THE MAGAZINE OF THOUGHTS, DREAMS, IMAGES THAT PASS THROUGH EVERY ART OF DOING, SEEING, DISCOVERING

15 July 2011

Biennale Venezia 2011 - Padiglione Ucraina - di Enrico Mercatali




 Mega - Istallazione di Oksana Mas
nella Chiesa di San Fantin



Biennale Venezia 2011 - Padiglione Ucraina






La spettacolare installazione di Oksana Mas Post-vs-Proto-Renaissance, sezione di un insieme lungo 134 e alto 92 metri per comporre il quale l'artista ha utilizzato 3.640.000 uova di legno



L'installazione di Oksana Mas dal titolo Post-vs-Proto-Renaissance, presentata - a cura di Achille Bonito Oliva e Oleksiy Rogotchenko -alla Biennale di Venezia nel Padiglione ucraino realizzato nella Chiesa di San Fantin, è la sezione di un'opera monumentale, lunga 134 e alta 92 metri, composta da 3.640.000 uova di legno. Il riferimento iconografico è l'opera dei fratelli Van Eyck, artisti proto-rinascimentali che hanno dipinto "I giardini del paradiso" per una celebre pala d'altare nella città fiamminga di Gand. Le uova realizzano una vera e propria architettura che ricorda la struttura di un mosaico i cui singoli tasselli sono costituiti dal tatuaggio iconografico sulle uova. Qui arte antica e moderna si fondono in un'immagine che contiene storia dei peccati e desiderio di riscatto, speranza per il futuro e desiderio di purezza. Nella Chiesa di San Fantin, l'installazione interloquisce in modo ideale con lo spazio sacro nel quale è inserita: a seconda della distanza l'opera si scompone come in un file digitale di uova-pixel, dove ognuna rappresenta il drammatico destino dell'uomo. La contemplazione dell'opera di Oksana Mas è una forma di iniziazione verso una nuova vita, una vita piena.



Ritratto dell'artista ucraina Oxana Mas


L'arte è il tentativo di riparare un lutto, la perdita della totalità e la caduta in un mondo parziale e frammentario. In tal senso la creazione diventa un processo di accrescimento e di recupero da parte dell'artista che usa la forma come approdo lampante di una riconquistata totalità. La sfera è l'emblema di una circolarità che scorre e unisce, come dimostra la storia dell'arte che dal Medioevo in avanti ha sempre coniugato ragione e intuito, razionalità e spiritualità.



L'istallazione nella Chiesa di San Fantin durante l'allestimento



Oksana Mas lavora da molti anni nel recupero della sfera come forma geometrica capace di contenere dentro di sé un principio di unità universale. L'artista parte dall'usanza popolare ucraina dei "krashenki", uova di legno coperte da tradizionali decorazioni per la Pasqua. Per la realizzazione di questa grande installazione, l'artista ha fatto dipingere le uova, incarnazione della sfera, a migliaia di persone: carcerate, intellettuali e soggetti di professione ed estrazione sociale diverse, di quarantadue Paesi, per poi assemblarle nel proprio studio a ricostruire su enorme scala la pala di Gand.
Oltre al Padiglione a San Fantin, per l'intero periodo della Biennale, sarà visibile in Campo San Stae un'installazione all'aperto sempre ad opera dell'artista Oksana Mas.





Oksana Mas è nata nel 1969 a Ilyichevsk in Ucraina, nel distretto di Odessa. Nel 1986 si è diplomata alla scuola d'arte della sua città e nel 1992 alla Scuola statale d'Arte di Odessa. Senza mai abbandonare la sua attività di artista nel 2003 si è laureata in filosofia, vive e lavora a Odessa.



L'artista davanti ad una sua opera


Mostre personali
2010
Helium-3. Aidan Gallery, Mosca
Oksana Mas. Fundació Casamor', Museu Dali e Rambla de Figueras, Figueras, Spagna
Spheres of Good and Spiritual Reneissance. Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Kiev, Ucraina
2009
When Stars Align. Zorya Fine Art, New York
2008
Unique Sides of Routine. Mimesis Gallery, Ginevra
MAS. Museo d'Arte Moderna di Mosca, Russia
2007
Hired to Dream. Aidan Gallery, Mosca, Russia.
2006
Point of assemblage. Ladyzhinskaya Gallery, Odessa, Ucraina
Infanta. Da Vinci Gallery, Kiev, Ucraina
Jaguar's valve. Arena "City", Kiev, Ucraina
2005
Epidermis's phenomenon. "Karas" Gallery, Kiev, Ucraina
2004
Oksana Mas. Paintings. Aidan Gallery. Mosca, Russia
Black/white reverse. IRIS Gallery, Barcellona, Spagna



Oksana Mas, artista Ucraina, presenta l'installazione dal titolo Post-vs-Proto-Renaissance che è una sezione  dell'omonima opera monumentale lunga 134 e alta 92 metri, composta da 3.640.000 uova di legno dipinte. Il riferimento iconografico è l'opera dei fratelli Van Eyck che hanno dipinto nel 1432 il  polittico dell'Agnello Mistico per l' altare della chiesa di San Bavone a Gand, qui sopra riprodotto.


