Louise Bourgeois interprets the spirit of Chianti
The 10th art installation of the “Castello di Ama per l’arte contemporanea”project: The marble sculpture, half female figure, half flower, set into an ancient cistern
A world that remains intimate and out of sight, but one at the same time pregnant with unexpected modernity, aspects of sexuality and of solitude: Louise Bourgeois marries these themes to nature, to the fertile, productive world of Chianti. Castello di Ama, in Gaiole in Chianti, is the locus of this symbiosis, and more precisely, a narrow cistern in the winery’s ageing cellars. Here the 97-year-old artist, one of the most influential figures in the contemporary art world, decided to place her art installation, Topiary. One’s gaze penetrates the darkness to rest on a sculpture in pink marble a bit less than 70 centimetres high, upon the body of a kneeling young woman who becomes transformed, as one’s eye moves upwards towards her head, into a magnificent flower. From the top of the blossom rises a gentle spout of water that then falls back upon the figure, bathing it and highlighting the pale pink of the marble. The artwork, which from today forward the public can visit in the village of Ama, near Siena, is an example of Bourgeois’s encounter with the ars toparia, or the art of shaping plants into human or geometrical shapes.
As with all of the other artists who have left their tangible mark at Ama, ranging from Michelangelo Pistoletto to Daniel Buren, Bourgeois has interpreted in her own unique fashion the genius loci. An encounter three years ago with Lorenza and Marco Pallanti at in her house in New York sparked the initial inspiration. Later on, Jerry Gorovoy, Bourgeios’ inseparable assistant and her right hand for many years, described to her the uniqueness of Ama, and she later viewed videos of the countryside, the winery villas, and its wine cellars, but of the daily work there as well, of the grape and olive harvests too. Her own artist’s sensitivity carried on from there, finding in those words and images the idea for an art work and for its ideal location. The old water cistern is a cage, a tucked-away, hidden cleft that finds a clear thematic resonance in Bourgeois’ oeuvre, attracted as she has always been by the multifarious points of view that closed spaces are able to express to the observer, so much so that this is one of the recurring motifs in her corpus.
“We are truly honoured to be able to offer at Ama an installation by Louise Bourgeois,” stated Marco Pallanti, director of the Castello di Ama per l’arte contemporanea project. “We had been dreaming of this for quite some time. The first notion began to take shape when we had the opportunity of meeting her; that was a fabulous conversation, and we were struck by her desire for knowledge, by her curiosity about our art project, and by her sparkling, inquisitive eyes. Her lively interest sparked real hope in us. From that moment on, Louise Bourgeois remained almost an obsession that kept at us every year, until we finally summoned up the courage, and the temerity, to openly ask her to share with us here some of her great genius.”
Bourgeois worked out her conception in a small plaster model, and the marble statue was carved in Carlo Nicoli’s workshop in Carrara, where Bourgeois’ marble sculptures have been made for many years. Her installation is the tenth in the series that makes up the “Castello di Ama per l’arte contemporanea project,” which was launched in 2000 in collaboration with the Galleria Continua and includes L’Albero di Ama by Michelangelo Pistoletto, and, in chronological order, Daniel Buren’s Sulle vigne: Punti di vista, Giulio Paolini’s Paradigma, Kendell Geers’ Revolution/Love, Anish Kapoor’s Aima, Chen Zhen’s La lumière intérieur du corps humain, Carlos Garaicoa’s Yo no quiero ver más a mis vecinos, Nedko Solakov’s Amadoodles, and Cristina Iglesias’ Towards the Ground, installed last year. The collection is unique for the caliber of the artists who have accepted the invitation to conceive an art work “in situ,” one inspired by the beauty and striking character of Ama. “We very much want a wider public to be able to appreciate all of this beauty,” said Pallanti. “So we have now organized the overall exhibition so that, following the inauguration of this piece, the installations will be available for view every day of the week, through a “cultural docent” who will introduce the visitors to the spirit of the project and to its individual art works.“
16.09.2009