Guastalla The canvases were not enough overflowing creativity by Elena Guastalla. Walls, furniture, stones, ceramics, magazines, papers, even Telecom bill envelopes: there was nothing that the painter didn’t transform into a work of art. And her poetic streak also ended up incorporating the street cabinets where service companies place meters and connections with utilities.
Entering the house in via Pieve 63you are literally overwhelmed by un explosion of colors and vitality. There isn’t a corner that doesn’t talk about the author and her veneration for nature.
From tomorrow at 4pm this mysterious treasure chest, located on the road but largely hidden from view by lush vegetation, will open to visitors by will of the children Marialberta and Carlo Spaggiari: a choice that represents an act of love towards their mother who passed away in 2020.
The event is open to the participation of all art and nature lovers. Access to the garden is free, while the visit to the house museum will only be possible by reservation (347-715.4948).
Outside you can admire the large mural “Paradise”.
The house museum – itself as a whole a single work of art – will not only be an exhibition of large paintings but also a small but great sensorial experience to learn about the thousand nuances of Elena Guastalla and the indomitable force of nature , protagonist of her life as a woman and an artist, free, feisty and vibrant.
«The house museum project – says his daughter Marialberta – was born as a tribute to the memory of a twentieth-century painter, celebrated by numerous critics and of whom Cesare Zavattini was an admirer».
Defining Elena Guastalla naive risks being reductive. «She was gifted with a unique style far from any manneristic and academic rule: she is known for her sometimes surreal and original chromaticism. This house-museum aims to be a journey that tells the life of a woman symbol of strength and determination, a model that can inspire many other women to follow a path of freedom, escaping an already planned life. Crossing the various rooms, the visitor enters Elena’s life and perceives the urgency of the themes that guide us and make us reflect. In the “Room of the Sacred”, Saint Francis with a pink cat in his arms fills us with an amazement that takes us back to childhood, and then faces the big questions of all time: if a God exists and loves us or if he has forgotten us . In the “Fable Room” we learn to discover the fairy tales of life, understanding that absolute good and evil do not exist, but only their disguises. We get lost in Pinocchio’s lush forest, we remain hypnotized by the thousand eyes of the peacock’s cloak and, like Elena, we transform from Cinderella into a princess. The “Dream Room” is a place to wander with the mind, create alternative worlds from which to draw energy and dance.”
Her Cesare Zavattini he said: «She is an exuberant, lively, extroverted artist who transmits this energy in works full of extraordinary animation, exhilarating in content and the expressionistic strength of the colours».
In the house-museum there is also a tribute to the painter Ligabue, an artist that Elena Guastalla appreciated and from whom she certainly drew inspiration, although in his representations there is no violence and desperation that instead emerge in the paintings of the Gualtierese.
The event is organized with the patronage of the Municipality of Guastalla and the support of Smeg.
Graphic support was provided by Alessandra Bertelli’s Project and Communication Agency.
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