2003
Oksana Mas. Museo d'Arte Occidentale-Orientale, Ucraina
Everyday originality. Sala delle Esposizioni del Ministero degli Esteri dell'Ucraina, Kiev
Oksana Mas. Centro di Arte Contemporanea "Soviart". Kiev, Ucraina
2002
365.Centro Espositivo Morvokzal, Odessa, Ucraina
2001
Oksana Mas. Museo Statale Korolenko, Odessa, Ucraina
1997
Oksana Mas. Art Gallery Valkenburg, Paesi Bassi
Oksana Mas. M-Gallery, Praga
Oksana Mas. Museo di Belle Arti, Ilyichevsk, Ucraina
1995
Oksana Mas. Museo di Belle Arti, Ilyichevsk, Ucraina
Oksana Mas. Spazio Espositivo dell'Unione degli Artsti Ucraini, Kiev



    

"POST-VS-PROTO RENAISSANCE" è il titolo dell'opera presentata in Biennale. Qui un'altra opera dell'artista, precedente a quelle presentate in Biennale, basata sull'utilizzo delle uova di legno dipinte, che sono parte della tradizione decorativa e simbolica del suo paese d'origine







Un'opera dell'artista basata sulla forma sferica, da lei prediletta,
in quanto simbolo stesso di perfezione. Una sfera di piccole sfere. Una sfera di pixel-sfere



Oltre al Padiglione a San Fantin, per l'intero periodo della Biennale, sarà visibile in Campo San Stae un'installazione all'aperto sempre ad opera dell'artista Oksana Mas.




Oksana Mas, dettaglio dell'opera esposta a San Fantin, che mostra l'uso che è stato fatto delle pixel-uova, fatte dipingere a mano dall'artista secondo precise criteri ottenuti con elaborazioni informatiche studiate ad hoc





Sopra: due opere dell'artista realizzate prima di approdare al linguaggio odierno: una perfetta sintesi tra tradizione e internazionalismo, tra spiritualità e materia, tra sentimento e tecnica apprezzata sia dalla critica che dal numerosissimo pubblico che ad essa si è accostato con grande entusiasmo




Un altro ritratto dell'artista ucraina Oksana Mas



Padiglione della Repubblica Ucraina 54. Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte La Biennale di Venezia
Artista Oksana Mas
Commissario Victor Sydorenko
Curatori Achille Bonito Oliva Oleksiy Rogotchenko
Co-curatori Ute Kilter Diana Fedorova-Pecherskaya
Organizzazione Ministry of Culture of Ukraine Modern Art Research Institute NAAU Fedorova Cultural Foundation Change Performing Arts Venezia


Luogo: Chiesa di San Fantin
Dal 4 giugno al 27 novembre 2011
dalle 10.00 alle 19.00 chiuso lunedì (tranne 6 giugno, 15 agosto e 21 novembre)
 

Ufficio stampa Studio Systema Tel. +39 041 5201959 Fax +39 041 5201960
systema@studiosystema.it
Dott.ssa Adriana Vianello 349.0081276 Dott. Giovanni Sgrignuoli 328.9686390
Change Performing Arts Dott.ssa Laura Artoni 335.7324796 





Lesa - Lago Maggiore, 15 luglio 2011
Segnalato da Enrico Mercatali
TACCUINI INTERNAZIONALI

14 July 2011

The Biennale of Arte in Venezia 2011

Actually on production, but already readeable:



 Venetian Biennale



Bice Curiger, "Patronnese" of Biennale Art 2011


BIENNALE  ART
2 0 1 1



"ILLUMI - NATIONS"
(Illuminations)  




Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto, "the animals’ creation", Venice, Gallery of the Academy, momentarily exhibited at the Biennale- Art 2011-07-12 Above the title: Loris Gréaud, the work leaning against a wharf of the Arsenal,


"The Geppetto Pavilion"



Today the 45th International Art Exposition, the Venetian Biennale, (which will remain open until November 27th 2011), has opened its doors to the public. People have been talking about it for months, especially since they have discovered that the curator, this year, would  be a woman, in charge of the exhibition’s setting-out, and all those powers linked to the creation and management of the most important artistic event of the world, which imposes and allows some choices that will have great cultural and economical repercussions. A curator, the lady who has this year signed the Biennale Art in Venice, with many credentials: an out-and-out all-able in the field of vanguards, a breeding ground of important frequentations and ideas, an art historian and critic, Bice Curiger, aged 63, Swiss and native of Zurich (above in the picture).




 The poublic of previews, opne to critics and journalists, looks at the big canvass by Tintoretto “The Last Supper”, coming from Saint Giorgio Maggiore Basilica, almost 6 meters long



She has been put in charge of an hard task, and considered the first approaches with critics and journalists during the first days of opening, it looks like she has done a good job. She had to assemble those artists from every Country who traditionally partecipate  to the event, in addition to many new artists, while Vittorio Sgarbi has taken care of the Italia Pavilion.

We think that both the results must be appreciated, besides the numerous polemics, especially regarding the choices made for the italian section.

Illumi-Nations (Illuminations) is the title that Bice Curiger has wanted to assign to this year’s kermesse, constituted by new art proposals of 83 artists coming from all over the world, with a number of Countries which is way higher than the years before.

