Germano Celant: The Story of (MY) Exhibitions

A massive anthology of the exhibitions of the late, great Germano Celant, the Italian curator who named Arte Povera and created countless landmark shows of postwar European art

When Italian art critic and curator Germano Celant died in 2020 at the age of 79, he left behind a legacy of curatorial philosophy that decisively shaped postwar art in the West, and will undoubtedly influence future generations of curators. In 1967, Celant published his manifesto “Notes for a Guerrilla War” in which he coined the term Arte Povera to classify Italy’s artistic counter to the Pop art trends prevailing in the United States and the United Kingdom at the time.

This publication provides a chronology of 34 exhibitions curated by Celant, beginning with the first Arte Povera gallery show in 1967 and closing with the sprawling 2018 Prada Foundation show Post Zang Tumb Tuuum: Art Life Politics: Italia 1918–1943. Appraising the exhibitions as well as the theoretical writings from their respective catalogs, this volume seeks to reconstruct the most important shows of Celant’s career from initial conception to public reception. The Story of (MY) Exhibitions explores the unique approach to curation that characterized Celant’s life and work. His career trajectory is a nonlinear evolution of personal interpretation and historical documentation that prioritizes nontraditional media and strives to break down boundaries between different artistic languages.