An ongoing series: Beyond the Collection focuses on a different work belonging to the Pinacoteca Agnelli on each occasion, presenting art-historical masterpieces in dialogue with works from other prestigious national and international collections or reactivating them through the work of contemporary artists. The aim of the series is to establish new relationships that reflect both on what’s present in the collection but also on what’s absent, bringing to light forgotten figures and developing narratives that challenge and subvert traditional readings of art history.

Giambattista Tiepolo’s famous painting titled Alabardiere in un paesaggio (A Halberdier in a Landscape) housed in the Pinacoteca Agnelli, is the starting point for Simon Starling’s exhibition project. Continuing research he began in 2019, the British conceptual artist proposes the reunification of the canvas with its missing left-hand side. By means of photography, sculpture and installation, Starling reinterprets the narrative of Tiepolo’s painting and in the division of the canvas identifies a metaphor for the history of the context and the collection in which it is housed. Returning to the site of the artist’s first encounter with the painting, this ongoing project is now further enriched by the presence of other works by Tiepolo on loan from international collections, which offer new keys to interpreting A Halberdier in a Landscape.