This Is The End

This Is The End, the first exhibition organized by AND, the Third Sector Organization, began when the enthusiasm for the post-pandemic recovery was dashed by the news of the invasion of Ukraine.
From that moment on, the awareness emerged that the world was changing very rapidly. This was confirmed by a series of events that overwhelmed the entire population: the financial crisis, two wars on our doorstep, the Iranian crisis, energy crises, the nuclear threat, drought, floods, the skyrocketing world population, and the arrival of Artificial Intelligence.
All of this has been grafted onto the increasingly pressing issues of climate change and the migration of people fleeing war, poverty, and the consequences of global warming. In the West, not a week goes by without an updated bulletin of femicides and abuses. Women, in many countries, are seeing their rights reduced or abolished. The world as we knew it is changing rapidly, the crises hitting us pile up and strain our ability to manage and adapt.
Since this exhibition was conceived and first displayed in the Conference Hall of the Royal Villa of Monza in 2024, what was once a feeling and a possibility has become a certainty: the world as we perceived it until recently has changed. That naive promise of peace, prosperity, vested rights, and an advanced civilization, that sense of progress, which we had taken for granted as Westerners, has already been called into question.
The title chosen for the exhibition is inspired by the Doors song that Coppola chose as the soundtrack to the unforgettable first scene of the film Apocalypse Now (1979), loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness. All three (song, film, and book) provoke reflection on horror, madness, and human psychology. The exhibition aims to be a cry proposed by the artists, who have always been sensitive to the vibrations that the world produces and custodians of their reworking.