The Beginning, Studio Museo Felice Casorati, Pavarolo, Italy

Organized by guest curator David Dixon and Archivio Casorati

For the third event of the project GRAND TOUR – Journey through Italian Collections, the Studio Museo Felice Casorati presents The Beginning, an exhibition curated by David Dixon, which brings together the artwork of Luisa Rabbia in dialogue with those of Huma Bhabha, Ross Bleckner, Gianni Caravaggio, Mario Diacono, Jason Dodge, Scott Grodesky, Jannis Kounellis, Piero Manzoni, Claudio Parmiggiani, and Beatrice Pediconi.

The group exhibition, The Beginning, starts with two major paintings by Brooklyn-based artist, Luisa Rabbia, NorthEastSouthWest (2014, Collezione Maramotti) and Birth (2017, Collezione Francesca Lavazza). These sizable works set the tone for the exhibition’s subsequent selections from the work of ten diverse, international artists, generously loaned from Collezione Maramotti. The Beginning marks a return for the Italian-born Rabbia who emigrated to New York from Turin in 2000, and elaborates certain themes common to Rabbia’s oeuvre, touching deep chords in the human psyche regarding origin, appearance, and direction on both a terrestrial and celestial scale.

The exhibition spans three locations in the village of Pavarolo, installing over twenty works of art in the Studio Museo Felice Casorati, in the adjacent garden-level rooms of Casa Casorati, and in the village’s central clock tower, all within a short stroll through this charming hill town, a twenty minute drive from Turin. The Beginning is organized by the Municipality of Pavarolo and the Casorati Archive in collaboration with the Collezione Maramotti (Reggio Emilia), Collezione Francesca Lavazza (Turin), Peter Blum Gallery (New York), and Galleria Giorgio Persano (Turin).

Studio Museo Felice Casorati

From left: Jason Dodge (In Helsinki, Henni Aarnio wove a cloth made from thread the color of
night and the distance from the earth to above the weather, 2010), Luisa Rabbia (*Birth*, 2017)

Jason Dodge, *In Helsinki, Henni Aarnio wove a cloth made from thread the color of night and the distance from the earth to above the weather, 2010*

Plum-bob from Mario Diacono’s *Fertility,* 1980 – 84, exhibited at Casa Casorati

From left clockwise: Jannis Kounellis (*Untitled*, 1977), Scott Grodesky (*Untitled*, 1991), Giuseppe Bellone (Piero Manzoni, 1960), Jason Dodge (In Guatemala, Felipa Chonay ha tessuto una stoffa fatta con un filo del
colore della notte e lungo quanto la distanza dalla terra al cielo, al di sopra dei fenomeni
atmosferici, 2010), Gianni Caravaggio (*Poco dopo*, 2008), Beatrice Pediconi (*Polaroid #7, #4, #1, #1*6 , 2013)

Giuseppe Bellone *(Piero Manzoni, 1960)*

Jason Dodge (In Guatemala, Felipa Chonay ha tessuto una stoffa fatta con un filo del
colore della notte e lungo quanto la distanza dalla terra al cielo, al di sopra dei fenomeni
atmosferici, 2010)

Beatrice Pediconi (Polaroid #7, #4, #1, #16 , 2013)

From left clockwise: Claudio Parmiggiani (*Sineddoche, 1976*), 7. Jannis Kounellis (*Untitled*, 1977), Beatrice Pediconi *(Polaroid #7, #4, #1, #16 , 2013)*

Claudio Parmiggiani (*Sineddoche, 1976*, detail)

Casa Casorati

1. Luisa Rabbia, *Studies for Love, Death, Birth*, 2016

Ross Bleckner, *After “One Day Fever*”, 1987

Claudio Parmiggiani, *Senza titolo (Dies nostri quasi umbra super terram et nulla est* *mora – Krakow*), 1975 – 1976

Mario Diacono, *Fertility*, detail, 1980 – 84

From Left: Claudio Parmiggiani, Mario Diacono, Huma Bhabha

From left: Mario Diacono, Huma Bhabha, Luisa Rabbia

Luisa Rabbia, *NorthEastSouthWest*, 2014

The greenhouse adjacent to Casa Casorati

Clocktower