16. November 2007 - 10. February 2008
«La rencontre..! Venise – Florence»..!
Fondazione Querini Stampalia Venice
Chiara Bertola, curator at Fondazione Querini Stampalia Venice, in cooperation with Gallery Frittelli Arte Florence, invited 2007 Georges Adéagbo to intervene first in the historic rooms of the Venetian foundation, and the following year in 23 rooms of the Palazzo Vecchio Florence. Simultaneously a series of vitrines composed for the occasion were shown in the white cube space of Querini Stampalia and the Gallery Frittelli. It was important to bring an artist of African descent to make interventions in institutions that are considered as key symbols of Italian culture: it allowed the visitors to leave their rigid school book knowledge behind and discover with Adéagbo new aspects of their own culture. Two books were published on the occasion: Bertola, Chiara and Köhler, Stephan 2008: Georges Adéagbo “La rencontre”...! Venise – Florence..! ISBN 9788873362975 by Gli Ori Publisher And
Bertola, C. and Köhler, S.: Georges Adéagbo Gran Tour di un Africano. Carlo Cambi Editore. ISBN 978-8888482866
“The encounter”..! Venice – Florence..!"
curated by Chiara Bertola and Stephan Köhler
Adéagbo had the treasure of the Fondazione Querini, the painting by Giovanni Bellini 1460 "Presentazione al Tempio" reproduced by his collaborator Elie Adanhoumè in Cotonou. With a modest modification: one of the characters is a self-portrait by Bellini. In the Benin version, Adanhoumè included his self-portrait, and thus broke with the white tradition of Christian paintings.
excerpt of a review by Alessandra Pioselli in ARTFORUM March 2008, Vol. 46, No. 7
A translation can reveal latent significance in the original text, as it is recontextualized for the specific cultural conditions of the secondary language; translation is a form of rewriting. The site-specific installation La rencontre . . . ! Venise—Florence . . . ! (The Encounter . . . ! Venice—Florence . . . !), 2007, which Georges Adéagbo created for the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, was developed as a rewriting of the historical objects preserved in this sixteenth-century house museum: a collection of furniture, furnishings, and musical instruments, predominantly from the eighteenth century, and paintings on canvas that date from the fourteenth century to the nineteenth. In keeping with his specific practice, based on the readymade and on assemblage, the Benin-based artist intervened in the museum’s rooms, altering the presentation of the collection by interleaving it with books, photographs, and various objects such as videocassettes, African masks, fabrics, and carved images.
“La rencontre”...! Venise – Florence..! “The encounter”..! Venice – Florence..! 2007 Detail of an installation in nine rooms of the museum Querini Stampalia Venice. ©Georges Adéagbo. Photo: Stephan Köhler. Courtesy Gallery Frittelli Arte Contemporanea, Florence.