PISA – It is a prestigious location, namely that of Museum of Ancient Ships of Pisawhich is called to host, from Sunday 16 June until 21 September the exhibition entitled “Paolo Staccioli: a traveler fascinated by the ancient”organized by Castagneto Banca 1910 and who received the Sponsored by the Municipality of Pisawhose characteristics were illustrated on site on the morning of Friday 14 June 2004, in the presence of same artistby the Curator of the Exhibition Michele Pierleoniby the Director of the Museum Andrea Camilli and the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Pisa Filippo Bedini.
by Giovanni Manenti
The exposure, which concerns over 100 ceramic and bronze works by Maestro Staccioli, one of the most appreciated contemporary artists, favors warriors, travellers, horses, boats, towers, extraordinary vases, the elements that outline Staccioli’s “pilot book”, which unfolds in the rooms of the museum, making us participate in the evocative force, which takes on timeless aspects, represented by the work of this Master. The exhibition features installations by Paolo, which help us to amplify his poetics when: observe the different groups of warriors, in ceramic or bronze and ceramic, which take us back to the elegance of the Capestrano Warrior; refinement also transposed into the contemporaneity which sees these figures transform into travelers immersed in this “liquid modernity” of ours, while the small objects, such as lamps or lachrymatours, are inserted inside the showcases, as if to deliberately mix with the finds placed in the exhibition itinerary.
For this occasion, the “archaeologies” re-emerge from the repertoire of subjects, in a very relevant way, where the author represents capitals, arches, models of sculptures, deriving from the spatial suspension of Arturo Martini and the original and at the same time intellectual metaphysics of the de Chirico brothers, just as the selected vases are of great charm, which allow us to analyse, in addition to the extraordinary quality of the colors of Paolo’s luster ceramics, the lightness of his graphic style, which in some cases is interspersed with extrapolations of texts critics who talk about his artistic work.
The Curator of the Exhibition is responsible for representing the salient features of the Exhibition, Michele Pierleoniwho underlines: “This exhibition seeks to put the creativity of Paolo Staccioli into dialogue with the beautiful finds found inside the Museum of Ancient Ships, as the Maestro created works specifically for this exhibition, which is why we went together to try to recover material from his archives in order to narrate his creative passages in a sort of anthological exhibition, so that the entire exhibition tends to bring out this very important dialogue between a great contemporary Master and antiquity, constituted by Etruscans, like the Mesopotamian and Nuragic civilizations, as well as the entire message of the ancient reread in a modern key” There are around a hundred works on display“, concludes Michele Pierleoni, “placed during the museum itinerary, having wanted it to be an exhibition with an impact on visitors, also playing a lot with the lights to highlight these very important works that re-emerge from the tanks containing the ships and various archaeological finds, which is why I extend an invitation to come and see this exhibition in order to discover a great international artist who represents pride for our Region and the charm that this contemporary artist transmits with his creations“.
The same Paolo Staccioli This is how he comments on his works, recalling: “I have always had a passion for art as well as for the ancient, born since I was a boy, I am a Florentine from the countryside and equally proud of my city and of the past, a circumstance that has allowed me to follow, as much as I could, the art in general that led me to paint as a child, and then to develop a passion for the ancient in the memory of our civilization that derives from the East, which made me think of the Tigris and the Euphrates with their warriors Assyrians and Babylonians that I have transported in my works“.
The Director is satisfied with the location of the Exhibition at the Museum of Ancient Ships Andrea Camilli which specifies: “It is a great satisfaction for us to have the possibility of marrying a great interpreter of contemporary art like Maestro Paolo Staccioli with the ancient and with the idea of travelling, as it is not so much the journey itself that counts as the dream that is connected to it, and Art represents a right union between the dream that is connected to our work as historians. The 100 works on displayconcludes Camilli, “are mixed with the finds and objects from the boats in the Museum, precisely because in this way we favor a multidirectional reading which represents the characteristic of our Museum, that of being read in many different ways, with the present exhibition being publicised, within the limits of possible, on our national channels, as well as through the Sponsor established by Castagneto Banca“.
Last modified: June 14, 2024
