Gianfranco Baruchello Psicoenciclopedia possibile. Presentation conference at CIMA – Center for Italian Modern Art, New York. 09.12.2021

One Day Conference
Thursday 9th december 2021 from 2pm to 6pm (EST time)
CIMA Center for Italian Modern Art
421 Broome St 4th floor, New York City

Chairs: Massimiliano Gioni and Nicola Lucchi.
With: Maria Alicata, Franco Baldasso, Raffaele Bedarida, Lara Demori, Bracha L. Ettinger, Sarah Hamill, Sharon Hecker, Teresa Kittler and Carla Subrizi.

Streaming from 8pm to 12pm (Italian time):
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3204792630

The Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) and the Fondazione Baruchello are pleased to present Gianfranco Baruchello’s Psicoenciclopedia possibile (Possible Psychoencyclopedia) for the first time in the United States.
After two presentations and exhibitions—one in Geneva at the Centre d’Art Contemporain (September 14^th—October17^th 2021), and one in Paris at the Kandinsky Library at the Centre Georges Pompidou (September 25^th — October 24^th 2021) —the work will be presented at the Center for Italian Modern Art through a rich and varied One Day Conference  on December 9^th at the Centre for Italian Modern Art in New York.  Maria Alicata, Franco Baldasso, Raffaele Bedarida, Lara Demori, Bracha L. Ettinger, Sarah Hamill, Sharon Hecker, Teresa Kittler and Carla Subrizi, the President of Fondazione Baruchello, have all been invited to speak for this occasion.

The One Day Conference is organized into two panels, one moderated by Nicola Lucchi, the other by Massimiliano Gioni. This presentation will offer an opportunity to study the process of creating an encyclopedia in the twenty-first century, while also examining the founding themes of Baruchello’s practice. In order to inspect this “little” system—as Baruchello habitually described the development of his own style—the archive, compositions and paintings will be explored as a way to scrutinize the key aspects that affect the creation of an encyclopedia in this century. During the One Day Conference, a series of drawings selected for the occasion will allow the public to delve into Baruchello’s complex system of thought, who, through the transversal nature of languages, has experimented with images, objects, installations, cinema, and writing. The public will also be able to view a copy of Baruchello’s encyclopedia.

In this monumental and complex project that has taken three years to complete, Baruchello has created a new system in which 816 pages of unexpected juxtapositions connect 1,200 entries in the first part of the volume, and 200 tables of images in the second part. Baruchello uses a variety of languages and techniques including paintings, objects, installations, and writing in this project for the public to explore. The written entries are derived from published and unpublished writings, notes, and transcriptions of dreams, while the images are the outcome of a long process of selection and assembly utilizing various pre-existent and current sources.

Could it really be possible to extend knowledge to the point that there is nothing else to know? What logic influences the classification found within encyclopedia’s? What criteria  determines the associations between linguistic definitions and illustrated plates? In Psicoenciclopedia possible , Baruchello looks at these questions and examines the validity of traditional forms of knowledge to create hitherto unseen links between written and visual language. As an artist, he suggests the exploration of unusual identities, creating new meaning and value for the historical model of the encyclopedia. Baruchello’s practice is characterized by the deconstruction of every form of consequential thought and the disconnection from traditional systems of cause and effect. In this work, it is the alphabet that becomes the  tool for reshuffling the most consolidated connections: narrative, visual, and semantic. Baruchello explains that “The Psicoenciclopedia possibile is constructed as if it were a volume in the Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, but it isn’t.”

The One Day Conference about Psicoenciclopedia possible is promoted by Fondazione Baruchello and produced through support from the Italian Council (VII edition, 2019), a programme by the General Directorate of Contemporary Creativity at the Ministry of Culture for the international promotion of Italian art. 1,000 copies of a pocket edition of the volume are currently being printed. The volume will be on display at CIMA and during the One Day Conference.

Useful information
Fondazione Baruchello
Via di Santa Cornelia 695, 00188, Rome
+39 06 3346000 | e. info@fondazionebaruchello.com

Press office
PCM Studio di Paola C. Manfredi
Via Farini, 70, 20159 Milan
press@paolamanfredi.com
Francesca Ceriani
francesca@paolamanfredi.com
T. +39 340 9182004