«Frontiers change, one needs to listen to the stories of those who travel to become aware of this. Artists are those wayfarers, deserters, seekers of hidden truths, as Emanuele Trevi writes, thanks to whom we can and we should go beyond the convention of the limit that a frontier imposes; this is why frontiers change.»
Alberto Salvadori, Fondazione ICA Milano’s director and curator of the exhibition

ICA Milano – Istituto Contemporaneo per le Arti continues its programme with a new project, the solo exhibition of Masbedo, artistic duo formed by Nicolò Massazza (1973) and Iacopo Bedogni (1970).

The focus of the project is a reflection on the past and present history of Sicily, which has always been both everyone’s and no man’s land, mitopoietic place par excellence. The exhibition gathers pre-existent works, re-editions and new artworks, all originated in Sicilian lands and related to their social and cultural complexity. Elements of Sicily’s history blend with each other, like the story of the production house Panaria Film and the testimony of Palermo’s mayor Leoluca Orlando, famous references to the cinematography of Vittorio De Seta, Ugo Gregoretti, Francesco Rosi and Luchino Visconti and the issues related to the Tamil community of Palermo. 

The exhibition also becomes the occasion to present the artists’ most cherished themes: cinema’s history and its relationship to performance, the image as a tool for reflection and memory’s divulgation, the importance of cultural actions and, at the same time, its performative dimension.

Through an Italian historical and cultural path, Masbedo reveal the creation of a dream, the cinematographic one, brought to life in the spaces of ICA. The artists activate in this way a reasoning on the cinema of the past, opening a reflection on history’s deported image and its capacity to influence cultural and performative actions.

Why Frontiers Change is an exhibition co-produced by ICA Milano with In Between Art Film and Stone Island.

Executive co-production by AreaVideo Cultural Association.

//

Masbedo is an artistic duo formed by Nicolò Massazza (1973) and Iacopo Bedogni (1970). 

Their works have been exhibited in international museums, biennials and institutions including 2018 – MAMM Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, Manifesta 12 Palermo, Kunstlaboratorium Vestfossen Oslo, Centre Pompidou / Forum des Images Paris, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin; 2017 – Marta Herford; 2016 – Reggia di Venaria Reale Torino, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Nomas Foundation Roma, Blickle Foundation Stuttgart; 2015 – MART Rovereto, Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, ArtBasel Film Hong Kong Arts Centre; 2014 – Fondazione Merz; 2013 – Leopold Museum Vienna, MAMBA Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires; 2012 – Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Torino; 2011 – Art Unlimited Basel, MAXXI Roma, OK Offenes Kulturhaus Linz, EMAF European Media Art Festival Osnabrück; 2010 – Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowsky Castle Warsaw, CAAM Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno Las Palmas, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts Taiwan; 2009 – Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Madrid, 53. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte la Biennale di Venezia; 2007 – Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci Prato, Tel Aviv Museum of Art; 2006 – CCCB Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, DA2 Domus Artium 02 Salamanca, Hangar Bicocca Milano.