ZAC – ZISA ARTE CONTEMPORANEA | Palermo, Italia
26 October 2019 – 6 January 2020
ZAC – ZISA ARTE CONTEMPORANEA | Palermo, Italia
26 ottobre 2019 – 6 gennaio 2020
Michele Rech paints a clear picture of the themes concerning the native generation of the 1980s, those who grew up surrounded by Game Boy, Marvel comics, superheroes and Pixar feature films. It is the portrait of a generation that is born with everything, but that gradually sees the rights that its fathers had conquered vanish. Young people who grow up during the economic boom, but who eventually see their dream of the nation as the promised land begin to fade. In this first part, the confrontation with today’s youth – and the sad realization that everything has changed – is ironically expressed through the presentation of pop icons and some cult comics like Pedagogia and Iggiovanidoggi, 2012, and La paura più grande, 2015. The exhibition continues with an analysis of the demons of our day and age: social networks, always being connected, and productivity. The theme ends with a series of illustrations taken from episodes of everyday life.
The picture, as realistic as it is disenchanted, of our contemporary age, the mirror of a society that is permanently in crisis, is also present in Struggles and Resistances. This section includes comic strips transformed by the artist into a playground for the formation of public space and civic life, posters, illustrations made to support a host of initiatives, self-published fanzines, periodicals devoted to an in-depth analysis of the underground culture. The theme dealt with in these boards concerns political conquests, it portrays different social opposition movements from recent years, and it describes the central role played by some occupied spaces in the development of a culture of difference.
Non – Reportage is the third section of the exhibition. The G8 in Genoa, in 2001, was a major event, which author considers a turning point in his life, the one that inspired him to create his first comic strip, published anonymously in Indymedia. A black wall is devoted to the event, and it includes boards and posters like La memoria è un ingranaggio collettivo (La nostra storia alla sbarra), 2004, Non è finita, 2006, A.F.A.B., 2011,In ogni caso
nessun rimorso, 2018.
This is followed by a series of reports on the facts from the national and international news, based on personal experiences or journeys. Besides Gaza and Iraq, in 2014, the artist traveled to Kobanî, where the Kurds of the Strip resist being attacked by ISIS, and whose history of resistance was published in 2015 in the weekly Internazionale, and later in the book Kobane Calling.
The heart of the exhibition, the section entitled Tribes, crosses all of the themes on display. A selection of about forty illustrated boards tells how the author’s most authentic truth resides in punk culture, in that which he himself calls his “tribe,” the “family you belong to,” the “Indian reservation.” The punk scene is made up of a social organism that is determined and coherent, it is expressed in currents, looks, musical genres, ideologies, and a variety of lifestyles, such as Straight Edge, a ‘philosophy’ that rejects drugs and drug abuse, which the author embraced when he was seventeen.
Spazio Extra MAXXI*
Curated by Giulia Ferracci
produced in collaboration with Silvia Barbagallo
The exhibition has been extended until 31 March 2019
SPECIAL LAST FEW DAYS!
Over the weekends of 22-23-24 and 29-30-31 March the exhibition will be open from 11am to 10pm.
The first solo exhibition dedicated to the publishing talent of Italian comics
Alaways linked to the underground scene, a spokeperson of the 90s’ generation, which grew up amongst precariousness and the web, the G8 in Genoa and TV series, Michele Rech, under the pseudonym of
Zerocalcare is the protagonist of a large exhibition organised in co-production with Minimondi Eventi.
The project is organised around four core themes – Pop, Tribes, Struggle and Resistances, Non-Reportage – and it traces every year of his work featuring posters, a wide selection of illustrations, record covers, original illustrated pages from his 9 books, T-shirts, logos and a site specific work designed by the artist for this occasion.
*The exhibition has a dedicated ticket. For further information see Opening hours & tickets
POP
STUGGLES AND RESISTENCES
NON-REPORTAGE
TRIBES