Voci del Novecento is the exhibition cycle of the Museo del Novecento dedicated to critics, curators and art historians who helped shape the debate on contemporary art. Through archival documents, editorial materials and testimonies, the project reconstructs the role of figures who accompanied, interpreted and recounted the major artistic transformations of the second half of the twentieth century. After the first event, dedicated to Enrico Crispolti, the programme continues with Tommaso Trini. La terra vista dalla luna, and will conclude with an exhibition dedicated to Pierre Restany.
The exhibition traces the critical and editorial activity of Tommaso Trini from his beginnings to the mid-1980s, revealing the profile of an observer capable of perceiving the transformations of contemporary art with remarkable timeliness. A critic, curator and journalist, Trini moves through some of the most significant seasons of the second half of the twentieth century, following closely artists, exhibitions and debates, but also building relationships, promoting new research and experimenting with innovative forms of writing and publishing. From the pages of Domus, where he began collaborating in 1966, to the founding and direction of the magazine DATA, conceived as a tool capable of documenting "in presa diretta" (live) the evolution of contemporary languages, his activity bears witness to a way of understanding criticism as active participation in the processes of art. Annotated books, magazines, notebooks, photographs, correspondence, audio and video recordings document a working method founded on direct observation, continuous exchange with artists and the will to read art as part of a broader cultural system.
The title of the exhibition recalls the image of the Earth seen from the Moon, published by Trini in Domus in 1969, and effectively sums up his way of understanding criticism. Looking at art "da fuori" (from outside) does not mean keeping one's distance from it, but observing it from a broader perspective, capable of grasping connections between disciplines, languages and seemingly distant contexts. From Arte Povera to environmental and processual research, from video art to the relationships between art, science and technology, Trini interprets artistic phenomena as part of a more general transformation of contemporary culture.
The exhibition conveys this vision through a selection of materials from his personal archive, many of them unpublished, which bear witness to the critic's daily practice: a research built across writing, publishing, dialogue and direct confrontation with artists. What emerges is the portrait of a figure who understood criticism as a constantly moving activity, capable not only of recounting the art of his own time but also of contributing to the construction of the tools for reading it.
Curated by Iolanda Ratti and Daniela Domina with Lodovica Cesaretti
Press Office: Lara Facco Press