On 11 October the Palazzo Magnani Foundation presents the project conceived by the British artist David Tremlett for the city, which includes the large permanent artistic intervention at the Ex Caffarri The Organ Pipes, and the exhibition Another Step, curated by Marina Dacci, in exhibition spaces of the Cloisters of San Pietro. This is an event that strengthens the identity of the Cloisters of San Pietro as a center for international contemporary art, creating an ideal connection with the valorization of the artistic and cultural heritage of the City. In fact, for over twenty years Reggio Emilia has invested in contemporary art, with important institutional choices, for the reconfiguration of problematic areas and/or areas undergoing transformation with the aim of creating a path of social and educational improvement. Between 2003 and 2006 the public art project “Invito a…” was created, conceived and proposed to the city by the artist Claudio Parmiggiani, involving four protagonists of international art such as Luciano Fabro, Eliseo Mattiacci, Robert Morris, Sol Lewitt to think and produce works for some places in the city. To these was added in 2022 the collective artwork CuriosaMeravigliosa by Joan Fontcuberta. From this perspective, David Tremlett (St. Austell, Cornwall, 1945) – an artist with a consolidated international curriculum and sixty years of research behind him – was invited to Reggio Emilia, on the proposal of Marina Dacci, to visit the Ex Caffarri – building located in the northern area of the city and already at the center of some reconditioning interventions. His choice was to intervene on the entrance façade and on the 13 large silos to create the visible sign of a place dedicated to the training and aggregation of communities, especially young people, which will host entities such as the Reggio Children Foundation, the Remida Creative Recycling, The Lego Foundation, the MaMiMò Theater Center and a boxing gym.
The Organ Pipes is one of the largest permanent artistic interventions that Tremlett has ever created: the Ex Caffarri silos occupy 750 square meters of surface for a total length of 75 meters and each has a façade of 100 square meters and is 11.30 meters high meters. The construction of the work will be carried out over approximately 20 days of daily work with the collaboration of a team of 3 units. The project involves the use of over 100 liters of acrylic color and the color range was selected by the artist with a specific study of the territory in which the work is located. The Another Step exhibition in the spaces of the Cloisters of San Pietro, curated by Marina Dacci, supports the important public art intervention by creating a link between the liminal territories of the city and the historic centre. The focus of the exhibition focuses on some constants in Tremlett’s artistic research from the Seventies to today through around seventy works from 1969 (the beginning of his artistic season) to 2023. These are drawings and collages, textual compositions, coming mostly from more from the artist’s studio and from the loan of some collectors: over half of the works have never been exhibited previously and are linked to a specific studio production, independent of the creation of subsequent wall drawings.
