On Wednesday 24 May 2023, from 6 to 9 pm, Si vis pacem, a solo exhibition by Carlo Bonfà, opens at Galleria Studio Cenacchi, Via Santo Stefano 63, Bologna. The exhibition runs from 18 May to 15 June.

Less than a year after the Mantua-born artist’s death, the exhibition offers a concise insight into his artistic practice, focusing on a specific body of work.

The title refers to the Latin phrase Si vis pacem, para bellum by Publius Vegetius Renatus. Most of the works on display engage with the theme of war. Through his characteristic irony, Bonfà created series with titles such as Anti-personnel Mines, Tanks and Combatants. Rather than instruments of death, however, he conceived them as ‘toys’, overturning their apparent meaning to expose the senselessness of war itself.

Sandro Orlandi Stagl (ARTantide Gallery) wrote of his work some years ago:

“Carlo Bonfà addresses the theme of war by creating objects whose forms and appearance evoke weapons, yet which are intended neither to harm nor, still less, to teach the art of warfare. His strategies are aimed first of all at improving our relationship with ourselves and then with the reality around us, prompting us to reflect on how harmful and absurd certain theories devised to resolve conflicts can be. […]

Carlo Bonfà’s toy weapons, stripped of their function, have nothing of Dadaist symbolism or Futurist force. Instead, they become a kind of simulacrum whose appealing forms and vivid colours attract the viewer, disguising the actual danger of the function they represent. Their playful quality removes all aggression from them and deprives them of their identity as objects designed to cause harm. Bonfà succeeds in expressing beauty where there is horror.”

Biography

Carlo Bonfà
Pegognaga (Mantua), 1944 – Mantua, 2022

In 2016, Bonfà joined the Arte Etica movement and published his own ethical manifesto, entitled StrAtego.

In the 1950s, he moved with his family to Verona, where he studied art.

In 1968, Galleria Ferrari organised his first solo exhibition, accompanied by a critical text by Tommaso Trini. During these years, Bonfà exhibited several times at Galleria Ferrari in Verona and took part in landmark exhibitions including Campo Urbano in Como, Art Terminal at Toselli in Milan in 1969 and Gennaio 70 in Bologna in 1970. He also held several solo exhibitions during this period.

In the early 1980s, Renato Barilli and Francesca Alinovi included him in the Nuovi-Nuovi group.