The Illuminations have been a real “brainwave”, like the curator herself says, because this term is full of different and “illuminating” allusions, as soon as you compare it with the artistic proposals and with the different “philosophies” that they bring. They concern all the aspects linked to the use of light in art, especially in a context like the Venetian one, which deeply feeds on light, with its reflections of lagoon water, in its variables of shade and half-light, as its history keeps reminding. It’s nota n accident that the Swiss curator has wanted to draw her inspiration from Tintoretto, one of the most well-known artist of the 16th Century, to the extent that she has put at the entrance of the exhibitions three of its canvasses, between the most famous and beautiful ones.




Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto, “Body snatching of San Marco”,151 x 258 cm, Venice, Accademia Gallery. Tintoretto has painted many canvasses with this same subject, and one of them, maybe the most published, is in Brera picture gallery in Milan.



The other three canvasses by Tintoretto in Biennala are “The Last Supper”, coming from Saint Giorgio Maggiore Basilica, and other two works kept in the Accademia Galleries, the “Body snatching of San Marco”, and the “Animals Creation”, lent to Biennale.
“These paintings by Tintoretto, one of the most experimental artists of the italian art, are particularly fascinating  for their ecstatic light, almost feverish”- has declared Curiger- “and for their reckless approach to the composition that reverses the classic order of Renaissance. These works will play a fundamental role in the exhibition, establishing an artistic, historical and emotional relation with the local context”. A challenge to welcome?
Why these three great canvasses by Tintoretto?, they have asked her: “Because peopole who come to the Biennale, usually, want to see only the Biennale: a contemporary art bubble in the city. I wanted to remind that, outside of it, there is Venice”. Did you want to remind it through Tintoretto’s light, since the title of “your” Biennale is “ILLUMInations”? She answers: “Yes, it is true, I chose three canvasses by Tintoretto where light ha san important role. I’m thinking about the immaterial angels of “The Last Supper”, pure brushstrokes of light; or the rainstorm of the “Body snatching of San Marco”. But my decisioni s also a provocation for all the artists in Biennale, an invitation to a comparison with the past”.



The use of the light component as a protagonist this year has had Tintoretto as a sponsor, reconnecting the gloomy, dark and complex, terrible and latent, marshy and not always limpid contemporary art, which speaks about reality as it was something hard to decode, to the art of a more shining past. Bice Curiger seems to be proud and conscious of this, since she has made the corageous and innovative choice of Tintoretto as a guardian angel to the event, “because he was a creator of “bolts of thought”, and an inventor of a dazzling “feverish light”. Light is really important for Bice Curiger, who was born and now lives in Switzerland; the Italian and Venetian light always fascinates people who come from the North.

Let’s talk about the title of the biennale, “ILLUMI – nations”. A word game between light and nations, those nations that participate, way more numerous than in the past; more numerous are the artists too, a big part of them is younger that 35 and there are about 30 women.



“Compassionate Dream”, Jean Fabre. After the laboratories of the past March, staring from June 1st 2011, in conjunction with the Biennale, the Flemish artist presents this year five new sculptures of big dimensions in the New Big School of Saint Mary of Mercy. It is, for the artist, a performative work, which represents the sensations of a mother who wants to replace her dead son.
Between the works, one of the most popular is a new reading of Pity by Michelangelo, entitled by Fabre Compassionate Dream (Pity V). Christ is portraied with the artist’s face, and Mary with the one of a skull.

The fruition of the sculptures will take place through a particular ritual. The spectators will be asked to take off their shoes, and once equipped with slippers provided by the artist, they will be allowed to go up to the platform-stage and immerse themselves into the sight.



Coming back to the ladies between the artists, the curator has written a book about Georgia O'Keeffe and Méret Oppenheim...« The one about Oppenheim was a biography. Says Bice: “She asked me to do that: an honour, because at that time I was 30, and she was already aged and one of the protagonists of surrealism. Getting to know her and working with her was really exciting: intelligent, ironic, still so open to the world. And she gave me a beautiful gift, when the book was published: a collage that Max Ernst, her big love, had created for her, dedicated to her. Giving it to me was an act of trust, a donation of something intimate and precious, that she really treasured». The interviewer then asks her: “ If you could bring home something of the Biennale, your Biennale, what would you choose?” “Maybe Loris Gréaud’s whale?” (she laughs: it’s an installation at the Arsenal, picture above the title). “Just kidding, it wouldn’t certainly fit in my apartment. But I have many works made by the artists I have known, whose exhibitions I have cured: I have always bought something, afterwards, maybe something small. They’re like pages of a diary for me, concentric circe of a biography. I’m not a collector: I would never sell anything”. Question: “Do you own something by Méret Oppenheim?” Answer: “Yes, some drawings.In her testament she wrote that I could choose what I liked. A touching act.” Question: “Do you wish that a person come sto the Biennale and feels…happy”. Answer: “Happiness? In the contemporary art you never talk about happiness, is it a provocation? (she smiles) “ And yet art can do it: it illuminates us, sometimes even with joy”.
This episode reminded by her can explain us her big passion, since she was young, for art, and everything of art and from art that can cause an emotion…a way traced long since, which has brought her to direct the Biennale, this year, with a sureness of touch, without any hesitation; she will be really appreciated for the acumen in the choice of the works, in the ability to continously correlate an artist with another, an idea and another in the complex articulation of their meanings, inside contemporary art.



 Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto, “The Last Supper”, Saint Giorgio Maggiore Basilicas

The three works by Tintoretto that have fascinated Bice Curiger have reference to some contemporary works in so far as the events’ representation is overlapped by paradoxical phenomena, which describe fleeting fragments of reality in which factors abnormal, unreal and full of suspence arise. The action of the protagonist figures emerges in theatrical circumstances, some supernatural events overlap them, and are presented in scandalous, inconceivable, absurd terms, and exposed to the public’s judgment.
That’s the way the sublime, gigantic classic canvasses become a viaticum for an attempt to penetrate contemporary art, made out of objectifications in which paradox and irony are always latent; but also artifice and metaphor, whose light emanates a san adventure of critical and desecrating spirit of the artist, while Cattelan’s birds flutter and defecate everywhere in an Hitchcock way.

In the world of art Bice Curiger is especially known for the creation of a sophisticated trade magazine like “Parkett”, created together with another lady,
Jacqueline Burkhardt, in 1984. Curiger has always dealt with women who were artists, starting from the first book about Georgia O’ Keeffe, or the biography about Méret Oppenheim. What about women at the Biennale of this year? Who will be there this year? Curiger answers: “Cindy Sherman will be there (american photographer and artist, known for her conceptual “self-portraits”), with an original “wallpaper”. Do you know what I find extraordinary about Sherman? That she has been able to reinvent herself. At the and of the 80’s they said” she has already done everything… whereas …”. The Biennale this year has been strict: no details and no pictures before the paint.” Question: “ Give us another anticipation, another woman that we will meet…”; “Piplotti Risi”. Piplotti risi, videoartist, Swiss: she has been recently called by the archistar Jean Nouvel for the new hotel Sofitel in Vienna. And its decorated and ipercoloured ceiling, in the restaurant at the highest floor, has become a new “Landmark” of the city, visible also from far away”. Question: “Did you like it?” : “I like Piplotti Risi’s work, and I have been following her for a while. For the Biennale she has had three works of Canaletto’s school copied, in China, and she has “worked” on them with images and videos. It’s what you can see right now in the exhibition”. Copying a master of the past and reinterpreti t: a provocation?



 "This is not a game", work by Lorenzo Quinn, exhibited in the Biennale
  
Lorenzo Quinn says: “While observing my son who was playing on the terrace with some toy soldiers and a plastic tank, I realized that children try to emulate what they see in everyday life and that, unfortunately, images of tanks and soldiers dominate the media, they are a really common presence.”
“War has fearfully become familiar and whoever is not involved and can watch it from the comfort of its living room, remains indifferent.
I see the world leaders using their armies as they were toys that you can maneuver and destroy with the same carelessness of a boy. But this is not a game, there are real people and real weapons, and the results isanything but a game.”
Figure o fan artist that in the past twenty years has showed his works al lover the world and is present in many private collections, Lorenzo Quinn couldn’t avoid to “nail down” the town of artistic interest par excellence, making it feel confused and “embarassed” about the arrival of his “not game of war” that, kept suspended with lightness on the sea by a hand, asks us not to forget the past pain  so as to avoid it in the future.
Of real dimensions and colours, the site specific that Quinn will show at the next Biennale is almost “unsympathetic” when it forces us to think, and causes a lump in the throat of anybody accepts to stop and look or feel… I have done it and felt it, and now I’m here so as to introduce a person who has been able,through art, to stop my race against time for a moment: Lorenzo and his symbolic realism.

The artists that have been more appreciated by the curator are those ones who break into paradox in an immediate and overwhelming way, with more elegance and clearness than in the past, so as to renew the pleasure, sometimes lost, of spending some time with them, as you walk between the pavilions: Cindy Sherman, Franz West, Sigmar Polke, Fernando Pratz, are the most visible ones, since the curator has much talked about them during her interviews. But also Yto Barrada, coming from Morocco, the chinese artist Son Dong, Christian Marclay, Urs Fischer, Monica Bonvicini.




Above and below: Fernando Pratz, Chilean pavilion. The structure of the artisti s constituted by three works: an intervention on the impact of the volcanic eruption in Chaiten (2008); many parts have reference to the earthquake that struck the south centre area of Chile (2010); and an installation with neon letters that reproduces the announcement that the irish explorer Ernest Shackleton had published, arpund 1911, so as to recruit men for his expedition in Antarctica. Prats produces images starting from smoke, through which he can accumulate natural phenomena like the water expelled by a geyser or the surface of an immense glacier. His technique has been notice by figures like the French theorist Paul Ardenne, who has included  Fernando Prats’ work in the current exhibition in the Space Luis Vuitton of Paris, praising him because he has given start to an “uncommon form of painting”.





Cindy Sherman: "Untitled 2010" (Picture Andrea Pattaro/Vision)
Untitled (2010) from Sherman’s latest work. After completing a series, Sherman says she often feels she never wants to take another photo. "I’m just like, forget it, I don’t want to put on any more make-up again, I’m so sick of those wigs, so sick of it all." 
(Photograph: Courtesy Sprüth Magers Berlin London and Metro Pictures).



Sei opere di recente produzione di Allora e Galzadilla con il supporto del Museo d’Indianapolis, hanno trasformato il padiglione Americano in uno spazio dinamico e interattivo, assegnando un titolo eloquente “GLORIA”. Nome femminile italiano e spagnolo, armonioso, con evidenti riferimenti religiosi, economici, culturali, sportivi, di grandezza e forte identità nazionale.
Sarà sicuramente Track and Field a rubare la scena, a rendere ancora più visibile questa invasione culturale pacifica e creativa. Un carro armato capovolto di sessanta tonnellate sormontato da un tapis roulan, dove l’atleta corre ad intervalli regolari durante l’esposizione. Sarà una metafora di pace od una mera allusione alle possibili olimpiadi di Roma del 2020? 





