Category Archives: Education

Moving Round About the Town

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

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Last fall, in the afterglow of the Spoleto Festival’s 50th Anniversary, we counted the lune bianche of celebration installed around the town.

The first time out this spring, we were counting on supplying the first round of our daily bread at a favorite frutta e verdura shop.

Only it was closed, perhaps for good. And as our day of transition dragged on, “Affittasi” signs on familiar haunts kept showing up everywhere.

Late this evening, on our way home along Via del Mercado, we came across an unknown Italian word attached to a no less puzzling art series.

Dumb struck by the sense of losses all over, we can’t help but think someone had the bright idea to cover up empty window fronts with temporary decorations.

Yet (thanks to Google translate), it turns out “Urban Screens” may prove to be just another case of a hill town’s penchant for art in its midst.

Italian and Me

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

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Aboard the plane to the eternal city
Once the spring comes round at last
I have time to ponder the mystery
Of a language course I never passed.

Still with wandering steps and slow,
Hand in hand we take our casual way
Up and down the familiar hills of Spoleto
Searching for the words we long to say.

Two Approaches to the World of Italy

06 Friday Oct 2017

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The City’s Sculptures

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

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In 1962, Spoleto hosted the exhibition Sculptures in the City.
As conceived and curated by Giovanni Caradente for the Festival,
The show brought forth a new view of sculpture’s place in the city:

No longer men on horseback, sovereigns or generals … but the forms of liberty of expression that imbued art in the XX century, with the people [passing among them in the streets] dealing with every-day matters, and the still presence of the sculptures in the background.

The exhibition was captured by the famous photographer Ugo Mulas,
And I have vainly set out over the years to retrace his footsteps.
(On YouTube, for the first time, I have seen some of Mulas’ work.)

Today, heading south of the central city, I thought I was bound for
The last two stations of my quest. But as I turn back to the pages of
The City’s Sculptures, I run up against a stone-cold wall of facts.

First off, the painted stairs we’ve seen in photos are a 1980 intervention.
In that same year, Sol LeWitt realizes Muro, a sculpture just outside
The city center, on the lawns of vialle Matteotti. Maybe now I get why

Open air’s not actually in the city proper, though that still leaves me
Wondering how a plain old wall, standing perpendicularly within a field,
Counts as anything other than a “structure,” the name which he preferred.

As for the other, outside the old city wall as well, The Gift of Icarus
Takes its twisting flight above the stationary figures on the tourist buses.
Such a strange place, perhaps, for the daring young man to come to rest.

By Any Other Name?

01 Sunday Oct 2017

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The liquid Italian language makes it all sound so totally innocent.
What’s to be done with word parts that act as if they can’t help it
When they rhyme? “Recenti eventi sismici” come across less forcefully
Than “the recent earthquake.” And the same applies to “chiusa a causa.”

The long-awaited Basilica di S. Salvatore is well worth the walk,
If we could ever manage to get into the place, a full two years now
After the “recent” earthquake. With more time to study at least,
We are finding its story of composite construction all over town:

A characteristic element is the massive employment, in the construction, of quality materials coming from classical buildings, partly simply reused (columns, bases, capitals, inside lintels) and partly radically reprocessed (decorative elements of the facade, cornice of the presbytery) but perfectly integrated in a skilled and cultured new composition.

Carmen, a Heartbreaker in Four Acts

28 Thursday Sep 2017

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From the overture on, the loveliest of melodies.
From the very first scene, a magnificent set.
Between libretto and subtitles, a dissonance.

One of those cases where, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Found Art

25 Monday Sep 2017

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When you are searching for art, of course,
It helps to know what you are looking for.
The family in the park could be a source
Of inspiration, say, were I a photographer.

But art, we found, can be a different sort.
Brought back to life with vibrant colors,
Branches strewn on the ground in assorted
Positions, their claims disputed by others.

Two further questions, naturally, have me stumped:
1) about this branch; and 2) about that earlier life sawed-off at ground level.

A Hearty Jaunt Up and Down

25 Monday Sep 2017

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Like most things Italian, except for the trains, there is no roadmap nor timetable for the festival.
The closest they come: tiny pictures with the names of each venue, as seen on this card.
Except even the natives, stationed at the info centers, are unfamiliar with some of the sites or the designations.
So it’s been up and down, all around the town, for three days now: with some surprising discoveries along the way.