Moving Pol'Art

Special Statute Artists ... the long goodbye!


Inauguration of the last biennial stage of the collective exhibition of "Artists in a special Statute" on Saturday 1st June at the historic Palazzo delle Albere (Palace of the Trees, XVI century) in Trento (IT). The project of meeting and comparison with the Italian artistic realities in the Special Statute started in 2015 from a friendly meeting between the artist Antonello Serra and Paolo Sirena Director META (Museums Events Tourism of Alghero). The project took shape with a collective exhibition between Sardinian and Trentino artists at the Mirana Tower cellars of Thun Palace in Trento and the Casearia Trentina in Loppio before and later in the museums of the "Sa Corona Arrubia" (Cagliari) and "Derriu" ( Oristano). The protagonists of the first edition, besides the organizer Antonello Serra, were Gaia Gianardi, Lorenzo LOME Menguzzato, Claudio Cavalieri, Paolo Vivian, Riccardo Resta, Piermario Dorigatti for the Trentino part, Giuseppe Bosich, Silvano Caria, Antonio Ledda, Marco Pili, Ivo Putzolu, Alberto Scalas and Franco Troci for Sardinia. The 2017 edition also involves representatives of Friulian and South Tyrolean art with exhibitions at Thun Palace, the Civic Gallery of Bolzano, Torre Sulis in Alghero and Palmanova in the splendid Palace of the Lodge of the Great Guard on the central city square.  (In photo: LOME and the artist Luciano Lunazzi)   In Serra, Menguzzato and Cavalieri the FIDA Trento president Barbara Cappello, Nadia Cultrera, Matteo Boato, the visual artist Stefano Benedetti and the Rotalian artist Gentile Polo are added for the Trentini; in the Sardinian group, in addition to Bosich, Caria, Ledda and Pili, Roberto Floris participates and for the "pink quotas" Marina Desogus, Dina Montesu, Gisella Mura. Great participation also among the South Tyroleans with Lucia Nardelli, Alma Olivotto, Mike Fedrizzi, Stephan Fish, Marzio Ghiotto, Renato Sclaunich and the photographer Andrea Pozza, and the Friulians with Elena Clelia Budai, Arianna Ellero, Passonia, the young Giovanni De Benedetto, Carlo Stragapede, Enzo Valentinuz, Edo Vincent and the late Luciano Lunazzi. In today's and last (apparently) edition of "Artisti a Statuto speciale" (Special Statute Artists) the organizers were able to also involve artists from Sicily and Aosta Valley, completing the cycle of meeting and discussion between Regions that for historical and geographical boundary reasons have obtained a special statute. This final stage finds fulfillment with the exhibition at the fortified Palace of the Trees, currently unfortunately in disuse and granted on request for the organization of events in a non-continuous manner. The Vernissage on Saturday 1st June saw artists and friends gather around the historic organizers and the art critic Maurizio Scudiero, who presented all the Trentino editions of "Special Statute Artists".   Despite a slight departure delay, the inauguration saw the historic presentation of the Museum Director of Alghero, Paolo Sirena, the passionate voice of Maurizio Scudiero, who did not spare praise and criticism for anyone, the most aseptic and political intervention of the former Councilor for Culture with whom the project started Andrea Robol, and thanks to collaborators and to all current and historic artists of "Artisti a Statuto speciale" (Special Statute Artists) by the creator of the Antonello Serra project. With the male voices of the choir SAT (Society of Tridentine mountaineers) of Trento the assembled public was finally able to start on the second floor of the Palazzo Madruzziano to see the works of the artists.  The artist Gentile Polo in front of "Canticle"of LOME.   Certainly the installations of cages and photos of migrating birds “Canticle” by Menguzzato, which with Serra, Boato and Benedetti make historical group to which is added in the final the architect Roberto Codroico for Trentino-Alto Adige; for Sardinia, in Desogus, Caria and Pili is added Maria Grazia Medda with her textile works, while for the Friulians remains Mrs. Ellero and enters Alessandra Lazzaris, Bruno Aita and Evaristo Cian. Obviously new to the project the representatives chosen for the Sicily region: Angelo Barone, Giovanni Garipoli, Jano Lauretta and Jano Sicura, like the Aosta artists: Daniela Evangelisti, the natural sculptures of Marina Torchio, Barbara Tutino with the interesting use of sheet metal for the mountain portrait and Marco Jaccond.  The artist Gentile Polo admires the paintings of the Sicilian Giovanni Garipoli.   Splendid setting for contemporary works are the rooms frescoed by the same workers working at the Buonconsiglio Caste, followed by Dossi, Romanino and Fogolino, with mythological scenes, glimpses of natural views, castles and ships and much more. (In photo: the mountain portrait on sheet metal of Barbara Tutino and the natural sculptures of Marina Torchio).   Although the recovered paintings are often damaged by successive hammering, preliminary to the covering of the decorations, the rooms maintain an inestimable historical and artistic charm, particularly in the two turrets: south-east with the seven liberal arts: grammar, logic, rhetoric , arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy, in the north-east with cardinal and theological virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope and charity. The collective exhibition "Artisti a Statuto speciale" (Special Statute Artists) will remain on display until June 30 in the halls of the second floor of the Palazzo delle Albere (Via San Severino 43, Trento - IT) with access from the side of the MUSE (Science Museum). Hours of access to the Palace: Tuesday to Friday 10. - 18.00, Saturday and Sunday 10. - 19.00, closing on Monday. Separate note: for the event, despite the deep disappointment present and past of the organizer Antonello Serra, the free access to the historic building is not guaranteed.

(Lucia Martorelli - Gentile Polo Art Studio)