Family Lexicon inaugurates the exhibition programme dedicated to group shows at the Fondazione Sandra e Giancarlo Bonollo per l’Arte Contemporanea. The exhibition brings together the works of ten international artists from the Bonollo collection and belonging to different generations and backgrounds.

The exhibition borrows its title from Natalia Ginzburg’s famous autobiographical novel, published in 1963. In the book, the author recounts the story of her Jewish and anti-fascist family during the difficult years of World War II in Italy. Just as in the storytelling the threads of memory pass through the recollection of phrases, sayings, and everyday moments, the exhibition gradually reveals its essence through the works on display, revealing a visual and emotional grammar that feels familiar, personal, and at the same time collective, apable of embracing universal history from the many individual stories contained in each piece. These stories speak to us, allowing us to find a part of ourselves within them.

It is with these premises that the project is transformed into a journey through an imaginary and hypothetical yet tangible and possible memory, which, starting from the intimate and familiar element, is able to tell its story to others, opening up a space of relationship between work and spectator and between the spectators themselves. La mostra si presenta così come una grammatica introduttiva visuale alla storia della Collezione e della Fondazione, intimamente intrecciata con la storia della famiglia Bonollo, guidata dalla profonda passione e dall’amore per I’arte, la cultura, I’umanità e per la loro condivisione con la collettività.

The works displayed in the Foundation’s spaces have all been created between 1995 and 2020. They trace personal histories, articulating an exclusive and unique lexicon that characterises not only biological and blood ties, but all relationships capable of generating intimate and supportive collectivities, though not without friction and tensions. At the same time, through a broader and universal reading, the selected works penetrate Italian and international history, evoking social events of universal value. The exhibition thus recounts relationships that are both collective and individualintimate and shared, exploring the complexities of human existence and its emotions, blurring the boundaries between art and everyday life.

Chiara Nuzzi