"Signora serenissima", "I’m a Lady", un’opera di Mary Sibande, esposta nel Padiglione del Sud­africa alla Biennale di Venezia.


Totalmente diversa l'impostazione che Vittorio Sgarbi ha dato al Padiglione Italiano, del quale è stato curatore. Titolo polemico della mostra: "L'arte non è cosa nostra". Di opere in mostra ce ne sono 260, che è un numero impressionante. Esse sono state scelte con cura, ma la loro distribuzione nello spazio, come fossero affastellate una sull'altra, messe in ogni dove, sopra e sotto, ai mujri o appoggiate al pavimento, in mezzo alle sale una contra l'altra, vedendone anche il retro, appese ai sofitti, le fa sembrare lì per caso. La scelta di Sgarbi è stata quella di rappresentare uno spazio residuale, quasi si trattasse di un magazzino con oggetti alla rinfusa, una sorta di mercato spontaneo, una fiera. Non vi sono solo tele, ma anche sculture e fotografie, ove capita di imbattersi, quasi fossimo in un circo,  con artisti al posto degli animali, perfino in un cagnolino, dipinto con scarpette rosa, portato dall'attrice Adriana Asti.




"Kopflosi" (senza testa), l'opera di Ivan Landschnaider, giovane artista altoatesino che ha scelto temi relativi alla massificazione, da presentare e per presentarsi all’interno del padiglione della Repubblica araba siriana, sull’isola di San Servolo, alla 54esima Biennale internazionale d’arte di Venezia. Come lui spiega la massificazione è "spersonalizzazione spirituale e morale dell’individuo come diretta conseguenza della civiltà dei consumi"




Vi si trovano ritratti anche di Sgarbi, e poi di Berlusconi, vi si trova di tutto, un po' di sesso anche qua e là che non guasta mai, installazioni, scarabocchi, paesaggi, opere dal gusto naif. Gli artisti, molti mai sentiti, alcuni già noti coi quali Sgarbi lavora da tempo, quali Stefano Di Stasio, Lino Frongia, ("il più grande pittore antico vivente"), Aurelio Bulzatti, Rolando Gandolfi Gandolfi e il fotografo Antonio Biasiucci.
A pensarci bene però, quella di Sgarbi potrebbe essere solo un’operazione commemorativa, anche perché il celebre critico/storico ha dichiarato di voler celebrare i 150 anni dell’unità d’Italia con le sue scelte diffuse. Così il 2009 è stato l’anno di commemorazione del futurismo è quest’anno quello dell’unità d’Italia, tra due anni si potrebbe parlare di un bell’omaggio a Giuseppe Garibaldi e perché no anche uno a Guglielmo Marconi.





"You too can be in the Biennale, anche tu poi essere in Biennale". Con questo (non volutamente) ironico titolo "The Art Newspaper" fotografa in pieno lo spirito di questa Biennale di Venezia 2011 quando vi si parla di Vittorio Sgarbi. Lo stimato magazine d’arte parla di 1.200 artisti in totale di cui oltre 200 saranno presenti all’interno del Padiglione Italia. Sempre secondo The Art Newspaper,  il Vittorio Sgarbi ha mirato ad inserire all’interno della manifestazione "tutti gli artisti attivi nell’ultima decade", con un particolare accento su coloro i quali sono stati dimenticati o comunque poco conosciuti.



Venezia Arte,  si apre la Biennale con i 200 piccioni tassidermizzati di Maurizio Cattelan, sparsi un po' ovunque in mezzo alle opere degli altri artisti, sul frontone esterno d'ingresso, sulle travi e sui cornicioni interni










Dieci sculture di Vanessa Beecroft realizzate negli Studi Nicoli hanno uno spazio particolare alla Biennale di Venezia. Le ha scelte Vittorio Sgarbi, curatore del "Padiglione Italia" 2011.
Dieci sculture plasmate in rarissimi marmi colorati e bianchi, frutto di calchi alle giovani modelle nude, che nel settembre 2010 dettero vita ai "tableaux vivants" all'interno degli ottocenteschi laboratori Nicoli. È la prima volta che Vanessa Beecroft nel corso della sua vita artistica si dedica alla scultura, tralasciando le sue famose e costosissime "performance" fotografiche. Sgarbi è rimasto affascinato dalla catasta femminile di marmi speciali, perfettamente rifiniti dalle maestranze dei Nicoli. "La performance della Beecroft si pietrifica - ha scritto in un testo critico Francesca Nicoli - verso un antico e moderno concetto di scultura classica. Sono più di 30 anni che l'opera in marmo non compariva in Biennale - ha detto ancora la manager -, solo Vittorio Sgarbi poteva dare loro la giusta dignità, mettendole sotto la didascalia che è anche il titolo della sua Biennale: "L'arte non è cosa nostra"». 


