Art truly brings together extraordinary places and people
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«Cities have always been like people, they show their different personalities to the traveller.
«Depending on the city or the traveler, a mutual love, or antipathy, friendship or enmity can arise.
“Only through travel can we know where there is something that belongs to us or not, where we are loved and where we are rejected.” – Roman Payne.
It often happens to me too, both on business and leisure trips. This love breaks out towards a new place. It comes suddenly and overwhelms you. It adds new life to the routine. It pushes overbearingly and overwhelms you.
Recently it happened again.
This time Matera is the city indicted. The city of stones.
I thought I was being presumptuous by saying “it’s mutual love”.
Instead I find myself reading these few lines by Roman Payne and I realize that all this exists.
There are no whys. No explanations. Coming back after 16 years was like coming home.
Tourism has invaded the life of the historic center, but with respect. The number of places where you can taste the region’s specialties has increased. The various Piaggio, Ape, Calessino appeared to transport the laziest tourists in the very narrow alleys.
The city remained the same. Its history exudes from its Sassi. For me it is a sort of great Charterhouse.
A Monastery located in a solitary area where you can wander, getting lost and finding yourself at the same time.
It was 2008 when I was invited with my works to set up two personal exhibitions. One in the rock church of Santa Maria de Armenis, the second in the «Viabrunobuozzi152» art studio.
Santa Maria de Armenis from the 11th century dug directly into the rock is composed of a single nave with three semicircular apses and a small side chapel.
The church was decorated with Byzantine wall paintings, some of which are still visible today.
It is a very significant place of worship for the city of Matera declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Restored and open to the public as a liturgical place and museum.
Art truly brings together extraordinary places and people.
Last summer on holiday in Basilicata I returned to Matera as a visitor.
Walking with Graziella through the streets of the Sassi, a chance meeting in front of a gallery-studio with a sculpture that was familiar to us;
Margherita Serra, a sculptor-friend from Brescia who has been practicing her art in this space since 1993 and disseminating it through exhibitions and cultural exchanges.
What a wonderful and unexpected surprise!
The best encounters are born like this, nothing planned.
It’s been a long time since we’ve met Margherita Serra.
It was like seeing each other again from the night before. He shows us his works. Some dated and some more recent, always beautiful and interesting.
We were particularly struck by his strength and desire to search (despite his age, even if he doesn’t look it, one feels a strong desire to search for the new and the innovative, one can feel the art flowing through his veins. Since it is not elegant to reveal the age of a lady, I invite you to go to her website www.margheritaserra.com and satisfy this curiosity by focusing on her splendid and original works.).
After a few photos we parted ways with the usual promises to meet up soon. This time they won’t just be promises, at the end of the summer there will be news in the Brescia area so we’ll see each other again.
Thanks to Margherita Serra for the esteem and the nice welcome.
Thank you Matera, city of the Sassi. Still city. Meditative city.
A city to be lived in silence, talking to yourself step by step, walking slowly, each with the most personal, intimate emotions.
Bruno Lucchi
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