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Ph by Petra Lajdová

Folklore and Traditions
Spazio Millepiani, Rome | October 21 – November 17, 2021

Curator A. Muratore

“Folklore and Traditions” is one of the most exhaustive exhibitions ever organised by LoosenArt at the Spazio Millepiani in Rome. Exhaustive because, first of all, it shows images, digital and video pieces coming from diverse places, and covering a vast geographic area. And then, because it represents traditions and habits dealing with the spiritual, physical (such as sport for example) as well as the domestic sphere.

Within the exhibition rooms, we pass by a collection of pictures about pagan and religious festivities, martial arts encounters, dances, parades and mythology. Moving out from one piece to the other, we aren’t just admiring, but even discovering, learning new things, while our horizons broaden.

The techniques used, both bi- and three dimensional, are the launch pad for exciting and touching scenes, regardless of the visual, spiritual, but also compositional distance/proximity from the observers. They take us far away, from the remote areas of Siberia to the myths and rites of the sub-Saharan territory, from the Sufi dance to the festivals in New Delhi. From Portugal to Slovakia. Different gazes on various countries offer a rich and many-sided overview on the cultures of the world.

In that sense, the exhibition becomes an ethnographic path in search for “the other” - but nonetheless in search for ourselves. The traditions and folklore of a community are everything that has survived history arriving today through the oral tradition. They are all we have decided to preserve, with care and consciousness, being representative for a certain sensitivity, specific cultures and places. And again, they embody the genius loci of a people, but also its voice that, now as then, we have been hearing, and listening to.

The pictures on show intend to capture unique moments of shamanic rituals, indigenous traditions, sacred dances which have the power to communicate with the transcendent. They are identity fragments of something bigger than us. Here at the Spazio Millepiani, this grandiosity is transmitted through solemn postures, multitudes of colours and nuances, but also thanks to the ability of reproducing and documenting on the spot ceremonies, processions and parades.

“Folklore and Traditions” is an exhibition dealing with the great and the small, with macrocosm (communities, countries) and microcosm (domestic and intimate rituals). With singularity and collectivity. With me, but most of all with US.

Text by Silvia Colombo

Works by Ivan Charin; Paulo Monteiro; Amna Yaseen