FRAGILE come carta | FRAGILE Like Paper. 5^ edizione
From 23/10/2021 To 27/03/2022
Civic Museum of Palazzo Fogazzaro – Street Fratelli Pasini, 44 36015 Schio (VI)
The entrance is submitted to a fee
Reinforced Green Pass required
Curator: Valeria Bertesina
Co-curator: Romania Ovidiu Pecta
Collaboration and Organisation: Liana Ferretti of the Culture Office of the Municipality of Schio
Recommended to: Contemporary art lovers; those who are passionate about works of paper, on paper, about paper and with paper; Curious to explore have a “dialogue” with the facets of “fragile as paper”.
March 31, 2022
The exhibition, inaugurated on October 23, 2021, in Schio, where the artists and authorities were present, was held at the Civic Museum in Palazzo Fogazzaro and ended on March 27, 2022. In this exhibition, the works of about 80 artists from all over the world were presented, with a special focus on the host country, Romania, through the selection made by co-curator Ovidiu Petca.
Palazzo Fogazzaro was built for Mariano Fogazzaro in Schio in 1810 by the architect Carlo Barrera of Lugano, who had already designed Palazzo Garbin and supervised work on St Peter’s Cathedral. The Palazzo is one of Palladio’s buildings and stands on a site previously occupied by a factory for carding cloth, owned by the Fogazzaro family, whose origins lie in Staro. This family began working in the field of wool in the early eighteenth century and by the middle of the century, their wool mill was already employing a hundred people and was considered of considerable importance. The building was occupied by Italian troops during the First World War and subsequently, during the 20th century, many organisations and institutions took over the premises. It was bought by the municipality in 1948 and underwent an initial restoration in 1960. From 2002-2003, further restoration work was carried out, including structural consolidation, basement recovery, partial restoration of the hall of frescoes and restoration of the Venetian floors. While the resurfacing of the courtyard was carried out in 2010.
In 2021 Palazzo Fogazzaro became the seat of the Civic Museum and housed the Civic Collection of the Municipality of Schio, with works from the 13th century to the present day and a section dedicated to artists’ books. The Collection results from numerous donations that have made up a cultural legacy for the city that is also a source of stimulus and comparison for new generations of artists. These artists have been given special space and attention for several years now. Palazzo Fogazzaro has become the site of numerous initiatives that continually renew its layout, thus opening its doors to every artistic form and diversifying the experience that can be enjoyed every time one crosses the threshold.
The Palazzo Fogazzaro civic museum is part of the Alto Vicentino museums network. It was founded in 2001 due to the need, felt by the municipal administrations of ten municipalities, for a tool to encourage the exchange of expertise and virtuous management of economic resources in the cultural sector of museums. In 2011 it changed its name to “Musei Altovicentino”, which still identifies it today, which better reflects the care for the cultural heritage and the enlarged collaboration within the territory with new quality objectives by the institutions involved. In 2014 a new convention text was signed, reinforcing the coordination of programming and reorganising the participation of the competent offices of the contracted municipalities, which took a more active role in implementing programmes and projects.
From the first group of 10 municipalities that started the project, today 15 administrations participate in Musei Altovicentino. It includes over 40 museums, permanent exhibitions, sites, botanical gardens and interpretation centres with educational purposes, 18 are public and the others are private, of which 11 are recognised museums. These have been created thanks to the will and passion of citizens who have committed themselves to reconstruct the cultural heritage, restoring important testimonies of the history of the communities they belong to. The quality of this work is appreciated by local administrations, so much so that they have included these services among their cultural offerings, also supporting private initiatives. The importance of coordination between these different realities and Musei Altovicentino and the promotion of joint actions represents an effective tool for intervention and promotion of the multiple aspects of the territory’s cultural, economic, and social identity. The office is located in Malo, leader of the Musei Altovicentino project. The Service and Information Centre carries out consultancy activities for museums and encourages interdisciplinary research, acts as an information office and promotion agency, deals with the communication of Musei Altovicentino and takes care of promotional and information material on the offer of the network of museums. It has a special focus on the world of schools.
«Coordination for promotion, adds value for museum operators.»
Alto Vicentino Museums Network
International Biennial of Paper Works is now in its 5th edition. The theme proposed is Fragile Like Paper, a title with broad boundaries that can be shaped at will by the creativity and thought of the artists. If we focus on the second term of the simile, on the material qualities of paper, the material that supports or constitutes the works of this biennial takes centre stage. Paper, fragile and perishable, is ecological, malleable, protean and illusionistic. It takes on multiple ethical, social and environmental implications that capture and question the contemporary consumerist lifestyle.
However, when the accent is placed on the adjective, it touches on one of the central themes of thought, art and literature: the fragility of human life. This reflection, always present in the artistic-literary field, is renewed through the juxtaposition with paper, the second term of comparison, which differs from other materials to which human fragility has been compared. Moreover, it is a theme, fragility, brought into our everyday lives through the pandemic that suddenly descended upon us, disrupting and changing our lives and the more recent upheavals of war. Finally, shifting our attention away from humanity, we realise that fragility is a qualification of many different subjects who weave many relationships between themselves and the environment in which they live, so much to trigger an ecological reflection and on the role of man in the indiscriminate exploitation of the planet’s resources and in the mechanisms that are needed to try to put a stop to it.
«What if, on the threshold, it were a good thing to recognise the full extent of fragility, to be able to draw from it, as with paper, wonders and new paths? What if that recognition were the only possible hypothesis of happiness?»
International Paper Works Biennial Exhibition
This biennial, now in its fifth edition, features works by eighty international artists who have taken up the proposed theme, interpreting it according to their own research and style. The stylistic nature of the works presented confirms the wide acceptance of the theme that is the guiding thread of the exhibition and the importance that this event has now achieved.
In this exhibition, the works on display are flanked by Wallpaper Art created by the Upper Vicenza-based company Adriani & Rossi. The design of these wallpapers is based on an understanding between the curator Valeria Bertesina and the owner of the company and has given the opportunity to create a contact between the artistic reality and the industrial production reality in which these wallpapers are made. The implementation of the shared vision between curator and craftsman is found in the inspiration of nine artists and their creations. The people who had the opportunity to collaborate in the production, appear among those exhibited in this biennial. The process is realised in this particular reproduction, which is the wallpaper, and accompanies the visitor along the exhibition route, contributing to an immersive environment.
Through this cooperation, a dialogue has been established that walks the line between the original work and its reproducibility and accentuates the relationship between decorative element and artistic creation.
The many names that have been selected for this exhibition, held in the rooms on two floors of Palazzo Fogazzaro, offer different interpretations of the theme proposed by the curators. The different points of view presented inevitably capture the visitor’s attention, helping him or her to enter into the shared reflection. The cues that a person can find in the “International Paper Works Biennial” allow for a multi-faceted and multiple dialogue between “fragile as paper” and his or her own personal experience. This confrontation accompanies the person even after they have left the building where the exhibition is located.
Tip: If paper is a s fragile tool that cannot last for a long time, the message it conveys remains impressed in the visitor’s mind for a long time.
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