“No one is a prophet in his homeland”, we know, and the Knight and artist Franco Pratocreator of “Fantasy Park”deceased in 84 years old, he was an eccentric and bizarre character for many people from Macerata but, at the same time, an artist called Maestro in the academic-artistic circles of Rome and beyond.
He loved Macerata, he socratically promoted the healthy intellectual growth of young people and, in this capacity, he defined himself as a “passer” through the collection and recycling of now obsolete objects from the past, historical finds of a disappeared modus vivendibut fundamental for the historical memory of past everyday life, increasingly forgotten by the pseudo and prevailing Web culture.
The Cavalier Prato left his artistic and ideal legacy to his friend Javier Stacchiottia talented painter and sculptor: therefore, he had the difficult task of continuing and implementing the artistic and educational work of the Master.
We met him and interviewed him. His story.
“Finally thanks also to the municipal administration of Macerata and in particular to the director of urban planning Tristano Luchetti, the works of Maestro Franco Prato, precursor of Environmental Art and Land Art in Italy, have for now found a temporary location in a space in Piediripa, useful above all to their historical and cultural integrity.
My design path, in memory of the commitment and long artistic activity of Maestro Franco Prato, includes the creation of a center for the Visual Arts, useful and available to new generations of artists, which makes use of the attention and collaboration of the academic world, first of all the Academies of Fine Arts of Macerata and Rome and, above all, extendable to the other Italian Academies of Fine Arts
The idea dates back to the meeting between Franco Prato and the curators of the Biennial of Italian Fine Arts Academies, which took place in the halls of the Royal Palace of Caserta. It was precisely on that occasion that the artist Prato had the opportunity, visiting the Exhibition and the Royal Palace of Caserta, to find himself in front ofand the installation of the work of Joseph Beuys, German painter and sculptorto whom we owe the concept of social sculpture which, through the search for a superior harmony between man and nature, prompted international art critics to define him as the “shaman” of Environmental Art and Land Art”.
Cavaliere Prato’s installations are partly depleted, but his artistic and pedagogical ideals remain and should not be lost. How can Macerata be included in the international circuit of environmental art and land art?
“It can and must be done with commitment, passion, work and, above all, with the collaboration of the municipal administration, private individuals, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute, the young people who represent the better youth”.
