Organized by Arti visive gallery, Opera Arte e Arti, ProLoco Matera, APT Basilicata, Comune di Matera, Lions Club Matera Host, Regione Basilicata, Studio Arti Visive
"MNEMOSYNE. THE ENTROPY OF MEMORY" is the new exhibition thrilling the city of Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993 and the 2019 European Capital of Culture, this year the Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue. Curated by art critic and historian Dr. Mauro Di Ruvo, the exhibition is curated by art critic and historian Dr. Mauro Di Ruvo.
The artist, Pino Oliva, is a key figure in Basilicata's history. He introduced to Italy a genre that, according to Di Ruvo, had never before been codified, bordering on the so-called informal figurative: the "eidetic" genre. Oliva, the "Poet of Borges," will exhibit his twenty new works on Saturday, June 27th in Matera, in the historic gallery of Cav. FRANCO DI PEDE of Via delle Beccherie, now the Arti Visive Gallery, is located in the historic heart of Matera between Vico Commercio al Sasso Barisano and Porta Pepice, a street where for hundreds of years, until the early 1960s, dozens of butcher shops operated, also serving as meeting places for laborers at the end of a hard day's work.
The event kicks off auspiciously in collaboration with the Opera Arte e Arti gallery, with which the artist has collaborated for years, and with the patronage of the Basilicata Region, the Office of Equal Opportunities Advisor Ivana Pipponzi, the Municipality of Matera, the Pro Loco of Matera, and the Basilicata Territorial Promotion Agency. The Lions Club of Matera and the Leo Clubs, who have chosen to sponsor this important event, will also be present. Oliva's anthology brings together twenty new works selected en masse, which, like Borges's celebrated collection of poems, mark a departure from his previous compositional phase. This collection inaugurates the Spring-Summer 2026 season in Lucania with an exhibition
that will run until July 15th, with free admission.
With this exhibition, curator and art critic Dr. Di Ruvo has set himself the goal of highlighting the precious contemporary historical and artistic heritage of the Mediterranean, and specifically that of Matera as a capital of culture. He also aims to broaden the scope of the image of art as a demiurgic product and a diplomatic tool between Western and Eastern cultures and peoples, as well as a civil integration between genders and traditions, and finally between politics and religion. This latter union is increasingly fraying in the climate of foreign and international military conflicts.
"A sort of meditation on our journey on this earth," Oliva defines it, as "a delving into the thought that guides us daily."
And these are his "vague stars of the Bear," quoting Leopardi's Ricordanze, which lead the viewer like an inexperienced sailor navigating the restless ocean that has no bounds on the horizon.