Andare in Biennale d'Arte, crediamo sia sempre un tuffo utile nel senso del gioco, ovvero nella stessa linfa della vita, perchè assumiamo da ciò che di più matto fanno altre persone, mentre agiscono senza limiti, un'idea di libertà, ma soprattutto di questa l'estremo e variopinto assieme delle sue possibili varianti, espresse con il solo limite di proporre senza imporre. E' magico, e corroborante. Un piacere da non togliersi, sapendo che in questo spazio tutto è lecito, tranne che l'eterno: "Ma che cazzo vuole dire?"

Venezia, 4 giugno 2011

Enrico Mercatali
per TACCUINI INTERNAZIONALI








STRESA - MOTTARONE


La cremagliera elettrica che univa il Lago Maggiore alla Vetta del Mottarone veniva inaugurata 100 anni fa

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Considerazioni nostalgiche



La notizia che ha dato oggi il quotidiano "La Stampa", del centesimo annivarsario della nascita dell'ardita ferrovia a cremagliera che ha reso possibile, nel lontano luglio 1911, l'appropriazione da parte delle masse turistiche della vetta del Mottarone, ci ha ricondotto a considerazioni nelle quali più volte ci era capitato d'entrare, circa il tradimento che a volte un malinteso concetto di modernità, inadeguatamente applicato, svolge a favore della comodità, e a disfavore di quanto umanamente, logisticamente, paesaggisticamente e psicologicamente preferibile, nei fatti.

La bella ferrovia, che molte fotografie e manifesti pubblicitari del turismo d'epoca illustrano, sapeva evocare piacevolezze e sentimenti che certo la successiva funivia non suscita più, da quando vi fu trapiantata a seguito della chiusura della tratta su ferro avvenuta nel 1963. E dobbiamo aggiungere, cosa non riportata dall'articolo riportato su La Stampa, che proprio quest'anno, manco farlo apposta, sono state demolite a Stresa, accanto alla Stazione Ferroviaria delle Ferrovie dello Stato, le vecchie cadenti tettoie della stazione-capolinea della Ferrovia del Mottarone, che in cuor nostro avremmo sperato potessero essere un giorno restaurate, e (chi sa mai) magari riutilizzate per una rinnovata sostituzione della ormai vetusta Funivia con un nuovo progetto di rilancio del "Vecchio Trenino Giallo del Mottarone. 





E' un po' come per i Navigli Milanesi: è troppo forte il desiderio d'averli ancora presenti al centro della città moderna che non ti rendi conto che il solo pensarlo è un po' folle. Ma una follia alla quale molti ancora cedono, ritornando all'idea che a Milano si sarebbero dovuti mantenere i bei Navigli, così come, qui sul Lago Maggiore molti ancora sono quelli che pensano che, tra Stresa e Mottarone Vetta dovesse essere mantenuta in vita la bella linea ferroviaria.

Al di là di ogni considerazione nostalgica, che fa preferire il vecchio trenino giallo alla più aggresiva funivia (così come farebbe preferire a Milano la rete interna dei vecchi navigli alle arterie asfaltate  piene di traffico su gomma) credo che ogni logica porterebbe oggi a fare quella scelta che agli inizi degli anni '60 qualcuno non saputo o potuto fare (così come a Milano, ancora in quegli anni, non s'è fatto per i navigli che ancora s'andavano coprendo per favorire un traffico che oggi addirittura si combatte.




Direi perfino che il trenino giallo oggi sarebbe mezzo più moderno, ovvero assai più prossimo alle logiche turistico-commerciali, perchè più vicino ai desideri della gente del luogo, dei turisti, che desiderano giungere in vetta attraverso la perlustrazione lenta dei pendii della montagna, alla vista dei paesi e dei centri di maggiore rilievo,  dei visitatori di tutto il territorio che vogliono rendersi conto di ogni realtà geomorfologica, paesistico ambientale, umana e sociale delle belle valli, dei boschi, delle realtà naturali del sito. 

La funivia oggi ha meno senso di una volta perchè essa funziona come mezo rapido di grandi masse di persone dedite allo sci, sport oggi ancora praticato al Mottarone, ma non tanto quanto lo era decenni addietro, nei quali le distanze con le grandi città permettevano concorrenzialità oggi inesistenti. Il Mottarone è montagna adatta all'escursionismo dolce e vagabondo, alla gita di piacere con vista mozzafiato, come ancora assai attraente è quella di Giardino Alpinia, alla piacevole e fresca scampagnata estiva con sosta gastronomica e bagno di sole, o al contatto fugace con le prime nevi senza fare ore d'automobile. Il trenino, per questo, era perfetto, così come perfetto sarebbe stato anche per la movimentazione di persone tra i centri abitati lungo il percorso, quale ottimo sostituto all'automobile. Molte realtà svizzere ove ancora vive il servizio su ferro ne dimostra l'assunto.





Noi invece abbiamo avuto troppa fretta d'essere "moderni", e lo siamo stati al momento sbagliato.
Se qualcuno dovesse riproporre la ricostruzione della tratta (ma temo che oggi i costi sarebbero proibitivi, nell'analisi classica costi benefici)  noi saremmo certamente i primi ad accorrere (da un'analisi più aggiornata rispetto a quella classica forse discenderebbero numeri più favorevoli, ed il turismo lacustre ne sarebbe enormemente avvantaggiato).

