Lo sguardo e l’idea is the last exhibition for 2022 realised by the Uffizi Galleries with Il Museo dei Bozzetti di Pietrasanta, curated by Monica Alderotti, Chiara Celli and Vanessa Gavioli, and as part of the Uffizi Diffusi project. In the church and cloister of Sant’Agostino in Pietrasanta, until 19 February 2023, self-portraits from the Galleries’ collections will be confronted with sketches from the museum dedicated, precisely, to this form of work.
The exhibition of sketches and self-portraits by 12 contemporary artists in the Church of Sant’Agostino is introduced by an immersive reality created by the visual artist Martin Romeo that allows you to enter inside the artisan workshops of Pietrasanta, where the work comes to fruition starting from the sketch (on a reduced scale) or the model (in real size) of the artist’s first idea. One perceives the typical noises of sculpture workshops and foundries, the dust of marble, the malleability of waxes, the blinding glow of molten bronze descending from the crucible, and the hand of the craftsman working in complete symbiosis with the artist’s talent, assisting him in the different and complex phases of execution of the work.
The old craftsmanship realm and its heritage rooted in the tradition dialogue with the contemporary language.
The material shaped in the workshops of our territory combines with the creative genius of modern artists who have narrated the history and style of their time. Their work is intertwined, creating a new synergy told through the voice of innovation. The collaboration between craftsman and artist is sealed in the sculptural models. The workshop, which over time have moved away from the center, are brought back in the heart of the city: the Sant’ Agostino church turns into a place of representation, where the manual skills of the versilian craftsmen are represented in an immersive way, orchestrated and celebrated by the artist Martin Romeo.
(from the press release)
Lo sguardo e l’idea, curated by Monica Alderotti, Chiara Celli and Vanessa Gavioli, Museo dei Bozzetti, Pietrasanta, 19.11.2022 – 19.02.2023
Artists: Francesco Messina, Costantino Nivola, Ugo Guidi, Piero Consagra, César Baldaccini, Arturo Carmassi, Marcello Tommasi, Dani Karavan, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Michel Folon, Igor Mitoraj, Helidon Xhixha.
