Not soldiers posted behind fortifications but sculptures
- The Silent Muses - having first inspired poetry, the
Muse now defends it as the last bulwark
against barbarism and death”
THE MEETING, SYMBOL OF PEACE
Gianfranco Meggiato
From 24.02.2023 to 24.03.2023
Rome – Piazza Cavour
Gianfranco Meggiato
Gianfranco Meggiato
Was born on 26 August 1963 in Venice, where he attended the State Institute of Art, studying sculpture in stone, bronze, wood and ceramics. Meggiato’s work looks at the great masters of the XX century: Brancusi for his research into essentiality, Moore for the internal-external relationship with motherhood
and Calder for the of his works opening into space. Space, in fact, enters Meggiato’s works and the void becomes as important as the solid. In fact, the essential is invisible to the eyes: you cannot touch ideals, feelings or dreams – you can only live them. Meggiato models his sculptures inspired by the biomorphic fabric and the labyrinth symbolising mankind’s tortuous path towards self-awareness and the discovery of a precious inner sphere. Inasmuch, Meggiato coined the concept of “intro-sculpture” wherein the observer’s gaze is drawn into the soul of the work and not merely its external surfaces. An artist of International status since 1998, he takes part in exhibitions and art fairs in Italy and around the world (USA, Canada, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Montecarlo, Ukraine, Russia, India, China, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, South Korea, Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong and Australia). In 2011 and 2013 he was invited to the join the Italian pavilions at the Venice Biennial. In 2017, Meggiato turned his attention to scientific and social ssues through monumental works implemented in large public installations: “The Garden of the Silent Muses” (International Sculpture Park, Catanzaro 2017) stood as a symbolic defence of our
values and our culture against terrorism. “The Spiral of Life” (Piazza Bologni, Palermo 2018) during the Manifesta 12 event was dedicated to the innocent victims of the mafia. “The Garden of Zyz” for Matera European Capital of Culture (Belvedere Murgia-Timone, 2019) sought to be a meeting point between cultures often in contrast with each other in the logic that Everything is One. “Quantum Man: There is no Future without Memory” (2021) was a large solo exhibition with monumental works set up in the Valley of Temples in Agrigento (Sicily) as an attempt to find a point of contact between archaeology, philosophy and quantum physics. “The Spiral of Life” (Piazza di Santa Maria delle Carceri, 2022). set up for Prato City Council and the Pecci Museum was a revival of the installation dedicated to the innocent victims of
the mafia.
“The Breath of Form” (Pisa 2022) – an exhibition with 14 monumental works set up in the historic centre of Pisa, dedicated to the times we are living in, where the Leaning Tower becomes a universal symbol of resilience.
These installations earned the ICOMOS-UNESCO AWARD “for his masterful combination of the ancient and the contemporary in sculptural installations of imposing evocative power and aesthetic value’’.
“Not soldiers posted behind fortifications but sculptures – The Silent Muses – having first inspired poetry, the
Muse now defends it as the last bulwark against barbarism and death.”
(Luca Beatrice)
Among the dozens of wars being fought all over the planet, 24 February this year reminds us that 12 months havealready gone by since war broke out between Russia and Ukraine.
Measuring 10 x 6 metres, this installation will stand in front of the imposing great Palace of Justice in Rome: made up of jute sacks, it depicts a kind of military fortification with a Silent Muse – a sculpture – as its heart: The Encounter (4 metres high).
The Encounter – a symbol of union between different cultures – seeks to takes us further, towards the hope of acquiring that awareness which in this work sets everything in motion from a single point to bring us, after a thousand intricate pathways, closely and equally together.
This is why, in this particular moment in history brimming with contrasts and tensions, proposing the theme of meeting and dialogue between our differences takes on a high symbolic meaning.
The theme of the Silent Muses, now as never before as warfare continues in the heart of Europe, becomes a symbol of startling relevance in defence of our values and our culture against the barbarism of war.
The installation, with its jute sacks (inevitably destined to disintegrate rapidly), also symbolically seeks to emphasize the concept of transience of human nature and its natural tendency towards failure.
It is in this context, faced with the awareness of the ineluctable fragility and transience of human life, that conflicts between peoples should lose all meaning.
Visitors will also be encouraged to stop and think by the “peace quotations” printed on the jute bags themselves, in the hope that only generalised acquisition of awareness can, in the near future, free us from war.
I personally believe that we are all leaves on the same tree, we are all cells of the same organism, we are all One…and I see that these concepts are increasingly coming to the fore even in modern studies into quantum physics.
The intention of this installation, nevertheless, is not to provide my own answers but to ask questions, prompting everyone to find their own personal answers.
