Appointment at the Cloisters of San Domenico in Reggio Emilia from 17 March to 25 April 2013 for the exhibition "Ninety artists for a flag", promoted by the "Curare Onlus" association, chaired by Deanna Ferretti Veroni.
As indicated by an official note, the initiative, in addition to presenting the works of ninety Italian and international contemporary artists who have discussed the theme of the Italian flag, encompasses a very valuable objective: to build a women's hospital in Reggio Emilia and of child.
The new building, located inside the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital, will have as its objective the protection of the health of women, pregnant women, couples, newborns and children, and will be characterized as a welcoming and familiar place, equipped with the most modern technologies and skills, associated with characteristics that allow the best methods of which. The total 12.500 square meters, distributed over 5 floors (one of these underground), will house the structures of Pediatrics, Gynecology, Obstetrics, Medically Assisted Procreation, Neonatology, Operating Blocks, Child Neuropsychiatry.
The exhibition which opened on 17 March, the same day in which, in 1861, the unification of Italy was decreed, proclaiming the Kingdom of Italy.
The 90 artists involved have not generically donated their work for the benefit of the initiative, but have undertaken to create one starting from a particular flag, chosen among those, donated by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, which in 2011 were exhibited in the city of the Tricolore on the occasion of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. These are the flags linked to the emergence of the idea of the unification of Italy: the tricolor adopted on 7 January 1797 in Reggio Emilia; those of the Jacobin and Napoleonic age; the flags of popular uprisings and insurrections during the Risorgimento; those of the pre-unification states; the flags of the Unification and of the Kingdom of Italy; the various versions of the flag adopted by the Republic, ending with those used, even recently, for objectives of great social and ethical value.
There were various ways of creating the works: some artists intervened on the flag itself or on a part of it; others have used fragments of them to insert them, through collage, in their works; still others have created a completely autonomous one: the flag assigned to them has become a direct source of inspiration for the references of colors, writings and drawn shapes.
The entire project, from the involvement of the artists, to the creation of the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue, was curated by Sandro Parmiggiani, critic and art historian, former director of Palazzo Magnani in Reggio Emilia.
The exhibition is promoted by the CuraRE Onlus Association in collaboration with the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, which donated the flags given to the artists and will support the exhibition at the San Domenico Cloisters, and takes advantage of the patronage of the Emilia Romagna Region and the Province of Reggio Emilia
The flags "adopted" by the artists are those that were displayed for a year in the streets of the city as part of the exhibition "The streets of the Flag", inaugurated by the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano on 7 January 2011 as part of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy and carried out in collaboration with the Technical Unit of the Mission for the Celebrations of the 150th Anniversary of National Unity, the Institute of the Italian Encyclopaedia and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
After Reggio Emilia, the aim is to bring the exhibition to other Italian cities, so that it becomes the emblematic messenger for the project of the Women's and Children's Hospital and of our flag, symbol of the unification of Italy.
Subsequently, the works will be sold to raise funds for the construction of the future hospital, with the aim, however, of preserving the integrity of the exhibition and making it a sort of permanent collection.
The catalog will reproduce all the works created by the individual artists, their biographical profiles and the flags, already exhibited for the 150th anniversary, with the relative historical descriptions.
Curator of the exhibition Sandro Parmiggiani, who writes "Il particular denied *” – Artists experience with particular annoyance, and with many reasons, the habit of knocking on their doors to ask for a work to be destined for some charitable purpose. This practice boasts a glorious tradition, linked to many noble causes which, during the last century, mobilized artists on several occasions, to denounce facts that affected the human conscience, in order, at the same time, to support the action of those involved he rebelled, to achieve political, social, cultural objectives of groupings and associations, to encourage the opening of museums or prevent their closure. Nor have artists been indifferent to the fate of some of their colleagues, or of ordinary people they had gotten to know, when the blows of fate rage and risk annihilating an existence. Of course, turning to artists was also emblematic: the artist was often the bearer of his own aura, believing that he not only had the gift and developed talents that many did not have, but that he represented, within society, a a figure with its own peculiar heritage of reflection, whether focused on collective events or simply on the ultimate meaning of life. Knocking on an artist's door, and being welcomed by it, also meant being able to communicate that he was on your side, supported your cause.
(…) The project for the creation of a Women's and Children's Hospital, supported by the CuraRE Onlus Association, envisaged involving the artists in a completely different way. First of all, the works of the artists are not considered a mere simulacrum of monetary value, but the privileged means of communication of a project which has deemed it essential to question the artists so that they become ambassadors of a dream and a hope through their works. If I may allow this analogy, if the hospital to be built intends to take care of and favor the human ability to generate, to come to light, artists must be considered its primary interlocutors, for the creativity they express, for the seeds that , through their works, they throw into the social body. Secondly, the custom I mentioned in the introduction of this text had to be reversed; it is still possible to turn to artists, for important, selected causes, but it is necessary to involve them in a project that is based on a dual need: to achieve the objective for which they are asked and to give value to their work of art as such, with all its educational and communicative values.
