Who knows what Duchamp, a famous exponent of the French avant-garde, would think if he had seen us busy around a toilet, wanting to reproduce a new ‘Fountain’ – his ready-made work/urinal, created by the artist in 1917. The original piece, which was widely known for its sensation, was lost. Today only copies are preserved in various museums around the world.
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The exhibition “The Great Illusion” set up at the Crociani Civic Museum – Pinacoteca in Montepulciano, offers a visual and conceptual exploration of the reflections of the artist Tomaini on the impact of modern technologies on contemporary society.
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We are with the newly elected Councillor for Culture Roberto Trabalzini for our, now customary, appointment with Torrita di Siena: its ancient history, unspoiled nature and the many events that the city associations have been carrying out with enthusiasm, for decades, together with the Municipal Administration.
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“Phase two of this newly branded ‘Terme Miele’, which we have called ‘water’ – he continues – will see the commissioning of two therapeutic whirlpools, two private soaking tubs for specific bath oil and salt treatments and an anti-gravity mini-pool”. The architecture of the new Spa will recall a beehive, combining well-being with the prodigious magic world of bees and honey inspired treatments.
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My work arises from a constant dialogue between ideal forms and the material that expresses them, a process that is not purely instinctive nor totally rational. It is a fusion of intuition and reflection, in which natural laws and ideas meet, with geometry marrying to living form. I do not try to separate these aspects, because I believe that beauty emerges precisely from this synthesis between ideal perfection and material imperfection, between thought and gesture.
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Jutta was born in Coblenz in the Rhineland in Germany during the War, and went to study art and design in Dusseldorf. She had always dreamed of leaving Germany to travel, and spent a year abroad studying and working in Rome. When, after 6 years of art school, the possibility to spend a period in South Africa working for a textile company presented itself, the young Jutta jumped at the opportunity.
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Bruno and Marisella Batinti, after several productive years of hospitality experience with their business “Le Torri di Porsenna” (named for Chiusi’s ancient and powerful Etruscan king) found a new and inspiring site for their country house in Petrignano del Lago, in the Comune of Castiglione del Lago. Overlooking the rolling hills and vineyards near to Lake Trasimeno, the new location for their country house and working vineyard is well named, as it is certainly fit for a king.
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Founded in July of 1937 as a cooperative of fourteen local winemakers who banded together to facilitate both the production and the sales of their wines. Vecchia Cantina bottled its first wine in 1940 during the war. After the difficult war years, in the 1950’s and the reorganization of the lands, the Vecchia Cantina acted as a driving force for wine production in the area, a role that they cover to this day with the over 400 member vineyard owners and over a thousand hectares of vineyards producing around seven million bottles of wine annually.
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The oldest part of the house, the central tower, goes back to the 15th century, its original incarnation being a watchtower protecting Tuscany’s flank with Papal Umbria. It became a house when two wings to the left and right of the tower were added in 1771 by the Tommasi family, whose coat of arms adorns a large stone set into the wall above the main door.
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At the end of the Val D’Esse, nestled under the hill separating Tuoro and Lake Trasimeno from the countryside below Cortona sits the tiny hamlet of Piazzano. Just inside the border of Umbria, it is surrounded by farmland, olive terraces and woodland. This ancient area may have gotten its name during the famous battle between the Carthaginian general Hannibal and Roman consul Gaius Flaminius in 217 B.C.E. when it is thought the Roman contingent set up a military camp there with a “piazza d’armi” or a parade ground.
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Driving across the flat plain which stretches between Castiglion Fiorentino and Marciano with its fields and sparsely scattered farmhouses, we come across a vast, open stretch of land, eleven hectares in all, home to the Centro Volo Serristori. Here all manner of light aircraft can be seen coming and going, particularly on the weekends – ultralights and small touring planes such as Pipers and Cessna.
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There has probably been a fortress on the hilltop overlooking Cortona since the 5th or 6th century BC, when the original Etruscan walls followed a course which roughly corresponds to the existing perimeter walls of today. However the first historical records describing a ‘strong and beautiful fortress’ date back to 1258 AD. Having been plundered and sacked several times during the wars with Arezzo it was sold to the Florentine Republic in 1411, together with the entire city of Cortona, although reconstruction work only began in 1527.
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The house and lands of Fontelunga have been in Lucia Catani’s family for more than two centuries, with a part of the house itself dating to 1491. From the moment the Catani family purchased the property at the end of the seventeenth century, “every member of my family was born and grew up here”, says Lucia.
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The Piazza collection grew naturally out an emotion: Sebastian and Megan remained astonished by the hollow silence that fell over the piazzas and streets of their town during the worst of the pandemic, so when life began to trickle back into the open air this spring, they realized just how important the social contact of these gathering places is, and the essential vitality it lends to the community. This new collection is based on that idea – the lively conviviality, light-heartedness and sense of belonging that the piazza filled with neighbors and visitors enjoys.
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Torrita, once called “Turrita”, is first mentioned in a document dated 1037 where it is listed as the property of the Benedictine Abbey of Sant’Antimo near Montalcino. As a fortified town with a surrounding wall and four towers, it later served as a military outpost for the defense of Siena’s border with neighboring Montepulciano. Later still, the town held Florentine ambitions at bay until it finally fell to the imperial forces of Charles the First in 1554 and the entire area passed into the Florentine Grand duchy.
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While the wire and kinetic sculptures of Alexander Calder and the works of Picasso have been stylistic influences, Antonio has a fascination for the animal world and the natural environment. He started his artistic career making abstract sculptures, but today his creatures include familiar beasts, such as wild boar and deer, dogs, and cattle, but also more exotic rhinoceros and crocodiles. His sculptures are often made of found and recycled materials, which led him to the concept of “land art”. For these installations, Antonio finds a spot in the mountains or countryside and constructs a sculpture from the natural materials he finds on the site.
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