People: Elisabetta Benassi, goldiechiari, Rä di Martino, Marzia Migliora, Diego Perrone, Giulia Piscitelli, Nico Vascellari.

 Stories: Meris Angioletti, Rossella Biscotti, Zimmefrei, Gianluca e Massimiliano De Serio, Lara Favaretto, Giulio Squillaciotti.

Places: Botto e Bruno, Patrizio Di Massimo, Alessandro Gagliardo, Domenico Mangano.

November 10 – November 23, 2011

 Macy Art Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University

525 West 120th Street,

Macy Hall 444,

New York, NY 10027

Macy Gallery, Teacher’s College of Columbia University, New York  is pleased to present the exhibition Italian Video Today: Double Identity, curated by Ludovico Pratesi and Shara Wasserman with the collaboration of Olimpia Eberspacher.The exhibition presents the evolution of Italian video art, focusing on the most recent generation of artists who center their artistic research on the idea of identity. This traveling exhibition was first presented at the Crane Art Center in Philadelphia, and was prepared with the sponsorship of the Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia and Temple University Rome.The works of the nineteen artists are divided into three distinct categories. The first focuses on the behavior and relationships of people, which reveal a collective discomfort, as related in the works of Elisabetta Benassi, goldiechiari, Rä di Martino, Marzia Migliora, Diego Perrone, Giulia Piscitelli, Nico Vascellari.The second category focuses on stories, the relating of problematic situations that present a high degree of social, anthropological and political criticism, as seen in the works of Meris Angioletti, Rossella Biscotti, Zimmefrei, Gianluca e Massimiliano De Serio, Lara Favaretto, Giulio Squillaciotti.The third category illustrates those places which are interpreted by the artists in a physical, even symbolic way, thus tracing a map of pain and suffering that stretches from the periphery of Turin to the cemeteries of the Sicilian hinterland, in the works of Botto e Bruno, Patrizio Di Massimo, Alessandro Gagliardo, Domenico Mangano.As Ludovico Pratesi writes, “Several artists place at the center of their artistic research their own personal point of view to construct narratives lived first hand and centered on a personal approach to interpret a realty built on history and memory, while others are more interested in social or political problems. These complex narratives give the sense of a country in deep crisis, activated by underlying and contradictory tensions”.

Genealogy of Damnatio Memoriae,1947-1992, Palermo, 2011, hand embroidered linen tablecloth, 350x270cm

Genealogy of Damnatio Memoriae, Palermo, 1947-1992 traces the history of the massacres that occurred in Palermo and involved murders perpetrated by the Mafia against statesmen such as judges, policemen and politicians (with the exception of Portella della Ginestra).

The focus on this series of murders reflects the interest in investigating the complicity and contradictions of a State, whose collusion with the Mafia has resulted in violence and in the death of men and women who defended the State itself.