Lesa, 13 luglio 2011

Enrico Mercatali

12 July 2011

Memories of Adriano - Ivrea, Olivetti’s democratic Factory-city A Piedmontese destination that the international tourism must relaunch



MEMORIES OF ADRIANO

  Ivrea, Olivetti’s democratic Factory-city

A Piedmontese destination that the international tourism must relaunch




Above the title: the modern enlargement of ICO Workshops, realized in Ivrea between 1939 and 1942 by Figini and Pollini. There was such an atmosphere in Ivrea during those years that the employees were pervaded by a new feeling of belonging, while entering the factory.
Above: at the release of the new “Valentina” designed by Ettore Sottsas, light portable typewriter from the 60’s; the promotional campaign makes use of new and sophisticated communicative techniques, based on the public’s tastes but also on the spread of a common need of new culture, which was able to overturn fears and frustrations into positive.


The Ivrea-Museum has been living for some years but it doesn’t look so alive like it should be, since you don’t hear much about it unless you live in Ivrea.
It’s been a while that the press has ignored the matter, and this total silence is hanging over the touristic promotions. Who knows how the situation is abroad, since not much appears from the baedekers, and even less from the magazines dedicated to tourism: maybe it isn’t considered a touristic destination anymore?...Not even for cultural tourism?





Luigi Figini  and  Gino Pollini, drawing of a piece of the long facade made out of steel and glass of the new Olivetti factory in ivrea, in Jervis street , whose construction has been started at the and of the 30’s. The new rationalist italian architecture, inspired by the first concrete experiences of Bauhaus, and from the new International teorie of the CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture), moves its first steps in Ivrea, feeding on enthusiasm and spreading vital optimism.



We believe that the situation described isn’t really flattering, and that we’ve got to do more to pay homage to the big Olivetti’s democratic dream, and to increase some interest not only in a specialistic but also in a touristic way, around its realizations; those ones that have made Ivrea, strarting from the 30’s, a breeding ground of initiatives that involved production logics, work environments, social structures, the idea of free time itself, so that everything could become a new idea of city, a new architecture, but also a new idea of society, and new lifestyles for those working classes become protagonists in the new social structure.


  
The new Corporate Identity Olivetti, (Xanti Schawinsky , Giovanni Pintori, Marcello Nizzoli, Renzo Zorzi, Walter Ballmer, Giovanni Ferioli), has found, starting from the 50’s, the support of a graphic art and a poster designing able to bring a true innovation of taste, making an Olivetti product identifiable for the first time as a product of high technological qualities, affordable for the big masses. In this poster, it becomes a present-object.

 

Today all of this appears really far, in time and space, and swallowed by history; it seems impossibile that a chapter so important of industrial, social and economical culture of our Country, but also worldwide, has been neglected in the past years, and it is not considered an important touristic destination anymore like it should be (especially since the beauties of antiquity and history of art have stopped being the only key factors for International tourism).



A portrait of Adriano Olivetti in front of the new ICO enlargements, built on the new values of the democratic factory-city, spread by him through the pages of Comunità magazine, which was founded by him in 1952 and was edited by Renzo Zorzi



"Mamivrea" defines itself “Virtual Museum”, since it’s not constituted by works hanging on the wall of a museum or an art gallery: the city becomes a museum of itself, being made out of buildings that have become part of modern architecture history in the world, and a symbol of a whole age, the one that Adriano Olivetti has marked with its strong personality of enlightened businessman; he has been a specialist in town planning, architecture and design, and the proponent of a “factory ethic” that could highlight the social themes as an integral part of a new way of production.




Ivrea, the oldest wing of ICO workshops (Engineer Camillo Olivetti, Adriano’s father,
founder of the factory in Ivrea)



During the period in which Adriano, keeping his father’s work alive, started in first person his “utopia of reality”, some vanguard productions were being lanched in the field of office instrumentation, with calculators and typewriters that filled up all the world markets, able to unify technologic excellence with aesthetic qualities, and born with the collaboration of engineers and designers famous all over the world.




One of the first advertisement of Olivetti, in the age of ICO officines (Eng Camillo Olivetti), 1896



In that angle of world that Ivreas was, the modern design was born, together with the most innovative methods of the new town planning, based on the principles ratified by the CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture). Ivrea was also a fertile field for the experimentation of Olivetti’s modern sociology theories. The city also gave start to really effective experiments in the field of communication and promotion, following techniques never experimented until then.





The Divisumma MC 24 of 1956, deprived of its body. It’s been the electromechanical calculator most sold in the world. Divisumma 24 is the result of an extraordinary and complex whole of cinematic devices. Projected by Natale Capellaro with Marcello Nizzoli’s design and produced in 1956, Divisumma was a product of technologic vanguard in its times; it had an extraordinary commercial success in italy and on International markets. The technologic innovation and the excellence of the product allowed to apply really gainful prices: in 1957 Divisumma was sold for 325.000 liras, when the cost of a FIAT 500 was 465.000. For Olivetti this machine, kept on the market for about 15 years, became a real fount of profitability: the gross margin, in fact, during the first period was close to 90%. (Source: historical archive Olivetti)



Comunità magazine, edited by Comunità Editions, founded by Adriano Olivetti in 1964, was a chance of success for the most famous names in the sociological, economic, didactic, artistic, urban, architectonic, graphic, planning, historiographical field, in the experimentation of new theories.




