Alfredo Jaar: Napoli, Napoli

Lia Rumma Gallery is hosting “Napoli, Napoli,” the first solo exhibition by Alfredo Jaar in Naples.

“Napoli is without a doubt one of the most inspiring cities in the world, a tsunami of exuberant joy and insane chaos, the real life version of Dante’s Divine Comedy, all at once: Inferno, Paradiso and Purgatorio. When Gramsci wrote “The old world is dying away, and the new world struggles to come forth: now is the time of monsters” was he thinking about Italy or Napoli? When Giuseppe Ungaretti wrote his magnificent poem “M’illumino d’immenso,” was he thinking about Napoli? But, please tell me, who created Napoli? And for whom? And for what purpose? Why Napoli? Only a city like Napoli triggers these existential questions because Napoli is not a city, Napoli is a universe where you get lost as soon as you enter it, and there is no return.”

Alfredo Jaar, January 2016