In 2011 Jorge Satorre visited the town of Montereale Valcellina in the Italian Friuli several times, where Menocchio, the miller of Carlo Ginzburg’s The Cheese and the Worms (1976) lived and was sentenced to death by the inquisition. This text by the Italian historian is a paradigmatic example of the historiographic methodology known as Italian microhistory.
Los negros [The Blacks] is based on speculating on the possible existence of elements related to Ginzburg’s text that do not appear in the book, taking up Satorre’s experience as a reader and illustrator in which a tacit dialogue arises with the author and the text. With the help of various collaborators, mainly a specialist on Menocchio, Aldo Colonnello and the researcher Davide Zanutta, the artist developed a series of works, departing from Ginzburg’s book and interpreting found vestiges and stories collected during his stay at Montereale Valcellina.
The installation reunites a number of Satorre’s chapters in Los negros for the first time in Mexico in a display that unearths hidden elements in the gallery and museum itself.
Jorge Satorre: Los negros is the first of two solo exhibitions in gallery -1 as part of Normal Exceptions.