A Trip To Celle

One of the things that we're studying in my Museology class is the museum space; how form fits function. For one of our day trips (there's a rather love/hate relationship between the students here and these Friday activities), we visited a "site specific" museum. Villa Celle in Pistoia has been around since the seventeenth century. Giuliano Gori moved to the property in 1970, and according to our guide, artists started working on projects for the property in 1982. At its inception, Gori would invite 10 artists to come to the property, choose a place that inspired them, and create a piece of art that would become one with the space. The only rule: they could not change anything about the natural space.

The view from Celle's entrance.

There's some farmland outside of the property that also belongs to Gori on which artists have more freedom to change the natural space.

Properly touring the property took approximately four hours. And when I say touring, I mean hiking. Uphill, downhill, and around we went. By the time we hit the farmhouse at the end of the tour, my entire class was spent.

So you can get the feel of the property/types of art, here are a few of my favorites:

Made of bronze and added to the property in 1988, Mute Servants is one of the first pieces that visitors to the property see. It was created by Roberto Barni, and if you notice, the covers are not over their mouths, but instead are over their eyes.

Robert Morris' Labyrinth appeared on the property in 1982. It's made of concrete, trani, and serpentina stone, and its stripes are meant to resemble the decoration on many of the Romanesque churches located in Tuscany. The reason why I like it is the fact that you can interact with it (a.k.a. you can walk the labyrinth). Because it follows the slope of the land, the interior is uneven and somewhat unsettling. Spoiler alert: it dead ends.

Once I saw this piece, I couldn't stop looking. In fact, it caught my eye to such a large extent that I ended up writing our Celle assignment on it (we had to write a label for one of the pieces as if we were the artist). Created by Loris Cecchini, "The Hand, the Creatures, the Singing garden" was added to the property's largest holm-oak in 2012. Cecchini is known for finding new ways to use industrial materials and here uses the steel chrome to create a "second skin" (like a moss) on the tree. The material also reflects the nature that surrounds it. 

If I ever had a living space large enough to house this piece (and its fraternal twin) by Anselm Kiefer, I would want it there in a heartbeat. This mixed media creation is part of an installation called "Cette obscure clarté qui tombe des étoiles." It is meant to represent the constellations, stars, and the heavens. And it is beautiful.

It doesn't look like much, but The Pathway of Love another piece of art that you can interact with on the property. It is another of the 1982 pieces and was created by George Trakas. The path is meant to be mimetic of love (its ups, downs, dangers, and success). The viewer can choose to walk the wood path or the iron one down steep stairs, across small ravines, and eventually to the point where the two paths meet.