Where and when
From
To
Museo Novecento
On the occasion of the anthological exhibition by Eliseo Mattiacci Gong at the Forte di Belvedere (June 2 – October 14), the Museo Novecento hosts on the second floor of the museum complex some exemplary works of the artist’s mature phase, such as the Sculpture for Cornelia (1985), the large eye of the sky drawing (2005), the two works on paper Esplorare (2007) and Poesia (1972-1973), and the video Richiami (1972).
Among the pioneers of the Italian avant-garde of the late 1960s, Mattiacci is the architect of experimentation and renewal in sculpture, proposing himself as an inspired inventor of cosmological iconography and new spatial and conceptual relationships between art and nature, between man and the environment.
His is an almost shamanic exercise, aimed at exploring the sublime of the cosmos, the planetary orbits, the rhythms and geometries that belong to the infinite universe, tracing stellar maps that now, like millions of years ago, function in symbolic and ritual terms. “I feel attracted to the sky with its stars and planets – says the artist – and, beyond our galaxies, it is an imagination that goes beyond, as if to challenge the imagination itself, as in a dream. I would like to launch one of my sculptures into space orbit. It would be a really nice dream to know that my space shape is spinning up there”.
The works exhibited at the Museo Novecento constitute a preview of the great anthology organized at the Forte Belvedere, establishing a close scientific and design correlation between the two spaces.
“With this exhibition […], all of Florence strengthens its image as a contemporary city which, together with the artists, reflects on civil history and artistic heritage, on the great cultural legacies of the past and on current society, on science and spirituality, especially on poiesis and techne – explains Sergio Risaliti, artistic director of the Museo Novecento and curator of the exhibition -. And it does so by offering to the admiration of citizens and tourists the works of one of the great masters of our time, creator of sculptural forms and graphic layouts that have the strength to combine the dimension of materialism with that of the metaphysical dream, the chthonic world and that of the infinite sidereal spaces. A trajectory, that of Mattiacci, of exemplary coherence and freedom, of generous resistance and lyrical power, an indispensable presence in the history of art starting from the first works with which he married, as an artist and poet, the work of the earth and technology, the reactivation of myths and the contemplation of the stars, to reach his most recent works and installations with which the Marche artist wanted to deliver his idea of the cosmos to the world, continuing a journey of discovery and wonder at the interior of nature and the universe that unites Lucretius and Galileo Galilei, Giacomo Leopardi and Mattiacci himself, poets and artists of yesterday and today“.
Installation View
In collaboration with
Studio Eliseo Mattiacci