At Naples Airport the exhibition "What We Want" by Francesco Jodice
The exhibition "What We Want" by Francesco Jodice was inaugurated in the boarding hall of Naples airport, in the presence of the artist, Angela Tecce, President of the Donnaregina Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Eva Fabbris, Director of the Madre museum, and Roberto Barbieri, CEO of GESAC.
The exhibition represents the second cycle of works from the Madre collection housed in the airport spaces, after the first installation, "Le massacre du printemps" (2020) by Mathilde Rosier. The project is the result of the collaboration between GESAC, the leading contemporary art museum in Campania, and the Amici del Madre Association, with the aim of bringing contemporary art to the airport and enriching the passenger experience.
"What We Want" is a vast photographic archive that investigates the relationship between urban landscape and human landscape. The project, still evolving, is presented as a geopolitical atlas composed of images and texts that tell the transformation of territories as a reflection of collective desires. Over a period of twenty-five years, Francesco Jodice has collected materials in over 170 metropolises on five continents.
The Donnaregina Foundation has acquired a corpus of photographic works from the "What We Want" series thanks to the support of the Strategia Fotografia 2024 call, promoted by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture. The works exhibited at the airport are presented for the first time after their entry into the Madre collection.
Four works have been selected for the exhibition at Naples Airport : What We Want, Aral, T67, 2008, What We Want, São Paulo, T36, 2006, What We Want, Punta del Este, T16, 2001 and What We Want, Hong Kong, T47, 2006. These are images that tell different geographical contexts, but united by the same reading: the city as a dynamic organism, crossed by economic, social and cultural tensions.
Alongside the exhibition, a performance workshop was also developed involving 12 students from the Oriani-Guarino Comprehensive Institute of San Pietro a Patierno, led by the school principal Tiziana Buono. The course was divided into two parts: the first, held in the classroom together with the artist on the eve of the inauguration, was dedicated to the themes of geopolitics and the transformation of territories; the second was held directly in the exhibition space of the airport, where the students participated in the set-up by transcribing geopolitical texts in dialogue with the works on the wall paper of the exhibition .
The collaboration between the Donnaregina Foundation, the Madre Museum of Naples, GESAC and Amici del Madre, which began in spring 2025, is not limited to exhibitions in the boarding hall. The project has already led to the creation of workshops with artists and educational operators of the museum aimed at young people from the neighborhoods near the airport. With the support of the VII Municipality and the involvement of internationally renowned artists, a path dedicated to the sounds of nature and ancient civilizations curated by Walter Maioli and a drawing workshop on Neapolitan symbolism led by Marco Pio Mucci have been created.
For departing passengers, the exhibition thus offers the opportunity to encounter contemporary art in a place of international passage, transforming the time of waiting into a moment of discovery and reflection. The project has already been presented in important international venues such as Documenta, Venice Biennale, Tate Modern and Castello di Rivoli.
Useful information
Exhibition title: "Francesco Jodice What We Want (1996 - ongoing)".
Location: C20 boarding area, after the security checks of Naples airport.
Works: digital inkjet prints on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Bright White cotton paper, framed in wood and plexiglas.
