Ethical Art in a dialogue between past and future
The 24th May will mark the opening of the exhibition “Arteology” (conceived by ARTantide.com Gallery): a series of site-specific installations for the Archaeological Museum in Venice, focusing on works by contemporary artists with a strong ethical and social value. Michelangelo Pistoletto will be present at the event (his work “The Etruscan” will be part of the display).

“Arteology” will run from 24th May to 12th September 2018, an exhibition displaying works and installations conceived and realized to inspire and represent a responsible social transformation, open to an exchange with the various active sectors of society, beyond the world of art. The idea of the curator Sandro Orlandi Stagl is to interpret the space of the National Archaeological Museum in Venice – the setting for the exhibition – with regard to the finds from its permanent collection and in a dialogue with them, promoting works of art carrying a strong social responsibility. Each artist participating in the exhibition has therefore realized works which might become meaningful suggestions for archaeologists in the future. Special guest of the opening – held at 18.00, entrance from Piazzetta San Marco 17, on the Biblioteca Marciana side – will be Michelangelo Pistoletto: the artist from Biella will exhibit a masterpiece embodying a dialogue between past and future through an installation representing an Etruscan figure with his hand raised towards the mirror reflecting him. “The Etruscan” thus represents a link between past and future, nature and artifice, and invites the spectators to reflect themselves in the work, becoming part of it and therefore protagonists of change.

“Social responsibility – write the organizers in the press release of the exhibition – means to carefully evaluate our actions in both our jobs and our private lives, a process of individual and collective growth in which making art is an important moment. Art, involving senses, imagination and rationality, exercises its strong communicative and engaging power and is able to convey new ideas and new visions effectively. Artists are potential reference models able to raise the interest of the public towards the crucial issues of our daily lives, and to suggest – through their works – original ways to implement change. This revolutionary function has always been the activist and not unrealistic task of the artistic avantgards, and it is how the international artists participating in “Arteology” present themselves.”
“This exhibition – explains the project manager Paolo Mozzo – wants to believe and share the idea that the world can be changed and the universe improved through art and culture.”

Please click here for further information on the exhibition.

Cover image: Michelangelo Pistoletto, The Etruscan, 1976, bronze and mirror, 194 x 90 x 80 cm (mirror 180 x 220 cm), photo J.E.S.


The thirteen artists from the Ethical Art Movement present in the exhibition are: Marco Bertin, Carlo Bonfà, Julia Bornefeld, Luigi Dellatorre, Gianfranco Gentile, Marco Gradi, Franco Mazzucchelli, Matteo Mezzadri, Marica Moro, Jorge R. Pombo, Sarah Revoltella, Alberto Salvetti, Alessandro Zannier.

Special guest for the occasion will be the artist Patrizia Dalla Valle.