Alfredo Jaar and the Love for Revolution

Fondazione Merz presents Alfredo Jaar’s exhibition Abbiamo amato tanto la rivoluzione (We loved it so much, the revolution), curated by Claudia Gioia. Specifically created for this exhibition, Alfredo Jaar’s new project focuses on the idea of reflection (as both reproduction of images and thought or consideration) in particular with reference to his interest in the relation between culture and democratic life. He questions the sense of memory and political participation in the Sixties and Seventies and he does so not as an act of commemoration, but rather to constantly engage in promoting culture as a decisive factor for change.The exhibition, consisting of about 60 artworks, starts with a major installation made of millions of pieces of broken glass and mirror that cover most of the main exhibition space. As viewers walk on this reflecting surface of debris, they also move along the space of memory, and while engaged in self-reflection, they are invited to think over some difficult moments of our collective history. The remains of the lessons of history become the ground for hope and cultural rebirth.In a second space, the artist orchestrates a dialogue with a 1970 work by Mario Merz titled Sciopero generale azione politica relativa proclamata relativamente all’arte, bringing it to our present times through a poetic and nostalgic mise-en-scene.