Maurizio Cattelan "Belpaese"

2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. The Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo intends to celebrate this historical event withan exhibition realised in collaboration with Banca Fideuram (Gruppo IntesaSanpaolo). “Un’Espressione Geografica [A Geographical Expression]“, curated by Francesco Bonami, will run at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo centre for contemporary art from 19 May until 27 November 2011. The works of twenty international artists will present the multi-faceted identity of Italy from an unusual point of view, highlighting the vast heritage and the peculiarities of each Italian Region. An unprecedented portrait of the social, political and cultural panorama of modern-day Italy will emerge,relating the marvels and the contradictions that characterise a country still today in constant conflict between tradition and innovation, history and contemporaneity.On August 2nd, 1847 the Austrian statesman Klemens Von Metternichwrote in a note addressed to Count Dietrichstein a famous and controversial sentence: “Italy is a geographical expression”. The sentence reappeared the following year in the Neapolitan daily newspaper Il Nazionale, this time with a markedly negative connotation: “Italy is nothing but a geographical expression”. As the revolutionary wave raged in 1948, Italian liberals provocatively embraced this definition and used it with a patriotic flair to stir up anti-Austrian sentiments among the Italian population. Historians mostly agreed in acknowledging that Metternich’s words were originally intendedas a mere statement or fact, rather than as political criticism: the Austrian statesman noted that, on the political front, Italy was “made up of mutually independent Sovereign States”.This definition, “A Geographical Expression”, inspired the FondazioneSandretto Re Rebaudengo to reflect on the fact that today, in a globalised world where cultural and economic exchanges have erased the ancient concept of borders and boundaries, the geographical dimension of a country is once again gaining momentum.