Let's have some fun. Exhibition ENJOY.

What do you get when you merge together an art gallery and an amusement park? Cloister of Bramante kindly answers this question by presenting 'Enjoy. Art meets Amusement' - surely, the most entertaining exhibition in Rome. Fifteen artists from all over the world, known to shock, inspire, trick and amaze, meet under one roof, tucked in the maze of narrow city streets, just a few steps away from Piazza Navona. 

I had a pleasure of visiting it couple of weeks ago, and never have I seen so many young people in one place, all admiring art (taking selfies with it). Since Cloister of Bramante is known to be the cool kid on the block when it comes to art galleries, taking pictures and videos inside is not frowned upon, on the contrary, it is encouraged. They even have an official hashtag #enjoychiostro, which presents endless feed of grownups remembering childhood, paying with red balloons or posing with oversized objects.
And yes, I was one of them.

Studio 65. Mickey dei sogni (eng. Mickey of the dreams).

Erwin Wurm. One minute sculptures. 

One frame is a mirror, the other - a way out. Good luck. 

Artists use space, sound and special effects to create their own version of reality. One in particular was exceptionally fun - visitors had to find their way through the labyrinth of mirrors and optical illusions. The installation, by the argentinian artist Leandro Erlich, at first, seems like a regular changing room hidden by the red curtain. Only when you step inside, you notice that something is off. Some mirrors are not actually there, they just lead you to the next, identical, changing room, which leads to the next one, and then the next one. This situation repeats until you get desperately lost among the disorienting reflections, give up looking for the exit, set up a camp for the night, meet other lost souls, get into long philosophical conversations with them about how we got here and how we will lead our lives differently if we ever got out.   

Anyhow, I was amazed by Erlich's ability to turn this relatively mundane environment - a changing room - into a dreamlike space. Actually, it made me feel as if I were inside the Christopher Nolan's film Inception. (Anyone who hasn't seen it yet, should fix this, immediately).

    

Lost in a labyrinth of Leandro Erlich's Changing Rooms.

After finally stepping out of the labyrinth of mirrors, I walked straight into a house of horrors. As you do. I was standing in a completely dark corridor where the only source of light were the huge glowing eyes hanging from the ceiling. Oh, have I mentioned, those were moving and blinking eyes. 

Our next artist, Tony Oursler, uses video projections of eyes onto large spheres to remind us that we live in the age of surveillance and social media. I highly value contemporary art which corresponds to our present-day reality. This installation made me think about Edward Snowden's leaks, revealing how apps on our phones are constantly spying on us, and information about us is gathered on a larger scale than anyone suspected. This aspect of our culture is unnerving and therefore this room is constructed to make you feel accordingly. In short, the big brother is watching you. Sleep tight.

This is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Thank goodness for the next room, which was dedicated to brazilian Ernesto Neto, an artist known for his meditative sculptures, bringing closer together people and nature. The centrepiece was a welcoming hammock. I could actually lay down in it and swing calmly until the image of spooky eyes faded from my memory. 
Next up was Martin Creed's room, generously filled with the red balloons. The queue to get in was longer than outside a club on a friday night. Children and adults alike were eager to going in and play. Balloons were flying left and right, while gallery assistants struggled relentlessly to keep them from pouring out through the door. 
Meaning of Creed's artwork is amplified by the contact with the public. In an interview with Miranda Sawyer for The Guardian he said "Art is just things in the world, usually an arrangement of colour and shapes. It's people who have the feelings and the reactions." This is the idea that 'Enjoy' is putting forward - to redefine the relationship between the art and the public. 

15 minutes of fame as a part of an art installation. 

99 Luftballons are safely contained for now

There were many other impressive artworks achieving the impossible. Italians Piero Fogliati presents brightly painted shadows, and Gino de Dominicis - the invisible art installation, composed entirely of the sound of laughter. Artist from Britain Matt Collishaw revives the Victorian-era predecessor of film - the zoetrope to create a moving sculpture made of paradise birds flapping their wings around continuously blooming flowers. It doesn't fail to capture your attention, in fact, the spectacle of shapes and colours is so hypnotic that it is hard to look away. 

Mat Collishaw. The Centrifugal Soul.

Painted shadows of Piero Fogliati. Prisma Meccanico 

A cherry on top of this thrilling exhibition is the Flowers and People - Dark, an art piece by Teamlab, who describe themselves as an interdisciplinary group of professionals marrying together science and technology with art and creativity. And I have to tell you, the result is stunning.
This time I was looking at the digital painting of flowers, which sprout, grow, bloom, and inevitably scatter their shining petals before vanishing out of sight. This life cycle reacts to the number of people in the room and their vicinity to the screen. When the room is empty, only lone buds decorate the painting, but when a artwork "senses" your presence prepare for  the spectacle of  lights and colour.

There are many other artists I haven't mentioned, I'll leave it as a surprise for you to discover.

ENJOY. Art meets Amusement welcomes visitors until the 25th of February, 2018.

Adress: Chiostro del Bramante. Via della Pace, Roma

https://www.chiostrodelbramante.it/