On Wednesday 11 October 2023 at 5:30 pm, at the Galleria del Corridore in Villa Mondragone, the exhibition CAMERA BOOK_2 will open. New sharing, formats and languages. Graphic Design, Artistic Publishing and the Artist’s Book, curated by Massimo Arduini, promoted by the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in collaboration with the Tor Vergata University of Rome.
The exhibition brings together a selection of the materials found in the volume of the same name, published by Fausto Lupetti Editore, a book-work that represents what has been produced in recent years by the students of the Art Publishing, Printing Process Techniques and Engraving Techniques/Art Graphics courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, coordinated by Professor Massimo Arduini. Art books, artistic publishing, graphic and typographic experiments, original verbal-visual compositions, but also works by established artists and Academy staff, follow one another in the pages of the volume – and in the exhibition – as in a carousel of youthful inventiveness focused on the relationship between word and image. The exhibition aims, in fact, to generate a space for reflection and perception between functionality and beauty, between legacies and creative territories, where art graphics and design planning intertwine, history and current affairs come together, and the incredible possibilities of conceiving a “book” are before us. The layout, conceived not in chronological or thematic sequence, develops on the basis of correspondences, references, visual and intentional similarities: an iconographic and textual journey among its own “characters”.
Camera Book_2 therefore represents both an overview of the many years of work carried out inside and outside the classrooms of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and of the great variety of products created by the students, and a sort of repertoire that moves on different fronts: on that of the educational, artistic and curatorial project, but also on that of relationships with artists, colleagues, professionals and theorists.
Cecilia Casorati writes in the foreword, Director of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma: “My passion for old books began many years ago when I discovered my paternal grandfather’s library (…). Before I learned to read, I learned that books also have a material quality that lies in the typography, the paper, the binding and even the size, and that these elements are not only aesthetic in nature but are extremely significant because they communicate, before the words, the essence of the book.”
And Dario Evola, in one of the contributions to the volume: “The book shares at least one fundamental function with the door and the window: like the door and the window, it opens and closes. Like the door and the window, it defines an interior and an exterior, in the measure of a threshold, of a limit; it contains an interior that opens towards an exterior. The book contains, preserves, safeguards, collects. But, unlike the door and the window, the book is mobile, it contains and, in turn, can be contained or transported. The book is a device, in the sense that it arranges. In this sense, it stands as a Work. It organises, produces functions, attitudes, processes and sequences, and therefore language.”
The exhibition, hosted in the important historical setting of Villa Mondragone, the Conference Centre and Representation of the Tor Vergata University of Rome, also consolidates the long-standing relationship between the University and the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, as stated by the Rector, Prof. Nathan Levialdi Ghiron: “There are numerous activities of high scientific and educational quality that our University has been carrying out for some time in collaboration with the Academy, starting with the Level II Master’s MILLArtLab La Letteratura e i linguaggi dell’arte, which already in 2016 saw the works produced by its participants exhibited here, up to the recent establishment of the first National Doctorate in Cultural Heritage Sciences together with other prestigious institutions. I am sure that the Camera Book_2 exhibition will be both the culmination of this joint journey and the start of new fruitful collaborations, on both the educational and scientific levels.”
The volume and the exhibition feature contributions from: Ada De Pirro, Alberto D’Amico, Alessandra Castellani, Andrea Lelario, Carlo Alberto Bucci, Cecilia Casorati, Chiara Giorgetti, Claudio Zambianchi, Dario Evola, Diego Mormorio, Enrico Pusceddu, Fausto Lupetti, Florinda Nardi, Franco Antolini, Gabriella Bocconi, Gianfranco D’Alonzo, Lamberto Pignotti, Marina Bindella, Massimo Arduini, Nedda Bonini, Paolo Albani, Piero Varroni, Roberto Piloni, Rosanna Ruscio, Sabrina Mezzaqui, Tiziana Contino. Camera Book_2 follows on from Camera book, a similar book, in “fine publishing” with a limited edition, which appeared in 2016, again curated by Massimo Arduini.
Curated by: Massimo Arduini
Sponsored by: Academy of Fine Arts in Rome
In collaboration with: University of Rome Tor Vergata
Contributions from: Ada De Pirro, Alberto D’Amico, Alessandra Castellani, Andrea Lelario, Carlo Alberto Bucci, Cecilia Casorati, Chiara Giorgetti, Claudio Zambianchi, Dario Evola, Diego Mormorio, Enrico Pusceddu, Fausto Lupetti, Florinda Nardi, Franco Antolini, Gabriella Bocconi, Gianfranco D’Alonzo, Lamberto Pignotti, Marina Bindella, Massimo Arduini, Nedda Bonini, Paolo Albani, Piero Varroni, Roberto Piloni, Rosanna Ruscio, Sabrina Mezzaqui, Tiziana Contino
Organising staff: Chiara Protani, Andrea Lelario, Aurora Benni
Editing and Graphic Design: Anastasia Marangoni, Artur Yur, Aurora Benni, Chiara Protani, Cristina Bellonia, Elena Morano, Elisa Pierangelini, Francesca Cerioni, Miriana Pistillo, Martina Cerretani, Massimo Arduini
Graphic Design: Cristina Bellonia, Elena Morano, Anastasia Marangoni
Installations: Poliedrica snc., Marco Pettinari, Alessandro Ilari
On the cover
Design: C. Protani, A. Marangoni, E. Morano
Image credits: Yiuan Zijie (Large image), Simona Sanfilippo
Logo
Guendalina Fazioli
(restyling) C. Protani, A. Marangoni, E. Morano
Camera book 2
Published by: Fausto Lupetti Editore, Bologna, 2023, pp. 385
Opening 11 October 2023 at 5:30 pm – free admission
Villa Mondragone – Galleria del Corridore
Via Frascati 51 – Monte Porzio Catone (RM)
Until 7 December 2023
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10 am – 5 pm; Saturday and Sunday opening hours to be checked on the website
Tickets: exhibition admission €2; visit to the villa and the exhibition €10, reduced (13-18 years) €5