Gionata Xerra brings his Travellers to Genoa

From Australopithecus to the technological contemporary man, the need for travel is inscribed inside human DNA.  With an exhibition about this theme, Italian artist and photographer Gionata Xerra explores the different dimensions connected to the inner meaning of it.

“Travellers,” hosted by the Museo dei Beni Culturali Cappuccini in Genoa until June 22, works on three levels, plus one.

Facing one another in a big room, two installations dive the visitors into a dialogue made of symbols and different voices. Twelve portraits of people from different ethnic groups coming out from open suitcases represent the different faces of travel. Staring still in different directions from the observer, they force him to look over the picture and see the roots of human journeys. On the other side of the wall runs a long installation of luggage. Again, in twelve of them Xerra installed a spyhole where to look in and find twelve different stories told in short videos. The exhibition ends in another room where a single suitcase with the spyhole is hanged to a wall: by looking inside, people see another little suitcase reflecting in a mirror. “Who’s the next traveller?” Xerra seems to ask.

The plus one level is given by the vocation of the Capuchin monks. Connected to poverty, they historically are an order of pilgrims called Minor Friars: the thoughts of an artist get combined with the museum where his art is exhibited.

Gionata Xerra, Travellers, Museo dei Beni Culturali Cappuccini di Genova, Genova, through June 22, 2014