| Mostre del Festival- Festival Exhibitions curated by Vittorio Sgarbi This edition of Spoleto Art coincides with the 54th edition of the Venice Biennial, and it replicates a situation similar to the one when, Giovanni Carandente found himself exercising the dual role of curator in Spoleto and in Venice for years. The controversy in Venice has not yet simmered, and today this unique interference is presented : on the occasion of the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Unification of Italy I have conceived a Pavilion not only in Venice but in each region, and the town of Spoleto has been chosen for Umbria. So we will have the extension of the Italian Pavilion from the Venice Biennial in the Palazzo Collicola and, relative to this opportunity for Italian art, even the Art Sector of the Festival di Spoleto will be limited to Italian artists, reserving the next edition to the presence of international artists. As a matter of fact, it is my intention to recall the fiftieth anniversary of the great exhibition wanted by Giovanni Carandente "Sculptures in the city" in 1962. | Therefore, awaiting to attempt a similar experience with large outdoor sculptures in the next edition, this year begins with the proposal of sculptors in Spoleto with formats suitable for interior spaces, just like chamber music. Giuliano Vangi, Federico Bonaldi, Aron Demetz, Giuseppe Bergomi, Livio Scarpella, Tullio Cattaneo, Giuseppe Ducrot, Gaetano Giuffrè and Daniela Severi have been invited to the former civic museum and the Palazzo Racani Arroni . Two retrospective exhibitions will be dedicated to the deceased sculptors Gaetano Pompa and Angelo Bozzola. As for the painting sector, another anniversary will be celebrated in Spoleto before any other place in Italy : the centennial of the birth of Carlo Mattioli , a great painter of nature and matter. There is a proposal to hold a dialogue with him on a purely informal front by Luciana Matalon. Mario Francesconi′s tormented course is a rediscovery, while Luca Crocicchi and Riccardo Mannelli′s exhibitions will testify two distant, but deeply humanistic experiences. Finally, during the Festival, Spoleto will be touched by the exhibition of the Russian painter Fedor Kuz′mic Suskov, swinging between communist ideology and religious mysticism. Vittorio Sgarbi |
