Every two years in autumn, Ravenna attracts even more mosaic enthusiasts than usual: Ravenna Mosaico, the festival with exhibitions and events opens with a weekend full of exhibition openings in various galleries and museums, discussions and more informal meetings brings people from all around the world together.
As two years ago at Ravenna Mosaico 2013, I loved strolling from one place to the other and meet people I only know from emails and comments.
Here are some impressions from the first weekend. Until 8th November 2015 you still have the chance to go and visit the exhibitions. You can find the whole program in English and Italian at ravennamosaico.it.
CACO3 – Variazioni Parametriche, Galleria Ninapi
The most impressing show surely was the one from CaCO3. Even though the three artists remain true to the way they work, creating agitated surfaces by inclining hundreds of same shaped tesserae, they still manage to make me stand there speechless. After their works with marble and gold, Pavlos, Aniko and Giuseppe have now created some new works that play the movimento game exclusively with glass. With one of them, I had the impression to look through a telescope directly into a night sky with millions of small planets. Beautiful also how location and mosaics play together. You should really not miss this one!
GAEM – Giovani Artisti e Mosaico, MAR Museo d’arte della città di Ravenna
I was really looking forward to see this exhibition, because usually very gifted mosaicisti under 40 are chosen with they works. This time I was very impressed by Matylda Tracewska‘s works. As in other mosaics, she combines traditional mosaic making with painting. In Acquario, those mosaic-fresco-like works even tell us a whole story – truly poetic and due to the use of mother of pearl almost cute at first glance, only at second glance we understand that underneath there is a more dramatic story.
A critical look to the Italian Government and its handling of its cultural assets undertakes Andrea Besana with Troo?. The work is part of his trilogy No Money that puts historical mosaics into a different context to show the alarming decay of cultural heritage by lack of investment in restorative measures in all its hardness.
Another work that had my attention was …ma tutto ciò che sei lentamente svanirà
by Raffaella Ceccarossi. Already in other works she had played with the effect of dissolving surfaces. The tesserae glued to plexiglas shrink to the size of sand grains. For the first time I saw a figurative mosaic of Ceccarossi and must say I am very impressed. I felt like with vague memories of my own childhood, the ones you carry with you, but the very moment you seem to grab them crumble in your hands like sand.
Anime – KOKO Mosaico
Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste
La monumentalità e la leggerezza. Francia musiva.
Opere dal mondo
I segni dello Zodiaco, Omaggio a Ines Morigi Berti
Sergio Cicognani – Accademia di Belle Arti di Ravenna
6 Mosaico? – Laboratorio Emme Di
In the Marco De Luca‘s studio in Via Salara, you find works from 6 artists. I was particularly who have responded Dugald MacInnes and Karen Ami. The simple beauty of slate material elaborates MacInnes, Karen Ami told in their comic-like mosaics stories that recall in their implementation of woodcut.
Luca Barberini – Storie su cittadini al di sopra di ogni sospetto, niArt Gallery
You certainly know the Luca Barberini’s works who creates whole crowds of little people with a few glass tesserae. Now, for the actual exhibition he has extended his series of cittadini, and I loved particularly Eternal love, in which only traces of tesserae let us guess what happened in the whole love story. The mosaic is sort of the making of and what was made you can see in the video. What exactly happened? Watch the video. Magnifico!
If you want to know more about the artist, also watch the mused video interview with Luca.
