Maria Thereza Alvez
Why Here

Livorno in contemporanea presenta (03)

Maria Thereza Alves > Why here?
Jimmie Durham > Practically Pinnacle
curated by Carico Massimo

Opening: Saturday 14th of November 2015
11.00 hrs. > Maria Thereza Alves, “Why here?” > Mercato Centrale, via Buontalenti
12.30 hrs. > Lunch realized by the chef Massimo Neri > Salone Centrale del Mercato
17.30 hrs. > Jimmie Durham, “Practically Pinnacle” > Carico Massimo, ex Magazzini Generali, via della Cinta Esterna 48/50

Opened: until the 14th of December of 2015
Mercato Centrale, regular market hours
Carico Massimo, by appointment

The Municipality of Livorno and Carico Massimo Association present the third appointment of “Livorno in contemporanea”, a platform of the city devoted to contemporary art. Maria Thereza Alves and Jimmie Durham are key figures of the international art scene. After the experience of a brief stay in Livorno, Alves proposes a project for the Central Market of the city, while Durham for the external spaces of Carico Massimo.

Maria Thereza Alves > Why here?

Maria Thereza Alves (Sao Paolo, Brazil, 1961) is an artist that since many years has realized site-specific art works around the themes of art and ecology, of local and environmental stories involving botanists, archives and communities. The artist has proposed a project for Livorno that concentrates around the Central Market of the city and its regular visitors, activating a process of knowledge sharing between all the involved persons.

Street vendors, traders, university researchers, immigrants, political refugees, native citizens, have all participated to the realization of two video interviews answering to these two questions: “Why are you here?” and “Which is your favorite plant?” The videos will be installed inside two counters of the market along a small publication resulting from a research of the agricultural products that traverse through the Port of Livorno. The opening day, a professional chef will realize dishes – combining local traditional cooking and new recipes reflecting the wider influence of recent residents in Livorno from different areas of the world – that will be served during lunchtime.

Photos: Antonio Theo Pini and Juan Pablo Macías