In yesterday's post, we explored an exhibition at MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna (Museum of Modern Art of Bologna) and mentioned Nanni Balestrini, Arrigo Lora Totino, and Cinzia Ruggeri. Interestingly, all three artists are also featured in another exhibition at the same museum, offering visitors and fans an opportunity to extend their visit and discover more about them.
"Facile Ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo" (Easy Irony. Irony in Italian art of the 20th and 21st centuries, until September 7th), curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Caterina Molten, brings together over 100 works and archival documents from more than 70 artists, spanning from the 1950s to today. The exhibition examines irony as both a critical and imaginative tool in Italian art, revealing how it has been used to challenge conventions and expose contradictions.
Historically tied to Socratic questioning, irony emerges here as a multifaceted device that disrupts established paradigms and offers fresh perspectives on reality. In Italian art, it has long served to unmask false certainties and playfully reframe the world around us.
The exhibition's title, "Facile Ironia" (Easy Irony), playfully hints at the paradox between irony's apparent simplicity and its deeper complexities. Through this lens, the show encourages audiences to reflect on the relationship between art, society, and the subversive power of humor. Organized into thematic sections, the exhibition explores different facets of irony.
The first section, "Irony as Paradox", focuses on the way irony upends common sense, destabilizing conventional narratives and prompting viewers to look beyond the obvious. A striking example is Gino De Dominicis' "Mozzarella in Carrozza", a literal interpretation of the classic Italian dish: "mozzarella in carrozza" literally means "mozzarella in a carriage" and the work features indeed a mozzarella inside a carriage. Similarly, Marisa Merz's recently rediscovered video "La conta" (The count) captures the artist in an absurd yet methodical act, counting peas from a box instead of cooking them, turning a mundane kitchen moment into an exercise in paradox.
In "Irony as Play", the exhibition highlights the liberating and imaginative potential of playfulness in art. Here, creativity breaks free from rigid norms, transforming everyday materials into unexpected forms of expression. This playful ethos shines through in the works of Bruno Munari, whose "sculture da viaggio" (travel sculptures), foldable sculptures, often given as gifts or sent as greeting cards, challenge traditional artistic conventions and invite viewers to reconsider the rules of artmaking.
The third section, "Irony as Feminist Social Critique," offers a compelling exploration of gender and power. Drawing on the idea that laughter and gendered humor can both reveal and subvert societal norms, this part of the exhibition highlights how female artists have used irony to challenge patriarchal stereotypes, societal expectations, and the cultural codes that shape gender roles. Featured here is "Carta da parato," an "environment" by Tomaso Binga (Bianca Menna), first presented in 1978 at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Bologna as part of "Metafisica del quotidiano." Also showcased are works from Neapolitan collectives such as Gruppo XX and Donne/Immagine/Creatività, alongside Cinzia Ruggeri's striking snake and egg dress from her Spring/Summer 1988 collection, her "Sponge Apron" (1988-1995) and "Gioco per palude" (Swamp Game, 2018, View this photo).
Political engagement and institutional critique are also central themes in the exhibition. "Irony as a Tool for Political Mobilization" examines how artists have creatively dismantled cultural and political paradigms, using irony as a vehicle for collective action. Here, art becomes an act of resistance, blending individual expression with a call for societal change. Among the standout works are photographic documentation of the interventions by Michelangelo Pistoletto's Lo Zoo collective and the politically charged collages of Nanni Balestrini.
Complementing this section, "Irony as Institutional Critique" turns its focus to the unwritten rules and power structures of the art world itself. Through a playful yet incisive lens, the exhibition invites viewers to question the very foundations of the art system. Eva & Franco Mattes' recent work investigates the notion of originality in contemporary art, exemplified by "Copycat," a piece featuring a taxidermy cat being replicated inside a photocopying machine (certainly this will not be a hit with animal lovers).
Finally, "Irony as Nonsense" delves into the playful subversion of language. This section celebrates the Italian poets and writers who experimented with phonetics, embracing the liberating potential of the spoken word. By stripping language of its conventional meaning, artists such as Arrigo Lora Totino highlight a more primal, instinctive form of expression, one that breaks free from logical constraints and revels in the absurd.
Not including more fashion designs in the exhibition feels like a missed opportunity, specially considering the Italian tradition of blending irony with deeper cultural commentary in garments and accessories as well (and considering how fashion has appropriated in more recent years some of the artists included here, think about Tomaso Binga's collaboration for the stage set of Dior's Autumn-Winter 2019-2020 ready-to-wear show, where her alphabet-poem performance became a bold statement on language and gender).
Fashion could have been woven more prominently into different sections of the exhibition, as it often serves as a playground for irony, subversion, and critique. Take Cinzia Ruggeri's snake and egg dress: while it appears under feminist art, it could have just as easily belonged to other sections. Indeed this isn't necessarily a feminist design, but it is undeniably ironic and playful (the same can be said of her quirky aprons...).
Snakes are often perceived as dangerous, monstrous (especially in connection with women, from Eve to Medusa...) and repulsive, yet their skins are prized as symbols of luxury in fashion. In this design Ruggeri flipped the script, transforming them into a mass of fabric serpents coiled protectively around the bodice of the dress, almost as if they're guarding the wearer in a tongue-in-cheek way. Meanwhile, eggs, a recurring motif in the work of the designer, are far from the conventional markers of glamour. Humble, everyday, and decidedly unpretentious, they become a decorative and whimsical feature.
More than a feminist statement, this dress is an act of ironic defiance against the fashion world itself. Ruggeri had an extraordinary ability to turn everyday motifs into potent, ironic symbols challenging us to rethink what we know about fashion, power, and self-expression.
Hilarious, rebellious, punk, and delightfully absurd, the dress, complete with sunny-side-up yolks, was a way of questioning accepted fashion narratives and of flipping a metaphorical two fingers at the seriousness of high fashion. After all, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette.
Image credits for this post
1. Installation Views. Facile ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo. Photography by: Carlo Favero. © Marisa Merz, by Siae 2025; © Archivio Gino De Dominicis, Foligno, by Siae 2025
2. Installation Views. Facile ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo. Photography by: Carlo Favero. © Archivio Gino De Dominicis, Foligno, by Siae 2025
3. Installation Views. Facile ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo. Photography by: Carlo Favero. © Bruno Munari
4. Installation Views. Facile ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo. Photography by: Carlo Favero. © Tomaso Binga. © Chiara Fumai, Dogaressa Elisabetta Querini, Zalumma Agra, Annie Jones, Dope Head, Harry Houdini, Eusapia Palladino read Valerie Solanas (2013)
5. Cinzia Ruggeri, S/S 1988 Collection, Cotton and synthetic fibre dress with snakes and eggs, Cinzia Ruggeri Archive, Milan
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