Man needs to put together the visible and the invisible, that's why he creates tales, myths, legends, feasts, celebrations, songs, art (Maria Lai - 1999)
“There is a string connecting all three melodies, a banal story,” said Marras. All three songs connect to the central theme of leaving Italy for the US in the 20th century, facing brutal scrutiny at Ellis Island, leaving loved ones behind, and feeling nostalgic for one’s home.
The first song, “Lacrime Napulitane” (Neapolitan Tears), tells the story of an Italian immigrant who, despite finding success in America, finds himself feeling lonely on Christmas Eve. The second, “New York, New York,” was accompanied by a purposefully out-of-tune piano and symbolized the idealized yet naive dreams of success attracting immigrants from Italy. And lastly, the third song Rippa sang was “L’Addio” (The Goodbye), which held great meaning in its creation with Battiato and was featured as an homage to Italian singer Giuni Russo who died in 2004.
“The strings also represent our human bonds that stretch but never break,” explained Marras, comparing his drawings to a metaphorical umbilical cord. Expanding further on his canvas’ depiction of seemingly female hands weaving and his color choice of black for the strings, Marras concluded, “love, like death, is extremely intimate.”
The Italian Cultural Institute in New York, in collaboration with the General Consulate of Italy in New York
XVII Giornata del Contemporaneo, Italian Contemporary Art promoted by AMACI with the support of the General Direction for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and the collaboration of the Directorate General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation of MAECI
Making of #APORIA
(gallery by Francesca Magnani ©)
SU PER LE ANTICHE SCALE Up the ancient stairs by Antonio Marras
(site-specific work on wood, ceramics, and threads)
A site-specific installation inspired by an ancient land, depositary of old traditions, culture, and values.An ancient land rich in knowledge and legends and crafts that converge and intertwine in Antonio Marras' work. SU PER LE ANTICHE SCALE is a work climbing up the staircase wall of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York (686 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States) made of ceramic, threads, and woods created to emphasize, underline, enhance the stairs of the famous building. The rigor of the loom, a rational and orderly tool, is an essential tool in last century Sardinian houses. The passionate neurasthenia of ceramic is crafted by instinctive and unrestrained hands that move as if guided by a distracted god. Oxymoron and apory are the key elements of Marras' work and part of this installation. An orderly and bright layout contrasts with the anarchic and undisciplined dimension of the elements incorporated. There is a dissimilitude between discipline, rhythm, and harmony in contrast with the passion and instinct that the scattered objects communicate. Antonio Marras is attached to the loom, a tool preserved in the history of his land and, by the legacy with the Sardinian artist Maria Lai, a dear friend, a muse, and a protector. The love for myth and story combines with craftsmanship, for the warm irregularity of everything handmade.
It's not surprising. The fairy tale, story, and myth are all born from craftsmanship. In traditional societies, they originate from the need to speak and listen, fill with stories the long evenings spent weaving, sewing or embroidering.
SU PER LE ANTICHE SCALE is a multifaceted, three-dimensional, and material work. Wood and ceramic are objects bound by black threads that imprison and hold shapes like a spider that captures its prey in its web, wraps it. It appropriates it but does not destroy it; quite the opposite, it preserves and protects it.
Ceramic is shaped as sprawling hands like jellyfish with threads joining other pieces of ceramics in the shape of books or strips. The threads draw maps on the white wall like perpendicular, parallel or diverging streets. Angles and intersections create encounters and continuations to get to where it all begins.
It's the tale of memories entangled in the plot, held in the knots of the thread, like the memories of lives that migrate, take on new forms but do not lose the ties with their roots. It's an ancestral tale that speaks of paths, journeys, sufferings, and torment. It's a story known well to those who left and have become an "island." It's the desire to go and to stay at the same time. It's the desire to explore, investigate, search. It's the desire to return.
It's the desire to learn what's beyond the sea yet bringing with us "su connottu" what has been learned from the great old men, what each of us holds inside. We who have roots but are not trees, so we keep wandering laden with all our things so that we don't forget because we are witnesses of the time.