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Unforgettable Ayrton Senna, Formula 1 world champion in 1988, 1990 and 1991, who died at the Imola racetrack on 1 May 1994 at just 34 years old.
In his memory, the large mural panel “Saudade: the face of Senna”, created by the artist Stefano Pierotti, was inaugurated last weekend and was mounted on the wall of the Acer building (public housing), in via Cenni 10 , in Imola.
The sculptor donated the wall panel to the City of Imola, expressing the desire “that the work be installed in a popular context, thus respecting the same values expressed by Senna”. Furthermore, in that area there are already murals on the facades of the adjacent buildings.
The work
“Saudade: the face of Senna” – The work “Saudade: the face of Senna”, which is part of the series defined by the author as “Iron pictures”, is composed of seven sheets of Corten iron with a thickness of 1 mm, cut and welded onto metal mesh, then painted. Pierotti portrayed Ayrton’s face, freely inspired by a shot by the photographer Ercole Colombo (Ercole Colombo/Motorsport Images/Getty Images), taken at sunset during the tests in April 1994, at the Imola Autodrome, in view of the Grand Prix of F1 which would have taken place on the following May 1st. This work comes to completion of a series already called “Iron pictures” by the author himself, developed around 2017, in which the faces of figures such as Frida Kahlo, David Bowie, Barack Obama, Marilyn Monroe and others stand out.
“We are here again in Imola to remember Senna 30 years after his tragic death and I thank the Municipality with which an excellent relationship has been established for years. In this case we do it under a new artistic contribution of mine which I wanted to donate entirely to the city, but with a constraint: that it be installed in a working-class neighbourhood, where people and families in difficulty live, thus respecting, and I firmly believe, Ayrton’s thoughts which (we learned this only after his death) were aimed at the most disadvantaged. As he said in an interview: … “the rich cannot live on an island surrounded by an ocean of poverty. We must give everyone a chance” – says Stefano Pierotti -. And from there the Senna Foundation was born, carried out first by her sister and now by her niece. Here, I hope that the people who will pass under this mural of mine, the children who will leave the school, which stands nearby, will be able to receive an emotion from this image, translated from a shot by Ercole Colombo, and will go in search of who was Senna, not only for the noisy world of engines, but that they managed to discover his humanity, as I have already tried to express through the statue placed at the Tamburello. I think Senna was a sad and somewhat shy man. A man who was looking for something that no longer existed and who was also not satisfied by his many successes and fame. A man perhaps in search of a god or in any case something that made him feel “far from a way of life that he would have liked”. This is also the reason for the title of this “iron pictures”: Saudade!”
The exhibition
The new project is part of a rich calendar of events entitled “Senna 30 years”, organized by the Municipality of Imola in collaboration with the “Instituto Ayrton Senna”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Region Emilia-Romagna to remember the tragic death of Ayrton Senna (1 May 1994) and Roland Ratzenberger (30 April 1994), on the weekend of the XIV San Marino F1 Grand Prix, at the “Enzo e Dino Ferrari” racetrack in Imola.
The exhibition of Pierotti’s works continues at the Salannunziata – We remind you that, in the meantime, the exhibition set up in the Salannunziata entitled “From ‘to Ayrton Senna’ to ‘Iron pictures’ continues until May 19th – Stefano Pierotti: memory and horizon”, edited by Vinicio Dall’Ara. The exhibition aims to highlight the connection between the monument “to Ayrton Senna”, inaugurated on 26 April 1997 inside the Mineral Water Park and the subsequent production of the artist from Pietrasanta, also giving space to his other works, to highlight highlights its versatility both from the point of view of expressive technique and content, always maintaining a unity of intent. Among the other works, a further new face of Ayrton is on display, measuring 1.70 meters x 2 meters high, also created specifically for this exhibition, with the Iron pictures technique.
