LUCO, widespread exhibition

The 729th Perdonanza Celestiniana scheduled in L'Aquila in August offers an opportunity for a reflection on the sense of the sacred and its significance in our time. Twenty-three artists active on the national and international scene of contemporary art have explored the role and identification of sacredness in a society devoted to fast lifestyle and which has made concreteness and pragmatism associated with science, technology and economy its pivot, apparently abandoning any speculation and investigation of that territory suspended between the visible and invisible that has nurtured the spiritual and philosophical dimension of generations of intellectuals, theologians, and mystics at least as much as it has shaped and punctuated the individual and collective daily life of every human community. Does the sacred still exist - and if so, where -in the time of artificial intelligence, of obsessive and compulsive communication dominated by information and images, in which the line between real and virtual is increasingly blurred and uncertain?
LUCO, a widespread exhibition promoted by F'Art - Association for the promotion of contemporary visual arts - curated by Barbara Pavan and sponsored by the Municipality of L'Aquila, unfolds around the declinations of sacredness and its representations, its rites and places.
LUCO derives from the Latin lucus, which originally indicated a forest clearing most exposed to sunlight, as suggested by the affinity with lucēre (to shine), and which among the Romans was identified by extension with the Sacred Wood dwelling of deities and powers mainly related to nature and of which toponymy still gives traces (Piediluco, Monteluco, Luco dei Marsi, etc.).
To the research and to a landing at a hypothetical contemporary luco, a non-place that alludes to a space, a time - real or metaphorical - or a condition of being and experiencing, is inspired this exhibition itinerary articulated through three evocative venues within historic buildings - the courtyard of Palazzo Lucentini Bonanni in Piazza Regina Margherita 7, Galleria Italia in Corso Vittorio Emanuele 79 and the exhibition space of F'Art Gallery in Via San Francesco di Paola 13 - that will host the artworks and the large-scale installations by Jacobo Alonso, Elizabeth Aro, Pietrina Atzori, Michela Cavagna, Cenzo Cocca, Carla Crosio, Barbara D'Antuono, Magdalena Fermina, Donatella Giagnacovo, Monica Giovinazzi, Anneke Klein, Clara Luiselli, Florencia Martinez, Miriam Medrez, Saba Najafi, Lucia Bubilda Nanni, Giulia Nelli, Federica Patera and Andrea Sbra Perego, Elena Redaelli, Beatrice Speranza, Giulia Spernazza, Elisabeth Tronhjem, Yukoh Tsukamoto.
The plurality of generations and of geographical origins and of cultural backgrounds of the artists allows for an equally multiplicity of interpretations and nuances that open the way for further comparisons and reflections on the evolution of the need that has accompanied humanity since its dawn to find a meaning to the finiteness and fragility of existence.
LUCO will be open to visitors, with free admission, until 30th August 2023 (and until 10th September at F'Art Spazio per le Arti Visive Contemporanee) with variable times in the various venues. Information to mob. +39 331 205 1481. Event organized with the support of the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation of the Province of L'Aquila, Air2bite and Studio De Carolis L'Aquila and included in the program of the 729th Perdonanza Celestiniana