12 - 14 July 2000
S8ZERO/Melting Pot L'Accademia degli Artefatti, one of the leading troupes on the new Italian theatre scene, presented a new version of the show "Kindergarten (artificial paradise with free view from above), expressly created for the Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
A secret world was constructed, a sort of garden-museum, a journey inside the body to explore life and death, with an ironic look at contemporary art. It consisted of a series of different habitats that visitors entered in small groups. Sucked inside a wardrobe, they tumbled into a memorial garden, complete with a lawn, fountains, and archeological remains; and witnessed a surgery under way behind a shade, while a monitor displayed a series of erotic films. In the next room, where a hospital environment had been recreated, one of the female visitors was made to lie down on an operating table. Next was the most astonishing room, a sort of Wunderkammer, where three bodies that lay in glass cases alluded to the end of the journey. The centre of the room was monopolized by a tableau-vivant that evoked Eden and was enclosed in a glass case itself, while the roar of a discothèque could be heard in the distance.
The exhibition featured works by Miriam Abutori, Paolo Bultrini, Rita Bucchi, Nicola Danesi de Luca, Simone Di Pietro, Sita Falchi, Valerio Musilli, Tiziana Novelli, Mauro Santoriello, and Annalisa Zagaro.
Exhibition curated by Fabrizio Arcuri and Elio Castellana.
Brochure with texts provided by the Accademia degli Artefatti.