In 1981 Mino Trafeli declared: “We will call it Torre Nascente and it will be illuminated day and night by changing spotlights”. On Tuesday (25 June at 6pm) in Verdi’s Ridotto, with ‘Parallel Game: the Leaning Tower of Mino Trafeli’, the Pisa Theater recalls the grandiose experience of Ragione Insidiata, the unrivaled program of events, shows and workshops that “disguised ” the city of Pisa for the 1981 Carnival. The meeting, with free admission, is part of the mini program The Tower of Pisa is alive, promoted by the Pisa Theater Foundation and Cineclub Arsenale for the 850th anniversary of the Tower of Pisa and is sponsored by the Committee for the 850th anniversary and by the Opera Primaziale Pisana.
‘Parallel game’ starts from the sketch created by the Volterran artist Mino Trafeli for the construction of the majestic Tower, accessible and made of fibreglass, which represented one of the most spectacular attractions of the ’81 Carnival. The sketch, owned by the Pisa Theater Foundation, is now on display in the exhibition The Tower in the Mirror, curated by Stefano Renzoni and organized by the Opera della Primaziale Pisana for the 850th anniversary of the foundation of the Cathedral bell tower.
Tuesday’s meeting, divided into two parts, will be opened by greetings from Patrizia Paoletti Tangheroni, president of the Pisa Theater Foundation, and Andrea Maestrelli, president of the Opera della Primaziale Pisana. This will be followed by the screening of the documentary “The Leaning Tower”, edited and produced by the CineClub Arsenale with some live vintage footage made available by the Trafeli family.
The protagonist of the documentary is the project of the ‘Nascent Tower’, the colossal reproduction (12 meters high) of the top rings of the Bell Tower, which was housed in Piazza XX Settembre, in front of the Town Hall and whose inauguration gave rise to the 1981 Carnival. Through the voice of Roberto Scarpa – who together with Riccardo Bozzi, then director of the Teatro di Pisa, conceived and planned the schedule of Ragione Insidiata events – the documentary retraces that incredible and epochal page of the city’s history, and shows, with archive images , the work and atelier of Mino Trafeli.
At the end of the screening, there will be a moment of conversation, reflection and memories led by the journalist Candida Virgone, who at the time followed and wrote the chronicle of the events of the 1981 Carnival for Il Tirreno, with Marta Trafeli, the art critic Nicola Micieli and with Roberto Scarpa.
