The exhibitions not to be missed this week: from 20 to 26 February

Typoésien – Heinz Waibl, Siegfried Höllrigl, Kunst Meran Merano Art, from 25/2 to 4 June

The art of typography serves to establish relationships. This was stated by Kurt Schwitters, multifaceted and visionary artist, provocative and experimental writer who gave life to forms of concrete poetry.

It was the first years of the last century and today this declaration seems more current than ever, to the point of being accustomed to this type of communication. But thinking about it for a moment, one realizes that in fact the verbalization of a content that one wishes to communicate expands exponentially if one considers the other elements of written communication: the graphic composition, the use of space, the choice of shapes defined by the different typographic characters, the colour…

Then you enter into a relationship with the content and with whoever wants to communicate it.

A page, a book, a flyer is designed exactly like a house or a single room or a space with different functions is designed. It also designs how to say the poem. And it was precisely on this element that two apparently antithetical characters met (and had fun), but instead united by a great friendship like Heinz Waibl and Siegfried Höllrigl.

The first came from the analogue and artisanal tradition of the Bauhaus and then dedicated himself to digital communication and marketing in major design centers such as Milan and Chicago.

Siegfried Höllrigl, on the other hand, opened his literature, typography and graphics laboratory in 1985, when digital techniques completely replaced the manual typesetting of typography.

He had acquired disused printing equipment with which he later established himself internationally for his hand-crafted editions. The two were in Merano where, in the Offizin S. laboratory in Höllrigl, they experimented with different printing techniques.

It was there that the color 'typoesie was born, made up of material prints made with letters in wood and lead. Tipoesie? The French word Typoésie combines typography and poetry. Exactly as in the work that unites the two creatives.

Which from Saturday 25 are exhibited together in a double exhibition (the first posthumous retrospective of Waibl and the larger exhibition of Höllrigl) complete with a printing laboratory open to the public.

Who will like it: poets, dreamers, planners of thought

Useful information: Kunst Meran Merano Arte, Cassa di Risparmio building, Portici 163. The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm and on Sundays from 11am to 6pm.

Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, Triennale Milano, until 14 May .

A surprise. When you cross the threshold of the space that the Triennale has dedicated to Sally Gabori, you are amazed.

And then, little by little, one enters those immense, colourful, dense canvases. They host the visitor in the world, unknown to us, of the Kaiadilt, a population that lives on Bentinck Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off the north coast of Queensland, in Australia.

That is the land of the painter, Donna Kaiadilt as her name reveals: Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda is, as tradition dictates, made up of the place of birth and the person's totemic animal.

In Sally Gabori's case, the place is Mirdidingki, a small cove located south of Bentinck Island, and her 'totem animal' is juwarnda , i.e. the dolphin. The life of this people is seriously marked by recent history. They are the last Aboriginal people of coastal Australia to come into contact with European settlers.

From the early 1940s onward, Presbyterian missionaries who had settled on Mornington Island north of Bentinck Island in 1914 tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Kaiadilt to join their mission.

However, in 1948, following a cyclone and tidal wave that inundated much of Kaiadilt land and contaminated fresh water supplies, the last 63 surviving Kaiadilt residents, including Sally Gabori and his family, were evacuated to the Presbyterian mission. Their exile will last several decades, the children were separated from their parents, they were forbidden to speak their mother tongue, thus creating a deep rift with their culture and their traditions.

Something changed around the 1990s when, after many years of struggle, Australia passed legislation that recognized the rights of the Kaiadilt on their land, allowing anyone who wanted to, including Sally Gabori, to return to their island.

The story, this story, is essential to read the works of Sally Gabori, which she began to paint when she was over 80 years old and never stopped until her death nine years later, with an archive of over 2000 canvases.

she she She began to paint in small formats to then compose enormous canvases, more than six meters long, in which she celebrates her island of her. Her territories, her land, her sea, nostalgia. They are abstract works, but composed of overlapping stories, between traditions and violence, peace, nostalgia, beauty, nature. They are colors that create landscapes of the soul of impressive depth.

Organized in collaboration with Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, this exhibition features some thirty monumental paintings, and has been organized in close collaboration with the artist's family and the Kaiadilt community, including leading specialists of art and culture Kaiadilt.

