Archivio dei Cinque Cuori and Other Archives

Archiving, classification and compilation of lists are activities that have always been central to Gianfranco Baruchello’s work. While on the one hand this continuous cataloguing and creation of inventory lists is an attempt to put materials of various provenance into some order, this method is above all a mental system that returns within his painting, in his objects and in his installations.

Among the various collections (which include writings and manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, photographs, materials regarding exhibitions, etc.), the Archive of the five hearts (Archivio dei cinque cuori), an effort Baruchello began in 1962 and continued to work on for more than 30 years, is here presented for the first time. The title indicates five different hypothetical eras of his life, from his childhood until 1998. Loves, friendships, curiosities and work are mixed in no particular order. The original archive, kept in a metal Olivetti cabinet in the artist’s studio, contains about a hundred titles and subjects gathered in the same number of hanging files. Each file contains clippings, signed pages, notes and images regarding a given subject. The collection of documents includes emblematic designs, and is simultaneously both an ending and starting point of other subject areas or materials that have been conserved at the Fondazione Baruchello since 1998.

The Archive of the five hearts was thus taken as a point of departure for this display: an archive that generated about one hundred volumes corresponding to a hundred subjects, collected over the course of time. Each volume is conceived as a fictional container of 150 pages, gathering materials corresponding to an “entry” or subject, just as they had been gathered in their original file over time, with no attempt to rearrange them or to apply any criteria or selection, editing or explanation.

Within the space, there will be also presented films, object and photographic images regarding a series of projects corresponding to the Archive’s files and created over the years, including Leftovers (1975), a few examples of Foto di foto (1975) and films like A partire dal dolce (1979), Quaranta immagini (1996), Quanto (1999) and Ars memoriae (2009).

The volumes are published by ARBOR - Archivi Riuniti Baruchello (O) Roma. 

Designed by Edoardo Visalli

All the original documents are preserved at Fondazione Baruchello, Via di Santa Cornelia 695, Rome. 

On Monday, May 7, 2018, from 5pm, the Fondazione Baruchello dedicates an afternoon to the presentation of the Archivio dei cinque cuori e altri archivi (Archive of the five hearts and other archives), during which there will be hosted a round table with Ester Coen critic and art historian, Veronica Bellei curator,  followed by a performance of Hilario Isola, La meira di Rosina.

Public programme
May 7, 2018

5pm
Round Table

An open session to reflect and discuss on the idea of the archive, through through different modes and approaches. The invited guests will confront considerations and experiences of the archiving like researching, conservation, cataloguing and the artistic practice. Introduces Maria Alicata art historian with the participation of: eronica Bellei curator, Ester Coen critic and art historian (Università dell'Aquila), Maite Mendez Baiges art historian (University of Malaga), Carla Subrizi, Foundation's President, Daniela Zanoletti, art historian.

7pm
Hilario Isola

Hilario Isola’s performance, La meira Rosina, born from a multi-annual reflection on topics like the environment and the landscape, conceived as a research of new relations between art, life and agriculture. The Artist will present an Alpine cheese covered by colonies of mould, that bring shape and colour to the miniature of a mountain landscape. Hilario Isola will cut the sculpture, offering it to the public in order to be eaten, we will witness to the gradual disappearance of the work.