TIMELESS ENCOUNTERS | Chapter II, PROPHETIA
The three-year project Timeless Encounters curated by KALPA galleries and Guarnacci Etruscan Museum returns to Volterra: Etruscan and contemporary art live in Federico Gori's new site-specific installation.
New interweavings between contemporary and ancient art spring to life among the textures of the medieval architecture of Volterra's Palazzo dei Priori. From July 17 to September 15, 2023, the second edition of Timeless Encounters | Etruscan and Contemporary Art, the three-year exhibition project created by Anima Silvae association and Museo Etrusco Guarnacci in collaboration with KALPA Galleries returns. For this new edition, entitled PROPHETIA, Pistoiese artist Federico Gori (Prato, 1977) creates a site-specific installation connecting his work of etching and naturally oxidised copper with a selection of Etruscan artefacts from the Museum's collection. As the title implies, PROPHETIA embodies a contemporary prophecy, bringing to life a ritual of catharsis within differing temporal and spatial planes, the micro and macro. The work relates to the Etruscan partition of the sky into four macro sectors, each in turn divided into as many four, each corresponding to a different deity of the pantheon. To emphasize the interconnection between all the cosmic elements of the universe, within each of the sixteen elements, Gori imprints the map of the sky in copper corresponding to the date of July 17, 2023 in addition to natural and symbolic forms referring to the Etruscan cult of divination and the burial of the dead, like feathers of different waterfowls and asphodels (the flowers of spontaneous birth in necropolis sites and since antiquity symbolically linked to the afterlife). Gori's individual works are placed on corresponding architectural structures treated with MATTEOBRIONI natural pigment, whose rust-colour enhances the spatial continuum between the ancient terracotta of the floor, the cangiante red of the copper, to the sand and terracotta of the Etruscan artefacts. These last elements are resting directly upon each work: terracotta and alabaster fragments from ancient times of faces and bodies - now drawn and now sculpted - dialoguing closely with the copper of the installation. Through contact with different materials, copper oxidises and changes its composition and appearance, giving the exhibition the status of a living work of art that is constantly evolving. PROPHETIA develops from the core of Gori's research and poetics, which focuses on the concepts of time and metamorphosis, the encounter with different temporal planes, and the impossibility of man to dominate time and matter, so often elusive to all human logic. This is an artistic investigation aimed at encapsulating the secret code and signs of nature, its biodiversity and evolutionary path. Curated by Eleonora Raspi, PROPHETIA was created as part of the three-year Timeless Encounters 2022-2024 project, promoted by Anima Silvae Cultural Association and Museo Etrusco Guarnacci, and made possible by the coordination and support of KALPA; the technical sponsorship of MATTEOBRIONI srl; the support of Altair Chimica; and the contribution of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Volterra. The exhibit is under the patronage of the City of Volterra and Tuscany Region.
Exhibition location and dates Sala del Giudice Conciliatore, Palazzo dei Priori (Volterra, Toscana) 17 July - 15 September 2023 10 am - 7 pm, every day, free entrance Exhibition organisation and curation Organised by Associazione Anima Silvae, KALPA Art Living and Museo Etrusco Guarnacci Artistic curatorship and texts by Eleonora Raspi for KALPA Scientific curatorship by Fabrizio Burchianti, Museo Etrusco Guarnacci Exhibition partners and sponsors Technical sponsorship of MATTEOBRIONI srl Support of Altair Chimica (Saline di Volterra) Contribution of Fondazione Cassa Risparmio di Volterra Patronage of Comune di Volterra and Regione Toscana Collezione Museo Etrusco Guarnacci Founded in the mid-1700s thanks to a donation from the noble abbot Mario Guarnacci, the Museum is one of the oldest and most important Etruscan museums in Italy. The core of the archeological collection is in the order of 600 Etruscan funerary urns. The production of these objects grew in Volterra between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE using various materials: notably terracotta, stone and alabaster. The most significant urns are made of alabaster, a material that was both easy to shape and suitable for painting. Federico Gori Developing a strong interest in abstract comb-sign art at the beginning of his career, Federico Gori (Prato, 1977) aims to capture the secret code and signs of Nature, across its biodiversity and evolutionary journey. Many of Gori's polyptychs hold repeated patterns, displaying a highly symbolic minimal landscape of the memories of fossils, extinct plants, and contemporary nature. Throughout his career, Gori has participated in numerous national and international projects and exhibitions in Italy, the UK and Japan. His most recent solo exhibitions include the Golden Age at the Archaeological Museum of Taranto and Estinti. Il gelo e la luce at Fattoria di Celle in 2022; also in the same year, he participated in the group exhibitions Coltivare l'arte at Isola Bisentina and Collezioni del Novecento at Pistoia Musei. In 2019, the project Earthrise in collaboration with the neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso at the Museo Palazzo Fabroni Arti Visive Contemporanee, Pistoia.