Who will like it: those who love to learn, those who seek empathy and think that art can change the world.

Useful information: Triennale Milano, via Alemagna 6, the exhibition can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 8pm.

Gianluca Pollini, Arquitectonica, Bocconi University, Milan, until April 4

This beautiful photographic exhibition hosted in the spaces of the Bocconi University as an anticipation of the event dedicated to photography in Milan, MIA, has passed a bit in silence.

It tells of a way of doing architecture that narrates the space in which we live, defines it and characterizes it profoundly. Pollini chooses metaphysics as a playmate in this exploration of light to be imprinted on photographic paper. It is precisely she, the light, who designs the buildings and expresses the marvel that the photographer's eye wants to bring to the scene.

A daytime show that has all the hallmarks of the dream.

Thus the EUR designed by Marcello Piacentini, but also lesser-known places such as the town, near Ferrara, of Tresigallo, a place of utopia, and many forms of Aldo Rossi become protagonists of the work of the Bolognese photographer.

As Bruno Bandini writes in the volume that accompanies the review (Pazzini Editore), «It was Aldo Rossi who allowed Pollini to redraw the hidden plot of the legacy of the Modern, of a rationalism that has its roots in the architects of the French Revolution, to arrive at those foundational traces of the city that can be found in the 'metaphysical' squares of Giorgio de Chirico, as well as in the urban planning of the 'foundation cities' of the 1930s».

Who will like it: lovers of architecture and photography, always on the hunt for light and shadow.

Useful information: Bocconi University, via Sarfatti 25 Milan. The exhibition is open Monday to Friday 9am - 8pm and Saturday 10am - 6pm.

JR. Déplacé∙e∙s, Gallerie d'Italia in Turin, until 16 July 2023

It is the first solo exhibition in Italy dedicated to the French artist JR. Curated by Arturo Galansino, it brings to the city the works of an artist always poised between photography, street art and social commitment.

His works have become cult precisely because of the impact they immediately had on people, unexpectedly involved in important and current issues such as those of migrants and refugees, the poor and the marginalized.

Surprisingly, yes, because JR's works normally come across on the street and their impact is such as to change the perception of the urban planning and architecture of that portion of the territory.

The same happens in Turin, where one of his gigantic works welcomes passers-by in Piazza San Carlo.

The exhibition then continues inside the museum, with the staging of large sheets dedicated to the children met during visits to refugee camps from Rwanda to Greece: we are talking about forced migrations.

The fundamental figure of the Parisian artist are his public art actions with the involvement of many people and often the activation of entire communities, on display with a site-specific work and a video installation.

The whole is completed by a photographic archive from crisis zones around the world. To tell everyone that perhaps art can really change the world.

Who will like it: those who believe in collaboration and revolutions from below, those who think that art is a powerful social glue.

Useful information: Gallerie d'Italia, Turin, piazza S. Carlo 156. The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9.30am to 7.30pm, Wednesdays until 10.30pm.

Alex Cecchetti. Spell, Forof Rome, until April 15

A better title could not have been chosen for this exhibition which takes the viewer into the landscapes of the soul of Alex Cecchetti, a seamless journey between the natural and the fantastic.

As in a spell, in fact, reality and fantasy cannot be distinguished, dream world and otherwise, in a journey that is experiential: the perception of the landscapes set up in the spaces of Forof is the means of transport.

Then you enter the spell, which allows the public to immerse themselves in a primordial dimension.

Artist, poet, gardener and choreographer, Cecchetti has created a shamanic environment whose elements guide the spectators to abandon themselves and go towards Nature.

The work, created specifically for Forof, is made up of many elements: there are sounds, narrations and smells for a hymn to nature, an invitation to identify with it and the prayer to return to love it.

The artist is naturally moved by the environmental urgency we are experiencing, the ecological need to save the planet and - above all - to make as many people aware of the problem. The spell of the title is also this: to make the hearts of visitors burst with love for the planet.

Who will like it: travellers, botanists and aspiring shamans.

Useful information: Forof, Foro Traiano 1, Rome. The exhibition is open from Wednesday to Saturday from 11 to 18, Sunday by reservation only.