“When Mario proposed me for the third edition of Art to Art to have Ilya Kabakov's works installed, I confess I was a little surprised. I knew Kabakov only as one of the most prominent artists of our time, but my knowledge didn't extend much beyond a few photos of some of his works. But I didn't understand the connection, not with Colle di Val d’Elsa. Then the trio Mario, Lorenzo, and Maurizio presented the project to me; the idea of connecting different historical eras, based on three epochal reference points: the classical period, the Middle Ages, and the contemporary age. The first is represented by a yellow marble column from the Sienese hills, at the top of which opens a book whose text refers to the cult of ruins. The second, visible through a telescope installed in a suggestive scene in Via delle Romite, depicts a lit window with two human figures and two angels. The third, a metaphor on the tragicomic events of the present, is a plexiglass slab on which is placed a swarm of flies forming the inscription: ’we are free“. Thus, the skilful arrangement of the works in the historic centre of Colle shows how the subsequent layers of modernity can be depicted in art through pure and simple mental production. Art, which makes us know the artist and his extraordinary humanity. A humanity as transparent as the crystal of my land.”
— Marco Spinelli, Sindaco di Colle di Val d’Elsa, tratto dal catalogo Arte All’Arte III, 1998
