of the Atelier dell’Errore, the visual arts workshop set up in 2002 on the basis of an idea of the artist Luca Santiago Mora as an adjunct to the clinical activity of the departments of child and adolescent psychiatry in Reggio Emilia and Bergamo. On show at Uomini come Cibo (People as Food), until September 15, are some very peculiar animals, because they have “escaped from the prison of our imagination,” as they put it at the Atelier. They are fantastic figures that embody the fears of those who have drawn them and become weapons with which to defend their fragility in relations with the world. The young people involved are aged between 7 and 20 and have more or less serious forms of retardation and other difficulties: learning disabilities and attention deficits, hyperactivity, Down syndrome, autism… Looking at the forty works spread out over many sheets of paper, we find a reality that is much more surprising than might be thought. The first step is to decipher the dynamics of the formless bodies of these creatures and the mechanisms by which beasts with such unlikely and amusing names consume people: ChainsawSquirrel, Catoblepas Feeding on the Soft Parts of Children, The Nasty Step-Brother of the PopeBird, Attack Dog of the Kennel Eats the Mafisti and the Policemen and RueRue, The Sexual Sharkripper that Kisses Its Wounds. But it doesn’t stop there: the next step is to read the notes written by the kids themselves, which offer us a glimpse of the world that has generated those monsters. What is important is not to erase the errors: in that way those who have felt themselves to be wrong in the world of “normal” people realize that even out of the mistake something marvelous can be born. The journey through the five floors of the building in an apparent state of neglect is divided up into themes: it starts out from subterranean cavities and moves on to water, earth, sky and, finally, the nest of The Dreadful IronSpider of Curnasco, which is the symbol of the exhibition. The last element needed to understand the sense of the operation are the videos that show the young teachers of the Free University of the Atelier dell’Errore giving a couple of lessons in which they present the characteristics of two new animals and the grown-up women at work in the new premises of Atelier dell’Errore BIG, now permanently located at the Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia (a facility devoted to adults with handicaps, i.e. those who can no longer continue their activities at the department of child and adolescent neuropsychiatry). It is not the first time that this fantastic bestiary has been put on show. So many site-specific projects have sprung from this initiative that in 2011 a nonprofit institution was set up on the initiative of the parents of children attending the Atelier. The aim now is to export the model and carry on with new activities.
Uomini come Cibo
Atelier dell’Errore, Max Mara
A cura di Luca Santiago Mora
Milano
18 giugno > 15 settembre 2015
Paolo, Atelier dell’Errore , Dog Pound Attackerist eats Mafists and Policemen and RueRue, 2015. Courtesy: © Atelier dell’Errore.
Giovanni, Atelier dell’Errore , Sexual Sharkist kissing its own wounds, 2015. Courtesy: © Atelier dell’Errore.
Arianna, Atelier dell’Errore , Carniferous Torture Bone, 2015. Courtesy: © Atelier dell’Errore.
Autori vari, Atelier dell’Errore , The Huge Iron-Spider from Curnasco, 2015. Courtesy: © Atelier dell’Errore.
Marco, Atelier dell’Errore , Vengeant Sleep, 2015. Courtesy: © Atelier dell’Errore.
Giulia, Atelier dell’Errore , ChainsawSquirrel, 2015. Courtesy: © Atelier dell’Errore.