Artistic Heritage
Itinerary

Vivianne Duchini, an internationally renowned Argentine sculptor, has created works exhibited around the world: in her extensive production, she has investigated and explored the relationship between man and horse. For Lerici, the artist has chosen to represent one of the fundamental moments in Francesco’s life: his return from the war and the beginning of his conversion. Inspired by the Giotto-esque iconography of the fresco cycle in the Upper Basilica of Assisi and, in particular, by the scene of the “Gift of the Cloak”, it depicts a young Francis stripping himself of his clothes and dismounting from his horse, while the animal seems to bow reverently, a sort of dance, from which the work’s title derives. “… there is no longer domination or war, but a profound harmony in which the warrior past of the Saint reconciles with the divine present and earthly strength gives way to the grace of universal fraternity”, underlines Francesca Sacchi Tommasi, curator of the project.

Ogata’s “drop” of various shapes and sizes, masterfully sculpted in the finest marbles, represents the true artistic matrix of the Japanese artist. Water, which incapsulates the beginning and end of life, expands drop by drop, creating forms, concentric circles around a central void. The form integrates into the landscape and interacts with it: Ogata’s poetics, in order to find its maximum expression, requires the surrounding void and a direct relationship with the environment. This is why his works enhance spaces, landscapes, and panoramas in cities all over the world, from Brazil to Saudi Arabia, from Türkiye to Spain. 

Born in Japan, he graduated in sculpture from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. Ogata has travelled and lived in various parts of the world, from London to the United States, from Mexico to Rome, finally choosing the intimate hilly landscape of Zanego as his home. 

As the artist himself explains: “The sculpture consists of three blocks: two sails on the top and a block representing a castle. The one of Lerici for those coming from La Specia, the one of San Terenzo for those coming from the opposite direction”. The sculpture, which takes the form of a fish – one of the recurring figures in Bacci’s art – is part of the Forma series, a synthesis between Bacci and his native land. 

The execution of ‘Forma Golfo dei Poeti’ was made possible thanks to the support of Demetra (Massa), a company owned by the Bencaster family. The work in Via Gozzano is a further step in the relationship between the artist and the Municipality of Lerici following the installation of welcome posters in the municipal area, featuring by the popular and very playful “Sovi”. (Editor’s note: the world of Sovi was born by chance from the artist’s pen in 2010. “Sovi” is an anagram of the word “viso” (face), so Sovi is a simple face with legs, arms and little fists instead of hands). 

The work was donated by the artist from Lerici as a complement to the exhibition that took place in 2022 in the rooms of the San Giorgio Castle: titled “Pensare un tempo migliore” (Thinking of a Better Time), the solo exhibition was created to celebrate the fifty-year career of Mario Tamberi, a multifaceted artist, painter and sculptor, teacher and cultural promoter, who has always developed new expressive languages, experimenting with all kinds of materials and subjects, including recycled ones. The sea is, undoubtedly, the driving force of his artistic poetics, and fish, a vital symbol of par excellence, are often the protagonists, as in the work of Carbognano. 

 The village of Serra is historically linked to the “Iumaga”, to which both the patronal feast and the historic festival refer, which for decades have enlivened the village in August. The municipality of Lerici has promoted this work with the intention of preserving and promoting this culinary peculiarity and recognising the value of the tradition rooted in the territory with attention to the specificities that distinguish the various districts. 

This area was ‘reborn from its ashes’ like the Phoenix, stronger and more beautiful”. And again, “Its shape is ‘frozen’ in the moment when it transforms into an olive tree, a tree symbol of peace and rebirth. Its metamorphosis is not yet complete, only its left wing has taken on the shape of the tree. It is the metaphor for the possibilities of growth that this ‘reborn’ area offers”.  

Antonio de Paoli, an artist, sculptor and scenographer, has created celebratory and commemorative works of art placed in public places throughout Italy. In 2022, he won the competition of ideas organised by the Municipality of Lerici for a work that would commemorate the tragic event of 1922, when the gunpowder magazine located inside the Falconara battery – the hill above San Terenzo – exploded leaving hundreds dead and displaced. It was one of the most serious tragedies of post-unification Italy and, as it involved both the Regia Marina and the volunteers from various institutions (e.g. Public Assistance), it is considered as the ideal beginning of the Italian Civil Protection. 

 The Supreme Poet holds in his hand a book on which are engraved the famous verses of Canto III of Purgatory, in which Lerici appears. Upon his arrival before the steep slopes of Purgatory, in fact, Dante realises how harsh the ascent of that mountain is, comparing it to the coast of Liguria, equally steep, landslide-prone and dangerous. To identify the Ligurian territory, he mentions its two extremes: Lerici, a port he probably frequented in his travels to and from Lunigiana, and Turbia, a hill village behind Montecarlo. 

 “We came meanwhile unto the mountain’s foot;
There so precipitate we found the rock,
That nimble legs would there have been in vain. ‘
Twixt Lerici and Turbia, the most desert,
The most secluded pathway is a stair Easy and open,
if compared with that”. 

Purgatory, Canto III, verses 46-51 

The sculpture also contains the number 70, because the exhibition had taken place to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Marinetti’s challenge in the Gulf of Poets. Let us remember that the Futurists – and Marinetti himself – used to frequent Lerici and San Terenzo: many Futurist parties were held in the dance hall of today’s resort “Colombo” – Hotel San Terenzo.

The artist’s words: happy and honored to have been called upon for “our” GRO. I had no doubts about how to carry out this intervention, only the name and surname of this place, so important for us that we were born and raised in Tellaro: GRO a sound that encapsulates its compact image. Its rust color, which I’ve always carried inside me. The sculpture is a Barogno family donation.