Rabbit Inhabits the Moon
October 19, 2024 - March 23, 2025 | MAO Museo Arte Orientale Torino
by Antonia Bordignon.
"We decided to celebrate 50 years of Fluxus dedicating the show to an extraordinary group of women who gave prestige to women and broken taboos before the great wave feminist." Satisfaction with Luigi Bonotto 72 years and still going strong, "entrepreneur and patron of artists," as he calls himself, guide me through the halls of Palazzo Magnani (Reggio Emilia) where staged "Experimental Women in Fluxus & Other Tales." Recalling some of the performances as "Cut Piece" (1964) by Yoko Ono; "Vagina Painting" (1965) by Shigeco Kubota, or performance of "Opera Sextronique" (1967) by Charlotte Moorman. Talk simplicity Luigi Bonotto, founder in 1972 of Lanificio Bonotto Spa Molvena, province of Vicenza, a town of 2,500 inhabitants in the north - east Italian, the same address as the other two entrepreneurial talent as Renzo Rosso and Lino Dainese.
There is no trace of conceit in the small voice, even if he could have some reason: in 40 years, as well as a successful company, has also created one of the world's most important collections of Fluxus, avant-garde, launched in 1962 by the Lithuanian - New York George Maciunas at the festival in Wiesbaden with a group of friends, musicians, designers and performers - all inspired by John Cage - under "everything is art and everyone can be." The movement includes figures such as Dick Higgins, Nam June Paik, Ben Patterson, George Brecht Van Vautier, Jo Jones, Al Hansen, Philip Corner, Joseph Beuys, Italians Giuseppe Chiari, Gianni Emilio Simonetti and several women, Yoko Ono, Charlotte Moorman , Shigeko Kubota, Takako Saito, Mieko Shiomi, Alison Knowles. All artists who Bonotto has collected, hosted at his house, treated us like friends. For "pure pleasure", without thinking about the economic return. "Had I vouto make investments I should have bought houses and land," smiles the collector. "Art has always played a fundamental role in my life. Glu artists I passed on freedom of thought and the ability to get every day challenge, which I then I applied to my work."
The collection was born and raised because these people have started to leave the works produced at home or brought with them when they went to see him, including documents: brochures, posters, writings of their work (announcement) and those of other friends, catalogs, videos. The paintings are the least important aspect. "I've never bought works to sell. At most I did trade." Like the work of Marcel Duchamp, the artist who met at a chess tournament in Milan, which was sold to cultivate Fluxus. His passion eventually has become a mission.
Louis was a boy with artistic ambitions, he thought to teach. But his father, a manufacturer of straw hats and sold them to Paris, London and New York, he realized that the hats would not be sufficient to cover the requirements of a growing family and urged him to get busy. "Fortunately, I went to Valdagno State Technical Institute Vittorio Emanuele Marzotto in the 60s was the center of the textile market and, thanks to the Marzotto Prize, also a place of attraction for artists. Here I met Burri, Fontana, Christo and started collecting abstract art. Conversion to Fluxus took place in the mid 70s encounter with Francesco Conz, entrepreneur and patron of Asolo, and Rosanna Chiessi, gallery owner and founder (in 1971) the publisher Odd & Even. After Dusserdolf enlightening encounter in 1969 with Beuys, Chiessi transforms his house Cavriago (Reggio Emilia) in a circle of artists. Corner Philip has even moved to live in the city of Emilia.
In the mid-80s, which are also the launch year of his company, Bonotto takes over the Chiessi. Begin to host artists and turns the small town into an international center Venetian Fluxus: in 1995 he made his Milan Knizak "Bonotto's history in Mimicry" Dick Higgins and the "Portrait of Luigi Bonotto", poster art intermedia, in 2007 Yoko Ono held a solo exhibition in Italy followed in 2009 dal'evento "Dream". Just to mention some of the initiatives.
Luigi leaves the helm of the two daughters, and in the last ten years he devoted himself to his toy: the beloved collection consisting of 12,000 pieces, about 80 120 Fluxus artists and visual poets. The has cataloged, archived and time digitized with the intent of making it with the intent to make it usable in the world. In 2006, after transferring the collection, was born Archive Bonotto, the ultimate dream of Louis. Idea ambitious, visionary transform the former slaughterhouse of Bassano del Grappa, building of industrial archeology 'eight hundred, located near Ponte degli Alpini, a center for art, creating a network capable of attracting creative artists from all over the world in line with his philosophy of life, because "only by focusing on creativity our territory will survive."
Nonostane feasibility studies and support of sponsors like Renzo Rosso, who had put on the table 3 million euro, by local politicians is not got no response and the project is blurred. Archive Bonotto is just a great collection that Louis has put all online and officially presented to the public in Reggio Emilia. "Louis, do not stop dreaming" would tell her friend Yoko Ono.
October 19, 2024 - March 23, 2025 | MAO Museo Arte Orientale Torino
June 13, 2024 - Festival Veronetta Contemporanea
April 20, 2024 | 6:30PM - 8:30PM | Campiello del Leon Bianco, Venezia
April 9 - July 31, 2024 - Casa Morra, Naples
ARTEFIERA Bologna - February 4, 2024
01/12/2023 - 05/05/2024 | Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Rome | Extended until September 15, 2024