The exhibition “Erasing to Create” by artist Emilio Isgrò has opened in London at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art. It has been organised by the Consulate General of Italy in London as part of the events marking the 80th anniversary of the Italian Republic.
With “Erasing to Create” – as Consul General Domenico Bellantone pointed out – London pays tribute to one of the most original and recognisable figures in Italian contemporary art, whose work continues to explore the relationship between language, image and knowledge.
The exhibition traces the evolution of Isgrò’s distinctive artistic language, from his early experiments in visual poetry to the most representative examples of his famous “Erasure” technique, a practice in which words and letters in printed texts are obscured to generate new meanings and visual rhythms.
Six Italian MPs from the Italy–United Kingdom Friendship Group attended the opening ceremony: Alessandro Cattaneo, Fabrizio Benzoni, Gianmauro Dell’Olio, Lavinia Mennuni, Lia Quartapelle Procopio and Simone Billi. A presence that also highlights the cultural and institutional significance of the initiative within the context of bilateral relations between Italy and the United Kingdom.
The exhibition brings together 35 of the artist’s iconic works, including a new piece dedicated to Brexit, created specifically for the London exhibition. The exhibition also highlights Isgrò’s reflection, beginning in the late 1960s, on maps and globes: erased place names and transformed maps become tools for engaging the public with themes of space, identity, memory and the politics of communication.
