The Mollified collective born from the joint objectives of Cosima Montavoci and Lorenzo Passi is pleased to present the exhibition entitled Rivoluzione Morbida which will open on Saturday 13 May at 3:00 pm, at Villa Dugnani in Robecco sul Naviglio.
After the suggestive location chosen for the debut exhibition, which led us inside a Venetian cave in the heart of the renowned island, far from chaos and tourism, Mollified for this second edition chooses to open the doors of a priceless Renaissance villa, historically known as Palazzo Cittadini Dugnani Terzaghi, now home to the Galleria Casa Dugnani.
On the ground floor, like a soft embrace in a harsh reality that sweeten sexistence, Mollified shows the temper of the two artists and their work inviting us not to resign ourselves to any kind of destiny but to be the architects ofour own fate, without fear. The works presented are the result of perseverance andstrong faith in glass, a material that in its technical characteristics requires and forces those who use it to bend to prescribed laws and dynamics. With their work they go beyond these limits by softening ex-votos, contemporary amulets in Murano glass, composed of small anatomical parts made by lamplight and then wrapped in a glass casing that covers and fortifies them with its protection. In uniting with the latter, the incandescent glass modifies them, tears them apart, and softens them, giving them an armor and a new appearance that will allow them to preserve themselves, and to show themselves differently. Just like Cosima and Lorenzo who, in presenting the fruit of their work, address themes and taboos of the depth of the human being, softening them through a detached, ironic and sharp anthropological gaze. On the first floor, however, it will be possible to attend the same anthropological themes, considering hope as a key element.
Cosima Montavoci will present Trash Project Crisis, a series composed of numerous “scratch and win” cards found on the ground and fossilized in resin that show the bitter gesture of hope that, after disappointment, turns into anger, while Lorenzo Passi will exhibit some unpublished works on the theme of the “conquest of the useless”, developed by the German director Werner Herzog, through which he will show us some discarded objects recovered and covered with a glass skin. A project, like in Herzog’s film, balanced between dream and obsession that shows how by fighting without ever losing hope it is possible to materialize an objective or a masterpiece.
Location
PALAZZO CITTADINI DUGNANI TERZAGHI
The Palace that hosts and welcomes the exhibition, today known as Villa Dugnani,represents an invaluable testimony of fifteenth-century architecture and decoration along the banks of the Naviglio Grande near Robecco. The Villa, built in the first half of the 16th century by the Cittadini family, an important Milanese family whose coat of arms is still present inside themain hall, passed in 1786 to Giulio Dugnani, the last representative of the lineage, and subsequently to the Terzaghi family in 1832, hence the name Palazzo Cittadini Dugnani Terzaghi. In the second half of the 20th century, after a final change of ownership, it was the subject of a major restoration project during which unfortunately, due to irreparable deterioration, some important structures were demolished, but many elements of great charm, such as the wooden coffered ceilings of the rooms, the halls, the underground spaces and part of the oldest decorative apparatus, were restored and preserved.
Today the Villa is owned by the Bossi family and hosts the Casa Dugnani Gallery, founded in 2009 with the desire and hope of contributing to the knowledge and dissemination in Italy of the creative work of both emerging and established artists. The numerous exhibitions, both collective and personal, held both inside and outside, in the magnificent garden, have allowed everyone to visit a private Villa that, instead of falling into oblivion like many heritages in Italy, includes and involves people by giving itself to them. Exactly as was Francesca Benini Bossi, known to her friends as Vevè, founder and supporter of the Gallery, who recently passed away, who with her impeccable research work saved the Palace from decay by renovating it and making it available to those who, like her, possessed the gift of art and the gift of giving it back to others.
The exhibition presented by the collective Mollified, composed of Cosima Montavoci and Lorenzo Passi, was strongly desired by her who, as a lover of gardens and animals, loved to welcome the arrival of spring with the inauguration of a contemporary art exhibition. This last exhibition goes to her.
