Landscapes of Memory

A compelling exhibition installation, well suited to its subject, was created between January and February 2006 at the Centro Arti Visive “Pescheria” in Pesaro for Alessandro Vicario’s Frammenti domestici tra memoria e oblio. The Centre was established in 1996 after the restoration of the nineteenth-century fish market in the centre of this city in the Marche region; it has been a municipal institution since 1999 and has held many significant exhibitions in its first ten years.

Vicario’s work is a journey into his personal memory, undertaken visually through a search for traces, for fragments, in two family homes that still bear the signs of a family presence from the past. It is an emotionally engaging exhibition, although the analytical and descriptive approach favoured by the artist may initially appear cold and detached. Yet it is precisely this choice that sustains the quality of an investigation skilfully combining personal memory with a sober, spare and modern language.

The project was curated by Gigliola Foschi in collaboration with Mariadele Conti, director of the Department of Design established within the Centro Arti Visive in 2004.

P. T.

Alessandro Vicario, Frammenti domestici tra memoria e oblio. Texts by Gigliola Foschi, Mariadele Conti, Roberto Signorini and Alessandro Vicario. 64 pages, 21.5 × 21.5 cm; Edizioni Gruppo Immagine, Milan, on behalf of Centro Arti Visive Pescheria, Comune di Pesaro, 2006.