Barefoot

Roberto and Valentina Gramiccia

Barefoot is an original and unusual exhibition. It was named so thanks to the imagination of the person who came up with the idea of giving an empty shoe box to each artist participating in this exhibition. So the idea is that someone without shoes has to walk barefoot. This can be annoying and irritating but if the ground is not too rough (think about a tropical beach) this could also be pleasant and gives one the feeling of freedom and liberty. And so the theme of this exhibition is liberty. Liberty from any type of obligation. Independence of thoughts and actions. A full autonomy or even total subversion when needed and when necessary.

The aim is to demonstrate that starting from the same conditions – all of the artists were given identical shoe boxes – wasn’t meant to discourage each individual choice but to exalt the various potentials. So equality is a presumption of real liberty. Being in possession of nothing apart from one’s own talent and desire to create.

In our own small way we decided to place each artist symbolically on the same level, cancelling any type of advantage. The young and not so young, known and unknown artists, painters and sculptors, installation artists and visual artists. We fully believe that equality is worth fighting for and if equality is missing in life then so too is liberty. Voltaire, Marx, Bakunin, Mazzini, Gramsci and Gobetti (to name but a few) always fought for equality, and if you think about artists and poets could you imagine Rimbaud asking for recommendations or Picasso copying a picture at school?

This exhibition, which several authors have supported with enthusiasm, positions itself well into INDY, INDY stands for tastes in independent culture, a culture of words, images, music and palate, capable of surviving despite being away from mass distribution. A distribution that has nothing to do with quality because quality can’t sustain the implacable and approved rules of the mass market. The system of art as set up in the last decades in some way rebuilds the dynamics of a monopolistic distribution in a miniature way.

The support of several important artists is a comfort to us and makes this micro-observation of language, tendency and concerns objectively valuable. Inside a room a bit bigger than average, about 50 creations will be classified. A type of mapping that indicates what is happening, in an artistic point of view, around our cities and our country.

Whoever comes to see the exhibition won’t find it hard to stroll around and admire the creative productions of 50 generous independent artists. A type of walk around Italy in just one room.