A dialogue between the works from the Treger/Saint Silvestre Collection.

Histories of Violence investigates the question of destructiveness inherent to human beings. How does it happen that the violence is present in humans and what are its origins? How does art use these destructive impulses?

In a very broad understanding of violence that does not focus either on a specific historic period or geographical zone, the exhibition presents a route constituted of seven separate moments. The artworks chosen by the curator Gustavo Giacosa come from various categories (Art Brut/Singular Art/Contemporary Art) as well as from different techniques and modes of representation. Among over 50 artists presented are the grand classics of Art Brut, such as Henry Darger, Friedrich Schröeder-Sonnenster or Franco Belucci and contemporary artists, like Robert Combas, Dado or Gonçalo Mabunda.

Gustavo Giacosa is interested in ways in which the artists from the Treger/Saint Silvestre Collection speak to us of violence: of rivals, of confinement, of guns, of wars and victims, choosing evocative counterpoints that are close to poetry, to the imaginary and sometimes to humor. Some artists introduce a distance between the subject matter and the shape it takes. Others pursue a purely instinctive creative act. The exhibition, conceived as dialogue, has been enriched through loans of artworks from the collections of Norlinda and José Lima, Gustavo Giacosa and Fausto Ferraiuolo, La « S » Grand Atelier and Christian Berst Art Brut Gallery.

Gustavo Giacosa

Presented artists:

Anonymous Spanish, Giuseppe Barocchi, Franco Bellucci, Giovanni Bosco, Pier Brouet, Georges Bru, Winston Cajuste, Hugo Carillo, Misleidys Francisca Castillo Pedroso, Robert Combas, Jesuys Crystiano, Dado (Miodrag Djuric), Henry Darger, Jacques Deal, Pierre Dessons, Fred Deux, Tom Duncan, Jean Duranel, Reinaldo Eckenberger, Erró (Guðmundur Guðmundsson), Guo Fengyi, Giovanni Galli, Patrice Girard, Josef Hofer, Foma Jaremtschuk, Joële (Nina Karasek), Rosemarie Koczy, Fay Ku, La Mère François, Pascal Leyder, Eric Liot, Alexandre Lobanov, Gorgali Lorestani (Zabiholah Mohamadi), Gonçalo Mabunda, Artur Moreira, Camille-Jean Nasson, Michail Paule, Marilena Pelosi, Julien Perrier, Giovanni Battista Podestà, Rosa Ramalho, Martín Ramírez, Bernard Rancillac, André Robillard, Karine Rougier, Lionel Saint Eloi, António Saint Silvestre, Peter Saul, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, José Johann Seinen, Carolein Smit, Dominique Théate, Damián Valdés Dilla, Oskar Voll, Josef Wittlich, Carlo Zinelli.