Eleonora Molignani / Olmo Erba – La bestia nel cuore
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La bestia nel cuore
Eleonora Molignani | Olmo Erba
Curated by Nicola Ricciardi
Opening 11 June 18.30
Ncontemporary Milan
Ncontemporary is pleased to present “Bestia nel cuore” (Beast in the Heart), a two-person exhibition featuring Eleonora Molignani (Italy, 1995) and Olmo Erba (Italy, 1997), curated by Nicola Ricciardi. The title, taken from a verse by poet Giorgio Caproni, evokes a threshold — that of the gallery — beyond which figures, symbols, and compositional structures from distant eras become living material that continues to nourish contemporary imagination.
Through a series of works such as drawings on antique paper and oil paintings, Molignani and Erba examine medieval and Renaissance iconography from differing yet kindred perspectives, focusing particularly on its function, legibility, and evocative potential, while reinterpreting its symbols and figures in the present. However, the works on display do not merely evoke the past with nostalgia; instead, they engage with it in a way that is respectful, poetic, and at once playful and visionary. In the series Achiappa pulci (Flea Catchers, 2025–ongoing), Eleonora Molignani delicately illustrates a Renaissance fashion trend common among Italian courts: the use of sable fur as ornamentation. Though once a symbol of elegance, the image conjures a decadent aesthetic in which the animal, through acts of concealment, becomes visible by attempting not to be seen. With his Reliquaries and masks of penitent souls, Olmo Erba delves into the cult of saints and folk traditions, exploring their symbolic and hagiographic meanings and drawing attention to the sacred and narrative value of the image.
In the project room, their individual research paths converge in a video work titled Al posto delle fragole (2024), created jointly by the two artists. The performance once again reflects a theme dear to both — and present in the works in the main room — that of repetitive gesture. In a setting suspended between ritual and intimate poetry, Bestia nel cuore (Beast in the Heart) invites visitors to see the past as fertile ground, still capable of informing and enriching today’s artistic landscapes.
Eleonora Molignani (1995) and Olmo Erba (1997) are visual artists who graduated from the G. Carrara Academy of Fine Arts in Bergamo. Molignani’s work explores antiquity through a lens of refined poetic elegance interwoven with a subtle, playful critique of historical memory, focusing on the relationship between humans and animals. Erba, on the other hand, investigates past eras — particularly the Middle Ages and the Renaissance — offering a personal and original reinterpretation. He revisits their volumes, symbols, and fetishes, transforming them through a contemporary painterly language, where spirituality is examined not in religious terms, but through psychoanalytic and humanistic dimensions. In recent years, they have participated in several group exhibitions, including Il gioco del tasso nel sacco at Gres Art 671, Bergamo; Dove cresce il roveto at the Ex Monastero del Carmine, Bergamo; and Piatto di Cipolle at GAMeC, Bergamo.
