In case some of you are in Lecce, Italy, Palmieri Foundation and Primo Piano LivinGallery organizes the contemporary art exhibition that invites visitors to reflect on the dualism between “otherness, visibility and invisibility” via an imaginary “Venus’ Mirror” as the reflection on the artistic expression of the “medusa effect”. Italian Palmieri Foundation and Primo Piano LivinGallery is exploring the myth of Perseus and the Medusa, where in order not to be killed and to kill the gorgon, Perseus cannot cross Medusa’s gaze, otherwise he would remain petrified, so he uses the reflection of the shield to avoid meeting Medusa’s deadly gaze, where he also wears the helmet given to him by the god Hades to be able to strike without being seen. According to the myth, Medusa was born a beautiful mortal woman with long flowing hair and was a temptress among the gods, and Poseidon had impregnated the mortal while in the temple of Athena. Athena cursed the mortal Medusa with a hideous face and snakes for hair. Medusa would be confined to a cave, and anyone who made eye contact with the Gorgon would be turned to stone.
According the term of “otherness” in authors’ art terminology, this term is used to compare something “between the body of the work and of the observer. This exchange of glances indicates that at the two ends of the visual optical framework there are two seeing bodies. The body of the observer and that of the work closes its vital circuit”. And it is, by the authors of the exhibition “a gaze that questions it and in the reflection between one and the other, that we find the body-to-body between the artist and the observer.” And further on by the exact words, “in order not to succumb to the gaze, the work of art makes itself invisible. It manifests its invisibility (that is, that part which is within the visibility and is called interiority). The visible is looking outside the body, wandering in space, in three dimensions, looking far away, imagining other things and externalizing the vision. On the other hand, the invisible is internalizing the vision, it is descending into the depths of one’s flesh, into thought, into the soul, into that dimension that makes us see the visible through the invisible.”
In this context, Palmieri Foundation in Lecce, Italy, will organize a calendar of events with the exhibition days, accompanied with talk events, live performances and the review of Video Art & Digital Culture entitled “With Your Eyes” to recognize some of the most representative artists on the international contemporary scene, and present some young talents. All the visitors will be able to see short movies, experimental video art, digital cultures linked to video installations, video performances, which will be included to the exhibition for visitors. The viewer will face ancient and present at the same time in the understanding of the context of myth about Perseus and the Medusa.
The exhibition will be curated by Dores Sacquegna between February – March 2023
All info about the event you can see at
https://primopianospecialprojects.com/2022/12/04/venuss-mirror/