Ora! Come allora / 1982-2022

On December 12, 1981, the exhibition ORA! was inaugurated at Cesare Manzo’s Studio, in Pescara Portanuova, Via dei Sabini 51. The event, organized by Francesca Alinovi, through the involvement of 13 young artists barely in their twenties, marked the beginning of an entirely new modus operandi that placed transience and transitivity of situations and languages at the very center of the exhibition project.

The works presented originated from different fields—theatre, music, design—and converged, through their fluidity and transitory nature, around the figure of Francesca Alinovi. The artists involved in the project were Lucio Angeletti, Ivo Bonacorsi, Gabriele Cavicchioli, Francesco Ciancabilla, Ignazio Di Giorgi, Gino Gianuizzi, Emanuela Ligabue, Andrea Taddei, Maurizio Vetrugno, and Alessandro Zanini , many of whom were still students at the DAMS of Bologna.

Sul catalogo della mostra Francesca Alinovi spiega la scelta del titolo e descrive l’impostazione di tutta l’operazione che in seguito si rivelerà un vero e proprio spin off dell’esperienza enfatista. In base a quanto dichiarato dall’Alinovi ORA! era una mostra che poteva esserci solo in quel particolare momento storico. Gli stessi artisti coinvolti volevano semplicemente essere presenti in quell’istante, segnato da un attimo di presenza che passato non aveva e che futuro non voleva avere. Le opere raccolte per la mostra, erano disperse, fuori dai circuiti artistici e fuori dalle gallerie. Erano opere di amici che avevano lavorato senza comunicarsi il lavoro, che avevano prodotto senza scambiarsi la voglia di produrre. Non fu Francesca Alinovi a cercare le opere, ma le stesse “precipitarono” addosso a lei. Da qui il concetto di “Enfatismo” declinato come “enfasi dell’estasi” una specie di malattia da cui furono affetti alcuni artisti nati nel biennio ’58 ’60 accomunati da quelle che l’Alinovi chiamava “onde telenfatiche”. L’enfatismo, come dichiarò la stessa Alinovi, era una parodia dell’esistenzialismo, una stilizzazione dell’esistenza, un’enfasi maniacale della quotidianità più accesa. Per certi versi le dichiarazioni del critico d’arte parmense sembrano descrivere alcuni aspetti della “politica culturale” che da sempre caratterizza la YAG/garage di Pescara.

In the exhibition catalogue, Francesca Alinovi explains the choice of the title and outlines the framework of the entire operation, which would later reveal itself as a true spin-off of the Enfatismo experience. According to Alinovi, ORA! was an exhibition that could only exist in that specific historical moment. The artists involved simply wanted to be present in that instant, marked by a moment of presence with no past and no desire for a future. The works gathered for the exhibition were dispersed, outside artistic circuits and galleries. They were works by friends who had worked without communicating with one another, who had produced without sharing the desire to produce. Francesca Alinovi did not seek out the works; rather, they “fell” upon her. From t his emerged the concept of Enfatismo, defined as an “emphasis of ecstasy,” a kind of condition that affected some artists born between 1958 and 1960, united by what Alinovi called “tele-emphatic waves.” Enfatismo, as Alinovi herself stated, was a parody of existentialism, a stylization of existence, a maniacal emphasis on the most intense everyday life. In some respects, the statements of the Parma -born art critic seem to describe aspects of the “cultural policy” that has always characterized YAG/garage in Pescara.
The decision to work—not exclusively but primarily—with young and very young artists, often identified outside the canonical art circuits, and the creation of a permanent collection composed of works usually left by artists according to very different criteria, make the exhibition ORA! an opportunity that the Pescara-based gallery has chosen to reflect upon and reconsider. ORA! come ALLORA | 1982 – 2022 is the result of a research project carried out over several years, whose final “chapter” overlaps the hi storic exhibition at Cesare Manzo’s Studio with the recent history of YAG/garage. Photographs, projections, catalogues, and rare magazines will reconstruct the exhibition ORA!, while the works left by the first 10 artists who held a solo exhibition in the young Pescara space will recount the early years of YAG’s activity.
The works by the 10 YAG/garage artists belong to Martina Cioffi, Daniele Di Girolamo, Matteo Messori, Marco Smacchia, Manuel Tatasciore, Fabrizio Simone, Alessandro Armento, Nicolò Masiero Sgrinzatto, Iacopo Pinelli, and Francesca De Marinis. Like the artists of the 1981–82 exhibition, they also come from very different disciplinary backgrounds. Their works range from installation to video, from painting to sculpture, according to that idea of “crossing” artistic experience that belonged to the Enfatisti group.

The opening day will be enriched by the screening of the film I Am Not Alone Anyway by Veronica Santi (Manufactory Productions, IT, 2017, 75’), a documentary retracing the existential trajectory of Francesca Alinovi within the artistic avant-gardes. The screening will be followed by an in-depth talk with the director herself and Ivan D’Alberto, director of YAG/garage. The discussion will be moderated by Miriam Di Francesco, curator.

For the vernissage, UBIK Bookshop in Pescara will set up a sales point within the spaces of YAG/garage, where publications by and about Francesca Alinovi will be available, including the most recent monograph on the renowned critic, published in 2019 by Postmedia Books and written by Matteo Bergamini and Veronica Santi.

The day will conclude with an 1980s-themed evening, curated by Daniele Piccirilli, featuring DJ La Severissima Erbetter (Elisabetta Piersanti) and dancer Salvatore Lecce, who will perform a breakdance piece. The event is conceived to recreate the atmosphere of those years, when art, music, and dance were in constant dialogue. For this reason, the audience is invited to attend wearing an 1980s-inspired look.

Pasetti Winery will offer a tasting of its wines.