Donna Scultura (Women Sculpture)
This morning I went to the opening of the women’s scultpture show – an annual show they have of 4 prominent female sculptors working in Pietrasanta now in its 8th year – which they always schedule to open on Valentines day!
It started at 10.30 am – with a series of talks in the lecture hall off the cloister (this was also used last sunday for the Knut Steen award ceremony which I haven’t had a chance to blog about yet).
As I arrived I met Shelley Robzen (http://www.shelleyrobzen.com/) who I had lunch with on my first day here and who I’m trying to meet up with again, and Immanuel Klein (http://www.immanuelklein.com/) who was here on the marble carving residency before christmas but is back here for a while longer. We sat in the second row and ended up beside Hakon Anton.
My italian is getting better as I could get the general jist of all they were say (it was all in italian) – although I wasn’t always sure who people were.
The artist were:
Elena Biancini
Who does interesting figures in fired clay, and a piece I particularly liked of an egg hanging in the centre of a pyramid (appesa a un filo). She didn’t want to say anything, and I can’t find her online either.
Editt Davidovici
Of Romanian origin, she showed a slideshow of personal photos starting from childhood, including amazing snow sculpture in Canada and ending with a poignant photo of her son who recently died in a flying accident whilst training to be a pilot.
She works in marble and I thought her most powerful piece was called ‘fallen angel’ and was dedicated to her son. It was like a wing and head of a bird or gull with an amazing line and curve – and had a tear of polished marble about where the birds eye would be. However, I did think that the tear spoilt it slightly – it was just a bit too cliched and unsubtle in a very subtle piece. I wonder if she could have kept it but tonned it down a bit, or maybe it wasn’t necessary.
Jaya Schuerch
She spoke of the amazing experience she has when she first arrived in Pietrasanta in the 80s and learned in various marble studios from old craftsmen who had been carving since the age of 14… Sadly a lot of these studios are closing down or moving out of town, as their son’s don’t want to face such a hard life and the price of real estate in central pietrasanta rockets.
After having moved studios a number of times, her need to have a stable and ‘bello’ place to work, drove her to set up a studio where artist and artigiani can work: Studio Pescarella http://www.studiopescarella.com/
(This is just outside Pietrasanta and I’m hoping to go visit it soon)
Later in the actual exhibition I talked to Jaya – which was very interesting. Amongst other things, she encouraged me to invest in hiring a professional photographer to take shots of my works – if you can’t send the work, its great to send good photos, and its very important to have good quality catalogues…
I’d told here that I had only been here 2 weeks and how my head was a bit really from trying to take it all in, (I feel like a sponge). She said that I’d probably start crying a lot in another couple of weeks – most people do – or rather the women tend to cry a lot and the men take to drinking too much!
Virginia Tentindo
(I couldn’t find a site of her work but this give a good overview) http://gumucio.blogspot.com/2009/11/el-erotismo-de-virginia.html
Of argentinian italian origin, her work seem very influenced by past latin american civilasations – with strange hybrid creatures and weird erotic scenes. (The little boy next to us exclaimed ‘bruto’ and ‘monstro’ – its ugly, a monster!) . She has a studio in the Bateaux Lavoir in Monmartre in Paris (where Picasso worked)
She showed a film of her work and studio with a voice over text by Julio Cortazar (Argentinian novelist). Unfortunately they didn’t have the sound connected up to the PA system, but as I was only a few seats from the laptop I managed to catch some of it.
Igor Mitoraj appeared at the exhibition to see Virginia.
After the talks, we all gathered on the steps of the church (Chiesa di S. Agostino) and the doors were opened dramatically – such different traditions to the UK.
