Arte Povera

What better venue than the Pinault Collection Commodities Exchange to host the Arte Povera exhibition? Since 2021, this circular building has celebrated contemporary art through the collection owned by billionaire François Pinault. The Rotunda houses artworks from this Italian protest movement that dialogue with the neoclassical architecture in a subtle mix of genres.

The Commodities Exchange rebels

The Pinault Collection has many more surprises in store. Among the 10,000 items of its collection, the Commodities Exchange has joined forces with the writer and historian, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, to put together a fascinating selection of Arte Povera works. The exhibition is running for several months, to offer a retrospective of this artistic movement that emerged in the 1960s between Turin and Rome, through the works of 13 iconic artists. In addition to the institution’s own collection, the retrospective display also includes items on loan from private and public collections held in France and Italy. To complete the picture, a few artists who are themselves from the Arte Povera movement have entrusted the Commodities Exchange with their works, just for the occasion.

Art and struggle

Arte Povera arose in opposition to the consumer society that emerged after the Second World War. The protest movement advocated degrowth and the use of simple materials obtained mainly through recycling or from the natural world. The aim was to go beyond the merely material nature of art in order to create works of high philosophical influence. Arte Povera was, in fact, one of the first movements to draw attention to artistic ‘installations’ by combining different techniques: painting, sculpture, sketching and photography. For the pleasure of grasping its full complexity, go along between 9 October 2024 and 24 March 2025.

In the mood for art galore? Check out the expositions of the Paris Region.