Tuscia’s Contemporary Art Network
In numerous seats of the University of Tuscia, there is a permanent collection of art works which is continually augmented by donations or temporary loans with the objective of exhibiting the works in order to enhance the preservation and appreciation of them. The Contemporary Art Network will be able to offer its assets to the SMA (Sistema Museale d’Ateneo).
a) Santa Maria in Gradi
Currently the largest group of work is situated in Santa Maria in Gradi complex:
La pietra vi guarda(The Stone is Looking at You)1995, is a work designed by Gianfranco Baruchello and donated during the First Festival of Art and Poetry in Bomarzo. It is a monolith of grey granite into which an inquiring eye has been carved. Made by a local stonemason who followed the artist‘s design, the work represents a reversal of the normal cosmic order; a “natura naturans” that becomes a severe judge of human behaviour and acts as a warning to look at the world in a less superficial way. In search of the “genius loci”, the artist’s work synergistically communicates with the environment by seeking a symbiotic and all- encompassing relationship with the observer.
Doppia 2(Double 2)1995, by Naoya Takahara is a sculptural installation also donated during the First Festival of Art and Poetry in Bomarzo. The installation is composed of two chairs of different sizes in unrefined wood with an old typewriter resting on the larger chair: the paper inside the typewriter has the text “ I made a chair, I made it bigger until it became my ideal table, I made it almost double the height of the first chair”. This declaration of intent invites the observer to discover other possible meanings beyond the concrete image. The Japanese artist who has lived and worked in Rome for many years, thinks that looking at a work of art means interpreting it to find its message. For Takara “ Art begins when we learn how to examine the world”.
The two works of the greatest Sicilian artist Pietro Consagra, Ferro Bifrontale Arancione andFerro Bifrontale Bianco (Two-faced Orange Iron and Two- faced White Iron)1977, are owned by the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and have been loaned to the Rectorate of Santa Maria in Gradi since 2005. This work was designed for an open- air exhibition in the public space of Charleston, South Carolina during the Festival of Spoleto-USA celebrated in the USA in 1978.
They appear as two-dimensional open-work walls which allow an interaction with the surrounding space, evoking a direct and creative relationship with the observer.
Genesi (Genesis)2003, is a work by Felice Ludovisi which consists of nine canvasses. Together with Apocalisse andParadiso ( Apocalypse and Paradise) these paintings belong to a part of Ludovisi’s great pictorial cycles inspired by sacred themes. In this work, the Viterbo artist attempts to reinterpret the biblical themes in a modern context through a palette of strong colours and by use of flat layers of paint interrupted by dynamic lines.
Area di Volo(Flight Area)2003, by Donatella Scalesse consists of large canvasses painted with dynamic and lively brushwork, placed high on the wall in order to dominate the space.
b) Botanical Garden
Another group of works, created and donated by artists invited to Terra come Arte ( Earth as Art) and to the exhibition Horti d’Artista (Artists’s Gardens)2009, is located at the Tuscia Botanical Gardens.
Ma by Renzogallo is a site-specific installation composed of various elements, for example sharp swords or purple kimonos representing a perceptual challenge to the natural landscape in which they are placed. The work is reminiscent of the ethereal and philosophical Japanese concept of Ma. This concept is intended to be understood as a moment of suspension, a pause between fullness and emptiness, an imperceptible silence between one sound and another, which may promote reflection and mental repose.
Orto I (Garden I)by Francesco Narduzzi is an inscription engraved on stone at the edge of a pond at the Botanical Gardens. Through an “alphabet” made of symbols, the artist helps us to decode the inner reality, a continual intimate connection with Mother Earth.
Chirone ( Chiron) byPatrick Alò, is a large iron centaur created by an artistic operation that uses the recovery of disposed industrial material which contrast to the subject of the sculpture that refers instead to classical antiquity.
Formica 2070 (Ant 2070) by Stefano Di Maulo is a giant ant engraved on stone. The ant, leitmotif of the artist’s work, becomes the vehicle through which Di Maulo communicates the anxiety of a hectic and selfish world in which man, perhaps in 2070, could be in a position of subordination to the silent but cohesive and laborious ants.
c) Campus Riello
Another site- specific installation by Di Maulo in 2010 is located at the former Faculty of Conservation of Cultural Heritage. There, eighteen large black ants climb up the outside wall of the building in an ironic hope for an active and cooperative life in the future.
Inside the same building, Laura Palmieri painted Sulle Scale (On the Stairs) 2011, a cheerful and surreal bestiary which unfolds on the walls of the stairwell, from the top floor all the way to the basement.
Two works by the artist Attilio Pierelli from the Marche region, L’onda (The Wave) 1966 and Donna ( Woman) 1968, from his Museo di sculture iperspaziali (Museum of Hyperspace Sculptures) in Bomarzo, were placed in a warehouse in 2012. The first one was placed at the Botanical Gardens and the other in the green space adjacent to the former Faculty of Conservation of Cultural Heritage building. Designed to be outdoors, the two stainless steel sculptures consist of sheets of reflective foil variously bent to form curved surfaces. These surfaces generate a field of constantly changing distorted reflections, depending on the observer’s point of view and the environmental conditions, drawing them into an aesthetic and unreal image space.
Inside the building of the former Faculty of Agriculture is the painting Erba 2 ( Grass 2) 2004, by Giovan Battista Ambrosini which speaks an abstract language that evokes life forms belonging to the world of nature.
