An exhibition in Siena recalls the friendship between Fausto Melotti and Italo Calvino

On the centenary of the birth of Italo Calvino (Santiago de Las Vegas de la Habana, 1923 - Siena, 1985), Siena pays tribute to the writer through an exhibition by his friend, sculptor Fausto Melotti (Rovereto, 1901 - Milan, 1986), in the very places where Calvino himself passed away in September 1985: the Santa Maria della Scala, at the time still a hospital as it had been since its founding, and today a rich and dynamic museum complex in the heart of the city of the Palio. The exhibition is entitled Fausto Melotti. In lightness. A Tribute to Italo Calvino and is scheduled from December 7, 2023 to April 7, 2024.

The exhibition, curated by Michela Eremita and commissioned by the Fondazione Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala with the support of the Fausto Melotti Foundation of Milan, aims to highlight the cultural and aesthetic affinity of the two friends, both known for their seemingly impossible balances poised between the visible and the invisible and for being undisputed protagonists of the national and international artistic and cultural scene.

The relationship between Fausto Melotti and Italo Calvino was intense and rich in mutual exchanges, both intellectual and human, hinted at by Italo Calvino in the pages of The Invisible Cities: “There was a moment when after meeting the sculptor Fausto Melotti, one of the first Italian abstractionists, (...) it came to me to write cities as subtle as his sculptures: cities on stilts, spider-web cities.” The exhibition in particular refers to the works that became the image of Calvino’s books for the reissue of his writings in the Oscar Mondadori series in the 2000s.

The exhibition itinerary includes 22 sculptures of various sizes and many drawings, spanning a period from 1935 to 1985. Sculptures such as Costante uomo (1936), Il viaggio (1961) and Contrappunto libero (1972) are intended to give concreteness to Italo Calvino’s words, but at the same time they are also meant to pay homage to Fausto Melotti, one of the most important artists of the 20th century, connoted by the imponderable lightness, the basis of his artistic research.

An exhibition in Siena recalls the friendship between Fausto Melotti and Italo Calvino

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