We have therefore not asked the artists to generically donate one of their works, perhaps hastily pulled out of some of their deposits, for the benefit of the initiative, but to commit themselves, to take time, to create one starting from a particular image: a flag, which it was physically delivered to them, chosen among those that in 2011, as part of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, were exhibited in the streets of Reggio Emilia, the City of the Tricolor. The Municipality of Reggio has made available to us the flags, marked by the exposure, which lasted for months, in the various atmospheric conditions, and which therefore bore on their surface the legacies and the outrages of the action of the sun, the rain, the wind. These flags are linked to the rise of the idea of the unification of Italy, to its diffusion and its making; somehow, the flags that, since 7 January 1797 – the day on which the Tricolor flag was adopted in Reggio Emilia – have flown in the lands of Italy.
(…) Absolute freedom of intervention was left to the artists, who simply had to consider the particular flag given to them as a starting point from which to advance on their journey, towards the creation of a work that in any case bears the sign of their language, of their style. There were various ways in which the artists created the works: some intervened on the flag itself or on a part of it, painting over it or using it to create a work-object; others have used fragments of them to insert them, through collage, in their works; still others have created a completely autonomous work: the flag assigned to them has become a direct source of inspiration for the possible references of colors, writings, drawn shapes. The outcome of the artists' work demonstrates, once again, how much a commission, a bond, are not elements that cage or distort creativity – as we still erroneously linger on believing, in the name of an abstract conception of freedom -, but stimuli that exalt her, oblige her to embark on unexplored roads, experiences that, deposited in her memory, will ferment in the imagination and will be heralds of innovations in their work.
I must say that, apart from some very rare exceptions (which confirm the rule), the artists received the proposal presented to them promptly, warmly, without hesitation, also because many immediately appreciated the cause for which they were asked them to get to work. Never, in any case, have I had to bring into play, in order to convince someone, the friendship, distant or recent, constant or fragmentary, which nonetheless binds me to so many of them: the artists have not felt this request as a sort of obligation towards someone, but, I believe, as an invitation, a call for a noble cause which could not be answered negatively, for which it was necessary to commit oneself, also because one was not asking them generically for a work, but for the outcome of their particular creative path .
* Extract from the text in the Corsiero publisher catalogue.
List of artists:
Luca Alinari, Pat Andrea, Alberto Andreis, Assadour, Roberto Barni, Davide Benati, Gabriella Benedini, Domenico Bianchi, Alfonso Borghi, Danilo Bucchi, Enzo Cacciola, Giovanni Campus, Eugenio Carmi, Tommaso Cascella, Roberto Casiraghi, Bruno Ceccobelli, Bruno Chersicla, Andrea Chiesi, Pier Giorgio Colombara, Angelo Davoli, Sandro De Alexandris, Giuliano Della Casa, Enrico Della Torre, Lucio Del Pezzo, Fausto De Nisco, Marco Ferri, Ennio Finzi, Giosetta Fioroni, Laura Fiume, Attilio Forgioli, Antonio Freiles, Omar Galliani , Alessandro Gamba, Marco Gastini, Giorgio Griffa, Marco Grimaldi, Franco Guerzoni, Paolo Iacchetti, Marino Iotti, Emilio Isgrò, Riccardo Licata, Claudia Losi, Luigi Mainolfi, Elio Marchegiani, Mirco Marchelli, Umberto Mariani, Antonio Marras, Carlo Mastronardi, Iler Melioli, Giovanni Menada, Nino Migliori, Elisa Montessori, Pietro Mussini, Hidetoshi Nagasawa, Carlo Nangeroni, Giulia Napoleone, Gianfranco Notargiacomo, Nunzio, Claudio Olivieri, Tullio Pericoli, Lucia Pescador, Oscar Piattella, Pino Pinelli, Graziano Pompili, Concetto Pozzati, Mario Raciti, Bruno Raspanti, Jacopo Ricciardi, Leonardo Rosa, Ruggero Savinio, Antonio Seguí, Giovanni Sesia, Medhat Shafik, Tetsuro Shimizu, Aldo Spoldi, Mauro Staccioli, Tino Stefanoni, Guido Strazza, Ilario Tamassia, Nani Tedeschi, Wainer Vaccari, Valentino Vago, Walter Valentini, Paolo Valle, Wal, William Xerra, Gianfranco Zappettini.
