The protagonists are thirty works created by Arnaldo Pomodoro between the end of the 1950s and 2021, alongside a series of archival materials – photographs, sketches, documents, drawings, many of which are unpublished – which evoke the spirit and atmosphere of the studio and archive of the artist in Morciano di Romagna.
The Great Theater of Civilizationsthis is the title of the exhibition running until October 1st, explores the interconnection, in Pomodoro’s practice, between the visual arts and the performing arts, highlighting the relationship between the design dimension of the work and its realization.
The itinerary begins outside the building with four sculptures: Forms of the myth (1983) – Power (Agamemnon), Ambition (Clytemnestra), The Machine (Aegisthus) e The Prophecy (Cassandra) taken from the scenic machines made for the theatrical cycle of Emilio Isgrò, inspired by Aeschylus’ Oresteia, which took place on the ruins of the square of Gibellina.
Arnaldo Pomodoro, The great theater of civilizations, Rome, Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana | Courtesy FENDI & Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation
The four Forms of the myth, insinuating themselves as wings between the Palazzo, the landscape and the surrounding urban community, redesign the building, transforming the so-called Square Colosseum – an architectural element symbol of Italian Modernism and Rationalism – into an open, reinterpretable and therefore not fully defined.
In the entrance vestibule of the Palazzo delle Civiltà Italiana, two costume-operas – the Dido costume and the Creon costume – created by the artist for two theatrical performances, they recall the iconography and dramaturgy of archaic Greece, as well as the traditional techniques of African and Asian works of art, reactivating the narration of the legendary stories of Dido and Oedipus.
The public is invited to enter two mirrored rooms and a connecting room, conceived as two acts of a play with an interlude. The main rooms are occupied by two works of opposite colour, arranged symmetrically: The battles (1995), in black – which evokes the Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello, a masterpiece of the Renaissance – e Movement in the open air and in the depths (1996-1997), in white.
Arnaldo Pomodoro, The great theater of civilizations, Costume of Dido, Rome, Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana | Courtesy FENDI & Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation
This last intervention alludes to the sculptural action as an “excavation into the complexity of things”. To deepen the story of Pomodoro’s research are the Great table of memory (1959-1965), a reflection on bas-relief and on the ancient technique of fusion on cuttlebone, and The cube (1961-1962), which coincides with the start of a research on the elementary forms of Euclidean geometry.
Continuum (2010) is a grandiose relief occupied by the characteristic signs of the artist’s early works, with the codes and the inventory of all his “writing”. Set up inside showcases, drawers and racks that can be opened and consulted by visitors, as if to recall the atmosphere of the artist’s studio and the spirit of his archive, various design materials and documentaries, mostly unpublished, including artist’s books, sketches , drawings, models, letters, photographs.
Set up outside, but visible from the windows of the Palazzo, the Rotary of Babylon (1991), with its circular shape, suggests the idea of a cyclical and continuous movement that takes place in time and space. The itinerary ends on the loggia on the third floor with Cuttlefish bone (2011-2021).
The exhibition, with free admission, can be visited until 1 October from Monday to Sunday, from 10 to 20, with the exception of 15 August.
Arnaldo Pomodoro, The great theater of civilizations, Rotary of Babylon, Rome, Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana | Courtesy FENDI & Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation