Contemporary art invades the Tuscan village of Radicondoli

The 35th edition of the Radicondoli festival, curated by the Municipality of Radicondoli and in collaboration with Radicondoli Arte, kicks off with a rich program. On July 17, the Contemporary Landscapes project will open the festival with the exhibition Come complicarsi la vita e guardare le nuvole by Simone Gori and the artistic duo Antonello / Ghezzi and two of their installations; on July 18, Boschetto sonoro - musical architecture by Antonio Aiazzi and the sound installation by Adelita Husni-Beyper for the project Una boccata d’aria will follow. Finally, the video documentary curated by the Watermark art screen by Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky. All of this will be set in places in Radicondoli, such as the former wash houses, the terrace that opens out from the Town Hall onto the valley around the town, the ancient grove of the little plain, and other places outside and inside the town.

In a parallel and complementary way to the festival of theater, music and dance, a nationally established event that will continue until July 31, the Municipality of Radicondoli intends to enhance also through artistic intervention some places that over the last few years have been disused or poorly used and revitalize them in a new dimension in relationship with the community. With this in mind, works have been selected that intend to be artistic expressions of contemporary change, making the Radicondoli area a privileged space for intercultural and intergenerational dialogue.

Following is the program

July 17, 5:30 pm
Bizzarrini Palace
How to complicate life and look at clouds
group exhibition by Simone Gori and Antonello / Ghezzi

A cloud is also an island, it is a place where one would like to go, hide and twirl. It is a flying carpet and a spaceship, a hiding place, a pillow to land on. It is all that our imagination will be able to see and if you imagine it is there, if you draw it you will take it with you but if you lose it you will want to find it again and this constant imagining, hoping, dreaming and loving is all a system to complicate, complicate our lives yes, but that is what fortunately we continue to do.

To follow, on the Terrace of the Town Hall, Simone Gori’s installation.
The artist draws inspiration from the first chapter of The Little Prince, where the author recounts through a childhood story the incomprehensibility of adults to children’s drawings, who rationalize the images and lose the living sense of imagination. The work consists of the image of two little girls filmed in the act of drawing the sky with two large chalks: one white and one blue. Mischievous and irreverent, they amuse themselves by constantly changing the sky, drawing the clouds that grown-ups try to understand, and showing the stars that allow us to navigate. The image is placed on a large sheet of mirrored steel formed by a floor that turns to infinity. Placed on the panoramic terrace of the Radicondoli City Hall, it reflects the sky above. The artist poses a perspective shift, where the focus is no longer on the surrounding panorama, but on the sky. It is an invitation to sail free with the power of our imagination.

Former Washhouse
Seeing me in you - Installation by Antonello/Ghezzi, a collective composed of Nadia Antonello and Paolo Ghezzi.
There is a mysterious and evocative place in Radicondoli where you seem to hear in the silence an ancient hubbub. The wash houses have been a place of sharing, of friendship, where human relationships were intertwined in everyday life, with hands in the water and eyes looking at each other.
In the book Alcibiades the First, Plato tells of a dialogue between his teacher Socrates and the politician Alcibiades. They reflect on the inscription “Know thyself” inscribed in the Temple of Delphi and its meaning from which springs a valuable reflection that still speaks to us, perhaps louder than before.
Seeing Me in You is a site-specific art installation, a portal of mirrors, set in the spaces of the wash houses, bearing the words: If one, with the best part of his eye looks at the best part of the other’s eye, he sees himself. It exhorts one to look into the other and recognize oneself.

Stables and some alleys of the historic center: Sound installation by Adelita Husni-Bey
Radicondoli is the only Tuscan village to be part of the project A Breath of Art now in its second edition realized by Fondazione Elpis in collaboration with Galleria Continua of San Gimignano. Adelita Husni-Bey artist and pedagogue, influenced by anarcho-collectivism, theater, law, urban studies, represented Italy at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. In Radicondoli she will work on a participatory work following a workshop with four young musicians from the Radicondoli Chamber Orchestra and the involvement of narrative voices, recording sounds and voices of the village.

6:30 p.m. Pianetto location
Boschetto sonoro - musical architecture by Antonio Aiazzi, historical founder of Litfiba.
A place of great charm, much loved by the elderly people of the village who used to frequent it at parties and convivial gatherings, but which has not been used for some time.
A small forest of oaks grown on a peculiar and bizarre stony concretion where small paths unravel inside, it becomes a place of introspection and listening, a kind of bois sacrè, which stands like a strange protuberance and perhaps with some mysterious and ancient origin in defense and memory of the village.

9:15 p.m. Old Parish Church of Our Lady
Watermark by Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, United States 2013, 90’
Screening by the Art Screen. Free admission.
Following the success of Manufactured Landscapes (2006), award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal and renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky return to work together on an overwhelming film project about the complex relationship between humans and water.
Watermark combines stories from around the world and exceptional aerial footage that testifies to the impact on the landscape brought about by human intervention.
The construction site of the world’s largest dam built in China, the Colorado River delta that has now become an arid desert, the tanneries in Dhaka where 21,000 cubic meters of toxic effluent are produced every day, and the Kumbh Mela beach where thirty million people gather to bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges are some of the images of atrocious beauty that make up this portrait. A 2005 winner of the TED Prize for his commitment to environmental causes, Burtynsky documents humanity’s impact on the planet with his images. Celebrated worldwide, his photographs are part of the collections of more than fifty museums, including the Tate in London, MoMA and the Guggenheim in New York.

The exhibitions will be on view until August 31, 2021.

Image: Simone Gori, The Cloud Maker .

Contemporary art invades the Tuscan village of Radicondoli

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