Forty years later: the historic meeting in Perugia between Burri and Beuys

The Museo civico di Palazzo della Penna in Perugia virtually recalls a significant event that took place on April 3, 1980 inside the Sala Cannoniera of the Rocca Paolina: the meeting between Joseph Beuys and Alberto Burri.

In that year, the Rocca Paolina was being restored and used by citizens and also the restoration of Palazzo della Penna, the building that now houses the Perugia Civic Museum. The historic meeting between the two artists was desired and supported by the city administration and was posed as a fact of great international openness of the city.

Burri exhibited on that occasion the Grande Ferro RP 80, a large sculpture now preserved at the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri in Città di Castello, later replaced by the Grande Nero, currently on display in the Rocca Paolina; Beuys, on the other hand, presented the six blackboards later brought together under the title Opera Unica and purchased by the Municipality of Perugia, which first exhibited them in the Sala del Grifo e del Leone in Palazzo dei Priori and then deposited them in Palazzo della Penna, where they were musealized in 2003.

This event will be remembered through three short video-meetings, which will be disseminated on the social channels of the municipal administration and on the Turismo Comune di Perugia web page.

Below is the schedule.

April 3: Perugia City Councilor for Culture Leonardo Varasano will introduce us to the event through a clip of Joseph Beuys’ performance.

April 10: Professor Michele Dantini, art historian and critic and lecturer at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, will lead us on a discovery of Opera unica, the series of six blackboards by Joseph Beuys now preserved at the Civic Museum of Palazzo della Penna.

April 17: Lawyer and art critic Italo Tomassoni, organizer of the historic meeting between Beuys and Burri, will take us to the heart of the event through an in-depth account of that April 3, 1980.

The videos will be viewable from 6:30 p.m. on the scheduled days and will remain free of charge usable on the Facebook pages Cultura Comune di Perugia, Museo civico di Palazzo della Penna, Bio Art Cafè - Palazzo della Penna and on the website turismo.comune.perugia.it.

The meetings are curated by the Perugia Department of Culture in collaboration with Munus Arts and Culture and are part of the #ritornoalmuseo initiative.

Forty years later: the historic meeting in Perugia between Burri and Beuys

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