Laura Cherubini

From the Arte all’Arte X catalogue 2005

“Mario, Maurizio e Lorenzo ci hanno chiesto un diario, un album di ricordi fatto di parole, immagini o qualsiasi altra cosa ci venga in mente a proposito della nostra esperienza di curatori di “Arte all’Arte”. A me in particolare, ovviamente, chiesero di ricordare come è nata “Arte all’Arte” (visto che sono stata testimone) e sopratutto la figura del suo fondatore Luciano Pistoi, insieme ad altri amici che cui hanno aiutato a decollare e a continuare come Anna Palange. È stato proprio durante una cena a casa di Anna che abbiamo deciso che l’idea di Luciano doveva diventare realtà, che dovevamo farcela. Mario, Lorenzo e Maurizio ce l’hanno messa tutta e adesso festeggiamo il decennale. Durante la nostra prima edizione, Pistoletto ripeteva: “Ci fossero 3 persone così per l’arte contemporanea in ogni città italiana…”

Luciano l’avevo conosciuto ragazzina, sul campo, era la prima volta in vita mia che mi avevano coinvolta in un allestimento e lì, alla GAM di Torino, ed è stato lì, tra Luciano e Maurizio Fagiolo di Arco, ho cominciato a imparare il mestiere (l’altro mio apprendistato è stato un po’ più avanti lavorando a una serie di grandi mostre con Achille Bonito Oliva). Luciano era travolgente, sui suoi racconti si sarebbe potuto costituire una esilarante storia dell’arte contemporanea. Una sera a Torino, lui, Salvo (II edizione di Arte all’Arte 1997) e Cristina mi portarono a vedere una piazzaun po’ defilata, quella dell’Arsenale. Dicevano che era lo scenario dei quadri di De Chirico con le stazioni. Era proprio vero. Salvo scherzava sul fatto che dovunque si incontrava qualcuno che conosceva Luciano. E mentre attraversavamo la piazza buia e deserta alle due di notte, una ragazza giovane e carina ci raggiunse gridando: “Signor Pistoi, Signor Pistoi!”, tra le nostre risate.

Salvo's cultural voracity and memory were notoriously prodigious, but only Luciano managed to trick him over the names of Snow White's seven dwarfs. He loved Italian art deeply, because in Italy art is a natural part of life, and he thought of art as a unified fabric, from the mosaics of Galla Placidia to the youngest of artists. He was always off on new adventures: that's how he proposed something new to me and three young lads, Mario, Maurizio, and Lorenzo (who have recently courageously opened the small gallery Continua, in San Gimignano, which Luciano has already involved with other galleries in Volpaia). Lorenzo, Maurizio and Mario, ever hyperactive, have also founded a cultural association, Arte Continua (a name that has always made me think of Lotta Continua, and it was a bit of a perpetual battle for art). Luciano wanted to entrust the association, founded by the dynamic trio, with the realisation of the project he had conceived, with me as the critic and curator, involving artists very close to him, such as Getulio Alviani and Luigi Ontani, along with others whom he nevertheless held in high regard, such as Michelangelo Pistoletto and Giovanni Anselmo. Luciano was very keen to work again with Giulio Paolini (scheduled for Montepulciano and for the IV edition in 1999) and with Maurizio Mochetti, but unfortunately, the non-confirmation, after an initial agreement, of the town of Pienza prevented the work with this artist from moving forward, who could have given a lot to Arte all’Arte.

[…]

Arte all’arte is a project based on specially created works, which always presents a huge problem for the catalogue. It’s a case of trying to make do with what you have: either the catalogue is ready for the vernissage but with different images, or it comes out afterwards with the completed works. To overcome this issue, “the lads” found a workaround: empty spaces in the catalogue and stickers with the artworks to be applied like in Panini football sticker albums. I don’t remember whose idea it was, but perhaps Maurizio’s. “The lads” all did a bit of everything, but they divided up certain tasks: Lorenzo looked after the artists during site visits and installations, Mario dealt with the relations with the cities, Maurizio the catalogue, but the roles were always interchangeable. I was the one who invited Rosa and Gilberto Sandretto to that first edition; I really wanted them there because they were Luciano’s friends, and it was he who had introduced us a few years earlier when Rosa had the Rocca 6 Gallery in Turin. To write a text about Carla Accardi, who was having an exhibition there. Rosa and Gilberto really liked Arte all’arte and not only continued to follow it, but such a rapport developed with “the lads” that a few years later (VI edition 2001) they hosted the special projects by Daniel Buren, Hernandez-Diaz, and Ottonella Mocellin at the Castello di Linari. I’m pleased that it’s still them today hosting the tribute to Luciano, a tribute that is in Luciano’s spirit: 5 young galleries involved, just as he would have done. Luciano used to say: «We all look for wonderful places for art, Achille Bonito Oliva goes to the Fonti del Clitunno… what better place could there be in Tuscany?… We invented the gallery with white walls in the 60s, but that’s over now, artists aren’t interested anymore…».

And indeed, the artists wanted to interact with the place and Arte all'Arte has, in this sense, been a field laboratory. Then, naturally, compared to these original ideas, which focused especially on the relationship between ancient and contemporary art, Arte all'Arte has changed, other curators and other artists have arrived. “Arte all'Arte has opened up to the world.“ The subtitle Art Architecture Landscape clarified some points of reference, not only the places of artistic tradition, but also the environment (and will there be Mario's ”green“ touch here?) And not only ancient churches and noble palaces, but also new architecture, ”normal" buildings, real sites. It will then be a new generation of artists who will transform the concept of Arte all'Arte: let's think of Nari Ward, who chose a landfill near Poggibonsi with an incinerator as the setting for his work.

All these things remain in memory along with: a dark well full of “transparent viewing instruments”, the beginning of an endless verticality; a red dress dancing the mambo; flags waving in the wind; the construction site of a mosque that isn't there, the dream of animals emerging from enchanted waters; families of crystal lights that project us from the other side of the world and also (memory of the ears more than the eyes) bells ringing; a choir of voices that has found a home. And a tree rising from a wave.

The lads call me their “godmother.“ They say I've brought them luck, so much so that, for an Art in Art away trip to Piedmont, with beautiful works by Piero Gilardi in Alba and David Tremlett in Barolo, they called me back.

Mi candido dunque per partecipare alla prima edizione del loro nuovo progetto, qualunque e ovunque esso sia, non ci credo che Lorenzo, Maurizio e Mario non ci trascinino in nuove avventure…”

Laura Cherubini