The Grand Hotel Majestic “già Baglioni” in Bologna opened its doors yesterday to Andrea Benetti, creator of the Neo-Cave Art Manifesto, for the press presentation of “B.P. Before Present.” This exhibition, curated by Simona Gavioli, will allow visitors to admire his works from May 18 to June 27, inside one of the most representative hotels in the city.
The event was also attended by Giancarlo Tonelli, General Director of Confcommercio Ascom Bologna; Celso De Scrilli, Vice President of Confcommercio and President of Federalberghi Bologna; and Tiberio Biondi, Director of the Grand Hotel Majestic “già Baglioni.”
The exhibition is part of the first edition of ART offside, a project promoted by the Cultural Association Offside and sponsored by the Municipality of Bologna, Confcommercio Ascom Bologna, and Unindustria. ART offside stems from a love for art and the city’s cultural tradition, driven by the desire to make this artistic heritage accessible through a tourism promotion initiative spanning the entirety of 2011.
The primary goal of ART offside is to bring citizens closer to art by taking museum visitors directly into contact with artworks and transforming tourists and passersby in Bologna into cultural participants. This is achieved by placing artworks in unconventional spaces such as hotels, squares, streets, and restaurants, thus merging business with culture, art with tourism.
Andrea Benetti presents to the public his conceptual reinterpretations of cave painting, an art form deeply rooted in ancient times, reflecting the way early humans perceived nature and their harmonious relationship with it. This synergy between humans and the environment, unfortunately, seems to have remained a prerogative of the past.
On one hand, there were the “cave artists” who, in prehistoric caves, used their marks and colors to express a perfect integration with nature—a nature respected as a generous mother, always ready to nurture her children. On the other hand, contemporary humans seem unaware of their limitations and lack respect and gratitude for nature and life, consumed by the vortex of consumerism and an often hollow lifestyle.
It is necessary to take steps backward to regain that degree of purity and genuine instinctiveness needed to restore harmony between humanity and its surroundings, as well as among individuals themselves. Where better to begin this journey of rediscovering the past than with art? This is precisely what Andrea Benetti proposes to those who observe his works.
The exhibition traces the three pillars of Neo-Cave painting: it starts with a tribute to cave art and those early artists who depicted their hunting scenes on rock walls; it then moves towards greater symbolism and abstraction, ultimately reaching the present day. Here, the artist imagines what a primitive man would see today and, more importantly, how he would represent it. This vision brings forth images of airplanes and men playing golf.
A journey between past and present, a continuous interplay between the two, in the hope of reclaiming the purity and childlike vision of the world from which contemporary humans have now strayed.