On the occasion of the A.B.O. THEATRON. Art or Life, 2021-2022, exhibition at the Castello di Rivoli, Achille Bonito Oliva (Caggiano, 1939) donated his archive to the CRRI, making available to scholars an intellectual heritage that allows the reconstruction of more than fifty years of exhibitions and publications curated by him.
Bonito Oliva is a fundamental representative Oliva is fundamental representative of the role of the curator and, more generally, of the intellectual who overcomes the limitations of academic structures to redefine the investigative fields of contemporary art. Beginning with his training and activities in the field of visual poetry and the linguistic and literary neo-avantgardes of the late 1960s, in his projects, Bonito Oliva has worked with some of the most important artists of the second half of the 20th century. He has helped to define radical lines of research, such as those pertaining to the Italian Transavanguardia, and supported heterodox reinterpretations of art-historical movements, such as Italian and European Mannerism.
The documents in the Archival Collection reflect the many facets of Bonito Oliva’s eclectic fields of action and the interconnection between the disciplines that characterize his work. In addition to notes, correspondence, photographs, and materials related to his many exhibition projects, his catalogues, publications, artist’s books, journals containing his texts, ephemera, and memorabilia are collected.