Pisa, 15 June 2024 – Pisa, a maritime republic, the new medieval Rome. Pisa, an iconic city, as heroic as Homer’s ancient Troy. Pisa sitting on the throne, majestic, queen to which the Balearic Islands and the Mediterranean bow. But there is also the Keith Haring’s Pop Tower, the one seen with the contemporary eyes of the artist Francesco Barbieri or supported by 30 thousand Lego bricks. Here are some shots, flashes from the exhibition “The Tower in the Mirror, the many lives of the Bell Tower of Pisa Cathedral”. The exhibition, in Piazza Duomo, will open its doors today and will remain open to visitors until September 30th.
«The physiognomy of this exhibition – argues the curator, professor Stefano Renzoni – is completely different from that dictated by archaeological vocations. The exhibition revolves, rather, around what has become the virtue, and a little also the condemnation, of the Tower itself: the way, the ways, in which our bell tower has been seen and even better represented over the centuries”. From the Middle Ages to today. Therefore a journey through time, into tradition, into art but also into modernity. “We believe that retracing the traces left by our Bell Tower over the centuries is a synthesis Andrea Maestrelli, worker president of the Opera della Primaziale Pisana -, invite us to reflect on the future, on the social, cultural and environmental responsibility of passing on and protecting this heritage, an icon of a collective heritage. Taking care of the Tower thus becomes a dual mission: preserving its integrity, while ensuring a sustainable approach that looks beyond the confines of our Square.”
For othersor with an eye for the Pisans. There showin fact, it will be open for free to citizens and students staying in our city from 8pm to 10.30pm every Friday evening starting from June 21st upon reservation. The exhibition, obviously, is part of the celebrations of the 850th anniversary of the Tower. “The scrutiny of the iconographic sources – takes us to the heart of the Renzoni exhibition – tells us that until the 18th century it is (almost) impossible to trace isolated images of the Tower, which was always correctly depicted alongside the Cathedral”. “Starting from the end of the 18th century, the Bell Tower was insistently depicted as isolated – continues Renzoni –, as separated from the Cathedral, becoming a Tower, appreciated for its incredible static risk. It thus became a tourist attraction”.
A path that develops by proposing the interpretations of the Tower given by some living artists, in the belief that the story about it is far from over. “And then engravings – concludes Renzoni –, paintings, pop objects, which have made a Bell Tower a universal icon. Without forgetting a rich array of rare and inspiring photographs”. With the certainty that every day – just like a mirror that reflects the same subject – history is renewed and, at the same time, repeats itself.
