The publication E IL TOPO. History of an artists’ magazine with an unusual editorial strategy (edited by Gabriele Di Matteo and Franco Silvestro, published by a+mbookstore, 2023) reconstructs the evolution, achievements and conclusion of the artists’ magazine with the same title, produced from 1992 to 1996, and then from 2012 to the present. It is composed of a boxed set containing two volumes, as well as eight artists’ posters. The first volume is the anastatic reprint of all 33 issues of the magazine, in the original size. The second volume reconstructs the conceptual matrix that has given rise to this unique example of independent and collaborative publishing, with essays by Anna Cuomo, Françoise Lonardoni, and Giorgio Verzotti. The volume, which has already been presented in Foligno (Viaindustriae), Milan (Commerce), and Rome (Macro, Museum of Contemporary Art) will be presented in two venues during the month of October:
October 7, 2023, 11am (CEST): Madre Museum, Naples (Via Settembrini, 79). E IL TOPO. Opening of the exhibition (on display until November 6, 2023) and book launch. On show, a series of works produced over the years for the magazine publication and a series of re-enactments of performative interventions. Physical actions and musical expressions have been conceived and proposed ex novo for the museum; their remnants, after the opening, will complement the exhibition itinerary.
October 20, 2023, 6pm (EST): Magazzino Italian Art in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, New York. The last days of E Il TOPO. Book launch and performance coordinated by Gabriele Di Matteo, Franco Silvestro, Steve Piccolo, Armando della Vittoria, Frédéric Liver, Shannon Pultz. The event will be hosted at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York.
The magazine E IL TOPO was founded by Gabriele Di Matteo and Franco Silvestro together with Armando della Vittoria, Piero Gatto and vedova Mazzei, in Naples in 1992, but its editorial team has always been international, transgenerational and anti-hierarchical. Over the years, the group has been composed of about 20 individuals, in a fluid configuration that has brought together different artists and authors, in many cases for work on specific projects and exchanges: Stefano Arienti, Massimo Bartolini, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Mark Dion, Jimmie Durham, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, John Lurie, Eva Marisaldi, Miltos Manetas, Amedeo Martegani, Cesare Viel, Luca Vitone, among others. The unusual editorial strategy resides, for the most part, in the intrinsic power of discontinuity of meaning, but also of play, irony and détournement. E IL TOPO is still an international “movement” today, transmitting a libertarian attitude whose modus operandi tolerates no preset roles, but is always open to multidisciplinary and multi-authorial contributions. The presence of E IL TOPO is contextual, it adapts and manifests itself in multiple forms, where the only constant is the magazine of the same name, invariably printed with black ink on gray recycled paper.
The project was made possible thanks to the support of Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity by the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (eleventh edition 2022). Promoted by Viaindustriae, co-funded by Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee/MADRE museum, Naples, with the sponsor COMIX, Naples. Cultural partners: Magazzino Italian Art, New York; MADRE Museum of Naples, Italy; FRAC Occitanie Montpellier, France; MACRO, Rome, Italy; THY LAB, social enterprise, Hong Kong; FRAC Artothèque Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Limoges, France.