Ivrea, the Olivetti establishments in an historical postcard, where you can see Jervis street, with the new Figini and Pollini officines of 1939-42. Many Fiat “Topolino” and “Giardinetta” already appear on the platforms, outlining the consumerist image that modernity was adopting in the eyes of a working-class of people who didn’t even believe they could belong to it. The product Olivetti, in this scenery, was assuming the same valencies.


In the social field Adriano was always inspired by the idea of making his employees’ well-being an integral part of the new philosophies applied to the factory. In 1956 Adriano Olivetti officially reduced the working hours from 48 to 45 weekly hours, thing that today can make you wince if you compare our social, economical and political situation with that one. This result was one of the components of the general well-being that the factory wanted to offer to the city, almost entirely utilized in Olivetti, together with other benefits that the citizens could enjoy, even out of the working hours.




Olivetti Studio 42, of 1935, designed by Xanti Schawinsky with Figini and Pollini. It’s been the first portable typewriter in history.



It was a breeding ground of ideas that met on the pages of the monthly magazine and that measured themselves on a real field, Ivrea, with its factories, its offices, its new schools, its new social centers, its structures for amusement and free time, its new residential districts, born around the one-to-one needs of the big factory and of the working-classes that were emancipating themselves.





Advertisement of Lettera 22, designed by Marcello Nizzoli in 1950. It became famous because it was the work tool of Indro Montanelli (great italian journalist and writer, 1930-2006). The poster was created by Giovanni Pintori.



Peolpe have been talking about Ivrea’s virtual museum since, in 1996, the administration of the city has charged some scholars with tuning a project that could recreate the interest for those works that had made Ivrea, starting from the 30’s, a unique place. In 2000 this initiative was finally launched, through the activity of Archland association, which was in charge of the works’ cataloguing, the museum planning, its communication and services, so a sto create the Virtual Museum of Modern Architecture of Ivrea in 2001 (Mamivrea.it). In 2007, 3000 visitors every month were added, exceeding the threshold of 90 visits every day.


Realized by Figini, Pollini and Fiocchi, this is the third enlargement of Olivetti Officines, of 1949, characterized by shutters made out of cement




What is the Museum collection constituted by? It is mainly made out of buildings with the modern and rationalist achitecture created by Adriano Olivetti with the architects Figini and Pollini. And before them, it was constituted by the factory created by Camillo Olivetti in 1896. The most significant parts of this rationalst architecture are: the first enlargement of the old ICO officines (Engineer Camillo Olivetti), realized by Figini and Pollini between 1934 and 1939. Between ’39 and ’42 the second enlargement, characterized by the long facade completely made out of glass on Jervis street, always realized by Figini and Pollini. Between ’47 and ’49 the third enlargement completed the long facade on Jervis street (Figini and Pollini), and added an indoor part (architect Fiocchi).


A picture of the inner court of the new Centre of Social Services on Jervis street, realized by Figini and Pollini in 1959. In the background you can see the officines of the First Enlargement of ’39-’41. This building already denotes the new harsh tendency of the visible cement.


Between ’57 and ’62 the new ICO, and the new body of connection completed the modifications on Figini and Pollini’s project while the new modifications were started by architect Vittoria, with Sudi and Experiences Center, with the new thermoelectric station. Then, in 1959, Figini and Pollini created the new social center and Gardella created the cafeteria in 1961.


Ignazio Gardella, the new Olivetti cafeteria , realized in 1961. Once the officines, the daycare center and the new Social Center were completed, Ivrea started to adopt, thanks to Adriano Olivetti, some new structures like this cafeteria, the offices and numerous residential and commercial districts aimed at completing the fatory-city in each one of its parts, follwing the most advanced theoretical models. Ivrea became in a few years a testing ground for new territorial politicies, showing itself as a worldwide model.



Beyond the area of the big factory, in Olivetti Suburb, in 1941 the daycare centre rose up, followed by the first lodgings in 1942, at the hand of Figini and Pollini. Between 1942 and 1947 the Catellammonte distric was realized, with numerous units of experimental lodgings, created by Figini, Pollini, Nizzoli, Oliveri, Gabeti and Isola, all famous italian architects who were commissioned by Adriano Olivetti himself. Between 1964 and ’88 the main buildings for offices were realized, at the hand of the architects Bernasconi, Fiocchi, Nizzoli and Valle.



Social and Residential Est Services Center (later become Hotel La Serra) by the Venetian architects Iginio Cappai and Pietro Mainardis. The building, which is similar to the Parisian Beauburg  by Renzo Piano in many ways, was constructed in Ivrea about 10 years before.



Between 2008 and today, in Mamivrea (http://www.mamivrea.it/collezione/cronologia.html) some sections regarding Olivetti design and products for graphic and advertising communication have started.

As a crowning achievement of the activity that Adriano Olivetti carried out, in 1957 he was awarded a special prize for the “vanguard action in the field of international business management” by the General Management Association of New York.


Unanimously considered a masterpiece, the shop that Adriano Olivetti has personally wanted in Venice, in San Marco Square, realized by Carlo Scarpa. After decades of neglect, the shop has today been restored and entrusted to FAI, which will open it to the public.


Olivetti ended up reaching an amount of more than 36.000, half of them abroad.

Ivrea, February 5th 2011  (versione originale in italiano)
Enrico Mercatali

(traduzione dall'inglese di Penelope Mirotti)