Presentation of Il Libro di Zerynthia/The Zerynthia Book

Guests: Cecilia Casorati, Hou Hanru, Fabrice Hyber, Ken Lum, Mario Pieroni, Dora Stiefelmeier
Host: Louise Déry

Date: March 18, 2021, 1 – 2 p.m. (6 – 7 p.m., Italy)
Online via Zoom
In French, English and Italian
Free admission

Galerie de l’UQAM invites you to virtually celebrate the publication of the ever-important The Zerynthia Book. Created by Zerynthia, Contemporary Art Association—an important catalyst of contemporary art events based in Rome and Milan—this publication comprises multiple images, texts and personal memories associated with the participation of hundreds of artists and collaborators to the organization’s events over the past years, such as Jannis Kounellis, Carla Accardi, Franz West, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Fabrice Hyber, Donatella Spaziani, Ken Lum, etc.

For this occasion, the gallery has invited to speak Mario Pieroni and Dora Stiefelmeier, creators of Zerynthia and RAM radioartemobile, another plateform dedicated to contemporary art through online radio, for instance. We will also be hearing from artists and leading figures that have engaged with Zerynthia in the past, so as to highlight the Pieronis exceptionnal contriubtion to the Italian and international arts scene.

This event acts as a prelude to an exhibition project that will come to be in spring 2022 at Galerie de l’UQAM, created in collaboration with Mario Pierioni and Dora Stiefelmeier. The exhibition will bring together an array of works and documents involving Zerynthia since the 1990’s. In keeping with the gallery’s academic roots, this presentation will create an opportunity to think on the art object’s status and explore the notions of archive, document, artist’s book and artwork. A dialogue will be opened between items from the Zerynthia collection (visual arts, sound, poetry and literature) and Montréal and Canada’s contemporary artistic landscape.

More on the publication

Editor: Di Paolo Edizioni
Text curating: Dora Stiefelmeier
Graphic design: Spazio Di Paolo
Made in collaboration with Gruppo Cordenons
Italian and English versions, hard cover, 516 p.

Photos, projects, sketches, newspapers and original documents of the many projects carried out by Zerynthia, the Association for Contemporary Art founded in 1991, under the direction of Mario Pieroni and Dora Stiefelmeier. Il Libro di Zerynthia/The Zerynthia Book wants to be a story told mainly in images trying to reflect the vitality over the years of this cultural organization dedicated to contemporary art. It contains the contributions of a multitude of Italian and foreign artists. By creating a network of human exchanges, Zerynthia sees the audience as an active part of the experience.

“Following the steps and the voice in what are ultimately the manifestations of Art, is the aim of a collection put together according to a unified knowledge and geography. The name chosen to act aegis symbolizes its future: Zerynthia, a species of butterfly in whose flight and sacrifice is inscribed the story itself of this association. In which flame will the Zerynthia butterflies burn? What is certain is that it is a sacrifice that contains the promise of Poetry.” – Daniele Pieroni

About the guests

Cecilia Casorati is a well-known historian, art critic and independent curator living in Rome. Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome since 2020, she is a prolific writer with numerous articles, catalogue essays and art publications. Among them, she contributed an essay to Galerie de l’UQAM’s publication La parodie du monde selon Myriam Laplante (2002). In 2020, she curated What Is To Be Done / Che Fare?, an online project by RAM radioartemobile featuring audio works by close to 50 influential artists. An important figure in the Roman arts scene, Cecilia Casorati has closely followed Mario Pieroni and Dora Stiefelmeier’s initiatives since the very beginning. She is a member of the scientific committee of No Man’s Land Foundation, founded in 2016, of which Mario Pieroni is the President.

Hou Hanru is an international curator and art critic. He currently works as Artistic Director of MAXXI, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy. Hou has curated and co-curated more than 100 exhibitions at institutions and events around the world including the Venice Biennale, the Istanbul Biennale, and the Lyon Biennale, and has been a consultant and advisor in numerous international institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Times Museum of Art and the Rockbund Art Museum. Having moved to Rome in 2013, he has been observing the city’s art scene intently. Hou Hanru is a member of the scientific committee of No Man’s Land Foundation, established by Mario Pieroni in 2016.

Fabrice Hyber lives and works in Paris. Since his participation in the 1997 Venice Biennale where he was awarded a Lion d’or, he has participated in several important art initiatives worldwide, including an exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in 2012. His works are part of several public and private art collections such as Centre Pompidou (Paris), Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, MUDAM (Luxembourg), Musée Jumex (Mexico) et and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. On many occasions, he has collaborated with Zerynthia in their Rome and Paliano spaces, as well as for other art events conceived by Mario Pieroni and Dora Stiefelmeier in Italy.

Ken Lum is a Vancouver artist based in Philadelphia. He has a long and active art exhibition record of over 30 years, including major exhibitions such as Documenta 11, Venice Biennale, Sao Paolo Bienal, Shanghai Biennale, Carnegie Triennial, Sydney Biennale, Busan Biennale, Liverpool Biennial, Gwangju Biennale, Moscow Biennial and Whitney Biennial, among others. He has also been involved in co-conceiving and co-curating several large-scale exhibitions and is a founding editor of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. Lum has collaborated with Zerynthia in various circumstances, in particular for the Bienal de la Habana in 2000.
kenlumart.com

Mario Pieroni was born in Rome in 1937. In 1971, in Pescara, he created large prototypes of works by artists for the domestic space with the project Dal mondo delle idee (From the World of Ideas). From 1975 to 1978 he ran Il Bagno Borbonico (The Bourbon Bath), a gallery in Pescara, and from 1979 to 1991 the Pieroni Gallery in Rome. He is co-founder of Zerynthia, Association for Contemporary Art of which he is President. He is Artistic Director of RAM radioartemobile, a platform dedicated to researching sound. In 2017, together with Zerynthia and RAM, he established the No Man’s Land Foundation, and holds the position of President.

Dora Stiefelmeier was born in Zurich in 1943. Since January 1979 she collaborated with the Pieroni Gallery of which she became co-owner in 1988. She is the Artistic Director of Zerynthia Association for Contemporary Art since its genesis, in 1991. From 1998 to 2002 she worked, together with Mario Pieroni, as a consultant for contemporary art at the Académie de France in Rome. She is President of RAM radioartemobile, a virtual space founded in 2001 dedicated to researching sound. Since 2017 she has been a part of the board of the No Man’s Land Foundation.

About Zerynthia

Zerynthia Contemporary Art Association is a non-profit organization based in Rome and founded in 1991. Zerynthia promotes and organizes contemporary art events in Italy and abroad with the aim of pushing the boundaries towards the fruition of art, always experimenting with new methods. It presents itself as a light and flexible structure capable of collaborating with public and private companies. Zerynthia has created a worldwide network and also carries out an intense didactic activity at both national and international levels, with Academies and Universities. It maintains a steady collaboration with RAM radioartemobile and No Man’s Land Foundation.
radioartemobile.it/en

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