The parish of Sant’Eulalia and theSant’Eulalia APS Association inaugurate today, Saturday 29 June at ore 18a new exhibition entitled Journey into the spirituality of contemporary art and they do it, for the first time, in one of the most evocative places of underground Cagliari, thearcheological area which is found under the church of Sant’Eulalia in the neighborhood of Marina.
Starting from the themes of man who experiences space and travel as a search for truth, the works of the two artists are exhibited Ermenegildo Atzori (1969) e Franco d’Aspro (1911-1995) that dialogue with each other around the image of the Crucifix, with different techniques and materials, highlighting different spiritualities. The exhibition, open to the public from June 29th to October 6th every day from 9:30 to 13:00 e from 3.30pm to 6.30pm, develops along the main streets of the archaeological area, in direct connection with the church above. The works are located in the most significant points of the excavations, starting from the porticus, the crypt, the Roman road, the late ancient residential neighborhood and the well, dialoguing with the history of the place and accompanying the visitor on a path of introspective research.
Today, starting from 6pmafter the greetings of Don Marco Laiparish priest of Sant’Eulalia, the interventions of the art historian Fabrizio Tola on the Knowing the Divine Through Artthe projection of the photo reportage Jesus Alone project by the photographer and videomaker Barbara Pau which will be followed by a conversation with the artist Ermenegildo Atzori and art historians Clear George e Valerio Deidda at the end of which the exhibition will be inaugurated.
On July 12th the parish of Sant’Eulalia will also be the promoter, with the involvement of the diocese of Cagliari, of a fundraiser to complete the Restoration of the organ of the Church of the Holy Sepulchreconsidered among the most important and precious in Sardinia. For the occasion, a sale of the artist’s works will be held Lorenzo D’Andrea.
THE EXHIBITION
The Mutseu – Sistema Museale Sant’Eulalia is staging its first contemporary art exhibition with a display of works along the archaeological route beneath the church of the same name.
The concept of the exhibition was born from the desire to exalt the spirituality of man, in a historical moment in which the rhythm of daily life has weakened the bond with the spiritual world. Following this Red string the colossal works of Ermenegildo Atzori dialogue with those of a great artist of the first half of the twentieth century, Franco d’Aspro. Two sculptors distant in age and training, but both powerful in the production of works of art which, even in the most silent expressions, know how to speak to those who observe them. Both work metals with mastery and plasticity, to consecrate the work with fire and fusion.
Ermenegildo Atzori creates a triumphant crucifix 2.30 meters high for the new church of the Blessed Virgin of the Assumption in Villa Verde, in the diocese of Ales-Terralba; d’Aspro creates numerous bronze crucifixes, of which two examples of about 50 cm are exhibited, belonging to a private collector.
Both narrate the Crucifixion with emotion: Atzori forcefully expresses his victory over death, d’Aspro represents the pain of the man on the cross.
d’Aspro’s works hardly conceal the nature of his inspiration, the emotional tensions or the pathos of his religiosity. Forms that become linear, full of pain become a synthesis of beauty and biblical palimpsest, imposing themselves in their expressiveness rather than in their dimension.
I Travelers by Ermenegildo Atzori are instead wandering, colossal men-souls in search of something: spirituality, truth, knowledge or more generally in search of themselves. They are also defined by the artist himself, The presents, as they were designed and created to inhabit space, to stay and remain within it and to be “present” physically and spiritually; they therefore go beyond walking and crossing the ancient underground city of the Museum of Sant’Eulalia. Man, today as in the past, is always in search of knowledge, whether external or internal, and it is precisely the intimacy of this journey that characterizes them.
Even Jesus Christ, like the prophets before him and the apostles after, traveled to make the Truth known. Today we talk about traveling to explore other places, to get to know God along the holy paths, but in reality we are always making an internal as well as spatial journey, in search of something that completes us. This is how the transposition of the religious journey takes place along the streets of ancient Karales through contemporary works, from the late Punic sanctuary, to porchuntil going up the Roman road.
The inspiration of travel and the search for something that goes beyond the gaze, comes alive in the works of Atzori that come into contact with the expressive force of the works of Franco d’Aspro.
