The first and last days of mankind

FBM, the Bertugno Moulinier Foundation, presents within the framework of 'Synergies of Attraction': The first and last days of mankind'. FBM opens its doors to the public with a group exhibition and a multimedia installation by Simone Bertugno.

 

 

 

As part of ‘Synergies of Attraction’ curated by Greta Alberta Tirloni, a ‘dystopian’ narrative invades the spaces of the FBM headquarters. Its spaces welcome the public through an elaborate perceptual and emotional journey, where the works of Nicola Rotiroti, Arianna Bonamore, Roberta Mariani and newcomer Francesco Bazzoli participate in Simone Bertugno's immersive, enveloping and participatory installation of sound art, light art and sculpture. The FBM headquarters in all its spaces, the ‘limbic system’ exhibition space and the artist's atelier are transformed into a single sensorial device offering the observer unexpected perspectives and continuous surprises. The title defines a path and the path in its entirety develops from a beginning, the first days, and an end or a pre-end, the last days, ‘of humanity’, trying to define a gnoseological paradox: we as humanity have reconstructed through history and research our first days, but in fact we are still searching and our last days are unknown to us because they are still in the making.   Borrowing part of the title from Karl Krauss, from his monumental ‘The Last Days of Humanity’, the narrative actually unfolds in a single large installation where our time and past and ‘future’ times merge into a surprising unicum, between evocation of natural sciences, past and future catastrophes, dystopian associations, past memory and future visions. Our time seems to be heading towards a progressive dehumanisation foreshadowed by Krauss in his time and then implemented by the world conflicts of the last century, and the West together with the entire world currently seems to be heading towards a drift away from post-war declarations of human rights and an era of lasting peace. The enchantment seems to be over and the many dystopian narratives of cinema or TV series describe absurd possible futures. Art is the present, in its fruition it is an individual and collective, participatory experience, it certainly does not and cannot give answers but it does indicate glimmers of light in the limit of our existence, between the beginning and the end, putting humanity and its creative force back at the centre, the rest is unknowable, conceivable, but it is certainly also a fundamental part of artistic research. ‘The First and Last Days of Humanity’ moves in this paradox, between the beginning and the end that is unknown to us. Curated by FBM

 

 

Organisers
Artists
Simone Bertugno
Simone Bertugno
Curators

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