{"id":2601,"date":"2026-10-14T18:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/?p=2601"},"modified":"2026-10-14T18:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:58:25","slug":"black-sun-oil-and-contemporary-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/en\/2026\/10\/14\/black-sun-oil-and-contemporary-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Sun \u2013 Oil and Contemporary Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VILLA MEDICI \u2013 FLORENCE
October 9, 2026 \u2013 January 18, 2027<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From October 9, 2026, to January 18, 2027, the French Academy in Rome \u2013 Villa Medici presents the exhibition Black Sun: Oil and Contemporary Art<\/strong>, the next chapter in the cycle on the elements launched by Villa Medici in 2022. Following Stories of Stones<\/a> (inspired by Roger Caillois) and The Song of the Sirens<\/a> (dedicated to water), this new exhibition addresses\u2014through the common thread of oil\u2014the question of the artwork in the age of global warming and our civilization in flames.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More specifically, the exhibition explores the impact of oil on contemporary artistic practices<\/strong> and how our collective imagination has been reshaped by modernity. An exploration of the perilous ties between art and oil through a body of work examining how the oil industry has shaped power relations between the Global North and South\u2014driven by the intensive extraction of natural resources, particularly in the post-colonial era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From refineries, pipelines, and offshore platforms to revolutions, coups, oil crises, and climate catastrophes, the artists on display\u2014ranging from Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, and Robert Rauschenberg to Monira Al Qadiri, Zina Saro-Wiwa, and Ana Alenso\u2014present a genuine visual and critical history of “petromodernity.” Oil appears here not merely as a resource but as an active force\u2014a complex of material and symbolic flows coursing through the artworks, or even as a cosmological system, a drama of natural and chemical elements influencing politics, economics, and urban life\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition also examines the strategies oil infrastructures employ to render themselves invisible<\/strong>, as well as their representation for aesthetic and ideological purposes. Particular emphasis is placed on the convergence of artistic and activist practices<\/strong>, which join forces in the struggle against “fossil imperialism”<\/strong>\u2014a term coined by essayist and activist Andreas Malm\u2014to envision a post-oil world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This exhibition is also the result of the long-standing dialogue Villa Medici maintains with its former fellows. It builds upon research conducted by Morad Montazami<\/a>\u2014an art history fellow at Villa Medici in 2023\u20132024\u2014who developed his studies on \u201cpetromodernity\u201d there, a concept that lies at the heart of this exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by Zam\u00e2n Books<\/strong> and Villa Medici<\/strong>, featuring a collection of original texts that explore the themes in depth through the perspectives of philosophers, art historians, and researchers.
Texts by: Lotte Arndt & David Castaner, Laura Hindelang, St\u00e9phanie LeMenager, Salar Mameni, Andreas Malm, Amina Adebisi Odofin, Justinien Tribillon<\/strong>.
Graphic design: Walid Bouchouchi, Akakir Studio.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VILLA MEDICI \u2013 FLORENCEOctober 9, 2026 \u2013 January 18, 2027 From October 9, 2026, to January 18, 2027, the French Academy in Rome \u2013 Villa Medici presents the exhibition Black Sun: Oil and Contemporary Art, the next chapter in the cycle on the elements launched by Villa Medici in 2022. Following Stories of Stones (inspired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2602,"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601\/revisions\/2602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.butterfly-transport.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}