Sculpture Unveiling on Liberation Day, Cavriglia, Italy
My friend and colleague Kumiko Suzuki invited me to drive us down to the unveiling of a sculpture done by her sculptor friend from Armenia, Vighen Avetis. It was held in the Tuscan town of Cavriglia, northwest of Arezzo, and about one hour south of Firenze (Florence). Kummi has participated in two of their stone carving symposiums and she received a lovely, very warm welcome by the artists, mayor, and those involved with the symposiums. I loved seeing that!
I thought it was odd to have an art event on the holiday of the Italian Liberation Day (from the Nazis after WWII). However, the artist has a great friendship with the Sindaco (Mayor) Leonardo Degl'Innocenti o Sanni and PERHAPS (my theory only) because Vighen is currently making a sculpture in the marble town of Carrara, the holiday meant the studio he is renting would be closed.
However, the more probable tie is that Vighen also made the bronze sculpture you see here in my images of a mother with four young children within her extended arms. The title on the plaque says, "The Mother of Armenian [sic]." Oddly, written in incorrect English (instead of Italian), is added, "In memory of the centenary of genocid [sic] of Armenians . . . 1915-2015." The bronze art was made in 2014, the year this Leonardo started his career as Mayor of Cavriglia.
The plaque says it is a temporary exhibition, but the statue remains in front of the Comune (City Hall) building today. Really, it looks good there and seems appropriate, although other than the friendship between the mayor and the artist, I could find no real connection between Italy and the genocide. However, Italy is one of many countries that recognizes the World War I killings as a genocide.
This article from 2020 was an interesting read. I was pretty unaware of this history, so thought I would share with you in case you are like me a bit:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54324772
While going down the rabbit hole of research, I discovered this interesting fact: Armenia was founded in 782 B.C., only 29 years before Rome was founded in 753 BC.
and
Most recent data says that there are about 5,000 Armenians in Italy.
Per AI on Google: The Armenian genocide is recognized as occurring in the Ottoman Empire, starting April 24, 1915, during WWI. Perpetrators: Committee of Union and Progress (Young Turks).
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So back to the story at hand, Italy is big on remembering the triumph over fascism and most people I have contact with never ever want to go anywhere near it again. Thus, 25 April is Liberation Day and a holiday in Italy. There are often programs throughout the country reminding people of how Italia suffered under their leader Mussolini after he aligned himself with the Nazis. Even Firenze has inside the main train station Santa Maria Novella, a permanent monument of a huge iron nail entering boulders at the front of tracks where so many captured Jews were boarded on trains to be murdered in Germany.
Also in a village near my home, in an attempt to kill a local fascist in the area of Pescia (Tuscany), two German officers were killed. Thus, the Germans rounded up 20 young Italian men in Pescia/Pietrabuona [and killed another who tried to escape] and brought them up to the mountain village of San Quirico. They were all shot to death, falling into a large hole dug by a forced priest next to the cemetery on 19 August 1944. 10 Italians per 1 German was their rule of war.
Sant'Anna Massacre:
My beau took me to the Sant'Anna Memorial site two years ago where women, children, and the elderly were left in what their Italian able-bodied men thought would be safe hideaways in the Alpi Apuane mountains above the coastline near Viareggio and Carrara sea-towns. The men left with the idea of luring the Germans away from their vulnerable loved ones. It turned out to be a horrible mistake. The slaughter is one of several particularly heinous ones on Italian soil that will not be forgotten.
Here is a moving story of an attempt to heal from Sant'Anna . . . Those ten Germans who bore the most responsibility were refused by Germany to ever stand trial in (or out of) Italy. They lived out their lives without any sort of accountability. It still surprises me (and gives me hope) that so many Germans live in Italy now. And have for decades. Peace between peoples can happen.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33143473
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Back to Cavriglia: After the trumpet player played his mournful tribute with moments of silence from everyone in front of the war memorial listing names of those lost in Italy during WWI and WWII, the new statue by Armenian artist Vighen unveiled. [The artist is the one with the shoulder-length dark hair and black suit. The mayor sports the ribbon of the Italian flag colors.]
His statue has little to do with any sort of violence. He explained that while more realistic than abstract, his intention was to manipulate the anatomy to show his idea of the figure of the woman. His own creative anatomy and more of a bas-relief (flattened form) sculpture, he said. I do not know if this statue will stay in this spot, or be moved some time later to another location in the city.
Here is a beautiful story that I hope that I understood well from Kumiko (my Japanese friend and I communicate in Italian, hers is far stronger than mine). This mayor Leonardo had a friendship with the artist Vighen. I cannot remember if Kummi knows the origin or perhaps they met in Firenze, where Vighen lived for some time. Kummi met the artist during her days at the Belle Arte school in Firenze, although he was not a student there when they met.
Anyway, Leonardo went with Vighen to Armenia where Vighen had organized a sculpture symposium. A true symposium is where a community houses, feeds, and pays selected artists to come and create large sculptures on-site that also become a part of the permanent collection of the community. The stone is locally supplies, as well as things, such as compressors, tents, tables, ladders, and whatever else besides personal tools that the artist cannot reasonably bring on a plane.
I remember asking my friend and mentor, Ukrainian-born who immigrated to the US sculptor Vasily Fedorouk, how in the world he could accept $3,000 US to create a huge sculpture in marble (10 feet high x 6 x 6 feet, for example) during a symposium. He said that despite a plane ticket of about $1000 (from the US to Brazil in 2002), he took home almost 2,000 US dollars for three weeks worth at the symposium and a week on vacation at the beach. Vasily worked so fast with stone that he finished early for a symposium that lasted four total weeks. He added that he did not have to buy or move the stone or worry about selling the sculpture afterwards.
The community benefits by building a sculpture garden with many different chosen artists (usually from countries around the world) for relatively low money expenditure. And if they organize it well, the actual carving time becomes a tourist attraction, as well as the pull of the park after installation.
A lovely partnership! And Mayor Leonardo saw how it all happened when he went to Armenia with his friend. He decided to replicate this idea to develop the communities under his care: Cavriglia and nearby Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni, which I will write about in my next posts.
Thank you so much for your support of my artistic life, working to create paintings, drawings, and slowing building back up after my accident to get back into marble carving as before.
Hard to believe that we are already entering MAY soon! oy.
With gratitude and remembrances,
Kelly Borsheim
