Art / PORTOFINO CULTURAL SEASON

60 PORTOFINO CULTURE 2022

OR, THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE IN SUPPORTING TOURISM

by Manuela Schinaia

Cultural activity in the world’s most famous fishing village has now become the all-round driving forces of local tourism: The celebrated Castle Brown hosts exceptional quality art exhibitions, the Teatrino stages some highly engaging conferences with artists and art historians of great depth and MuPa, the International Outdoor Sculpture Centre, fascinates visitors with over two hundred works exhibited in the open air.

Mayor Matteo Viacava introduces the first exhibition of the summer like this: “Maintaining the now historic quality of the exhibitions held so far in the halls of Castle Brown with this duo exhibition is a real commendation for our village council. Guarneri and Parra are two artists linked not only by a creative symbiosis but by a cultural concept that comes through very clearly in this exhibition. A visit to this fascinatingly historic place to admire the works on display, especially after its recent restoration, is a uniquely immersive experience in contemporary art for anyone choosing to visit Portofino today." The exhibition’s curator Daniele Crippa on the other hand, has this to say: “The artistic fervour of the years back in 1977 when the adventure of the Galleria Civica di Portofino began in Castle Brown is still very much alive today, and still equally as involving for the visitors who come to this unique place from all over the world. I still feel the enthusiasm I felt when, certainly thanks to the magic that’s in the very

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name Portofino, the world of culture allowed me to be part of the exhibition organising committee in support of the adventure that has now become part of the history of modern art. It’s such a rejuvenating memory. The people around me at the time were of such high calibre: Giulio Carlo Argan - Guido Ballo - Germano Beringheli - Giuliano Briganti - Corrado Maltese - Giuseppe Marchiori - Claudio Martelli - Pierre Restany and Giorgio Strehler. Fortunately for me many of them became friends and were very supportive with their advice, and absolutely indispensable when it came to convincing artists to exhibit with us. The innumerable pages of history we wrote and the memories of those times still make everyone involved very proud.

The last few years have been particularly troubled for Portofino, beginning with one of the most violent storms ever seen that effectively cut the village off from world, and then the pandemic. Both of these events were enormously testing, but the temper of a population historically accustomed to facing and overcoming adversity proved its worth in the end. The local administration performed miracles and after brilliantly overcoming these challenges, like a Phoenix rising from its ashes chose art as the vehicle for bringing Castle Brown back into the international limelight.

It’s thanks to people like Mayor Matteo Viacava that the living flag of art once again flies over the Castle. Last summer’s exhibition of Elio Marchegiani's latest works aroused great enthusiasm not just in the cultural world, that was obvious, but among the visitors themselves as well, visibly moved by the profound message present in his art. Now the new season is almost upon us, it’s my great pleasure to announce that the rooms will be hosting a fascinating, courageous duo exhibition of two artists from different generations linked by a common thread.

There’s a special light that unites the works of Guarneri and Parra, which in this particular dialogue and through different materials speaks of the cultural continuity that binds them, a bond supported by the prospect of great success” Here then the rooms light up with "Matter and Time", the title of an exhibition introducing one of the great protagonists of Analytical Painting: Enzo Cacciola. Memories emerge like pages drawn from a fascinating tract of a never-forgotten book of life: Analytical Painting was born in the distant nineteen-seventies, an art movement whose interpreters affirmed the return to painting intended as a rebirth of the dialogue between artist, material, texture and gesture, a rebirth of a kind of painting thought to have been abandoned. It’s the conquest of matter and surface. The exhibition at the castle clearly shows the historical-critical excursus identifying every moment of Cacciola's art up to the very latest works, always masterfully and coherently belonging to his mattergestural experience that has fascinated the art world for so long.

THE TEATRINO

This prestigious space hosted the presentation of the book: - "Boccioni unpublished works" - edited by Alberto Dambruoso, curator, along with Maurizio Calvesi, of the General Catalogue of the master of Futurism.

Another great event has been the conference on "Elio Marchegiani a life for art" in which, in addition to interesting interventions by the two leading art historians Bruno Corà and Daniele Crippa, an enthusiastic Marchegiani fascinated a crowded and demanding audience with stories from his long artistic experience.

MUPA

The MuPa, or Museum of the Park International Outdoor Sculpture Centre, continued its great public success with many visitors coming to admire the more than two hundred works by artists from all over the globe exhibited in its beautiful gardens overlooking the port.