Nasi per l’arte
Stockmans Art Books 2023
Italian and English versions of the exhibition catalogue and its editing by Scriptum
From Saturday March 25th, Palazzo Merulana, in synergy with Fondazione Elena and Claudio Cerasi and CoopCulture, invites its visitors to the exhibition “Nasi per l’arte”, conceived and curated by Joanna De Vos and Melania Rossi. Until May 21 st, a selection of more than 50 works will connect Italian and Belgian art in an original, playful, unexpected way, according to an unusual fil rouge: the nose! “Nasi per l’arte” is not just about “noses as shapes or sense of smell”.
Instead, it wants to stimulate a reflection on the metaphorical meaning that this organ, the first to develop in the womb, a hereditary and identity trait that represents the primal instinct.
A metaphor for “having a nose”, for an immediate approach to things, “sensing” them even before seeing them.
The nose is synonymous with one of our five senses, the most animal and instinctive, one which can determine attraction or repulsion. There is a deep relation between nose and remembrance. The sense of smell triggers thoughts and evokes memories – even involuntarily. This is the so-called Proust Effect. In years of collaborations, curators De Vos and Rossi, Belgian and Italian respectively, have been engaged in analyzing how Italians and Belgians share a “nose for art” on an aesthetic and conceptual level, and how artists follow their “nose,” like also passionate collectors or experts curators of exhibitions in other respects.