Piano Day at Villa Borghese - June 3

They call it "Piano Day" (using English only) and it takes place on a Sunday, usually in early June, in Villa Borghese, the enormous park on the city's north end, above Piazza del Popolo. This year it's on Sunday, June 3.

The basic idea is simple: grand pianos are placed at several locations in the park, and more than a dozen talented pianists are brought in to play them.  People gather around and listen, sitting on the ground (some folks bring cushions) or benches or fountains.  The music varies from classical (Bach, Chopin, Liszt, etc.) to Gershwin and Fats Waller.  Good people watching, too.

Luca Filastro, playing Fats Waller tunes. Little kids danced.  

Last year when we were in the park, there were six performance spaces: the Pincio, the Orologia ad Acqua (near Piazza Bucharest), the Laghetto, Museo Bilotti, Casa del Cinema, and Fontana Oscura (not far from the Borghese Museum).  The music began at 10:30 a.m. and ended about 9 p.m. This year's program features 5 spaces (minus Museo Bilotti) and runs from 11 a.m. until 8:30 or 9 p.m. - the last concert begins at 7.30 p.m..

At the Fontana Oscura.  The pianist is probably Stefano Andreatta.

There's a helpful brochure that lists time and locations; it's available at the park and on the website, www.villaborghesepianoday.it (all in Italian, but it's not hard to figure out the program). 

Aside from the music, we found some amazing roller skaters doing their thing in the park. Not an official event; that is, it doesn't appear in the brochure.

It's all free.  If you're going to be in Rome around the time of Piano Day, don't miss it!

The photos above and below are from Piano Day June 4, 2017.

At the Orologia ad Aqua, not far from Casina Valadier

Bill

"Autobiography of the Mother": Silvia Codignola's exhibition, reviewed by Shara Wasserman

Shara Wasserman, right, with Dianne Bennett, 2013

For this review of an ongoing exhibition at the Museo Carlo Bilotti, RST is pleased to welcome as guest blogger Shara Wasserman. Wasserman is an American art historian and curator of contemporary art.  She received her BA in Art History with honors from Temple University and her MA in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. Following a period at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, first as Hilla von Rebay fellow and later as Editorial Assistant, Wasserman relocated to Rome.  She is on the faculty of Temple University Rome, where she serves as Director of Exhibitions.  

The Museo Carlo Bilotti, an exhibition space in the heart of the Villa Borghese in Rome, is hosting a lovely display of a decade of work by Roman artist Silvia Codignola.  Curated by Lea Mattarella,  the show runs through October 22.

Silvia Codignola, in her Rome studio, 2013

Trained as an architect, Codignola moved to the visual arts early in her career, producing a varied body of work that includes drawing, sculpture, paintings and installations.  Her early architectural training is always present and results in a focus on structure and geometry.  Solid, expressionless figures inhabit empty spaces; dark colors and sharp chiaroscuro keep the spectator’s eye on the surface plane; still life objects and figures firmly positioned in their environment hold our attention, almost as if they comprise a stage set.

Mario Sironi, "Landscape with Figures," 1932

Her artistic preferences move from the Italian Early Renaissance, with artists such as Piero della Francesca and Masaccio, to Mario Sironi, the prominent Italian painter of the 1920s and 1930s, whose spare landscapes presage Codignola’s compositions.

Titled Autobiography of the Mother, the works on exhibition were culled from a decade of the artist’s production – 2006-2016 – and in particular from her almost obsessive focus on mothers and children. Two of her paintings are reproduced below.

By including many versions of the same subject, Codignola guides the spectator viewing this exhibition through a variety of aspects and stages of motherhood: from the powerful armless, headless, anonymous pregnant woman, to the lonely sleeping mother rigidly supporting the head of her child, to the absently nursing mother, to the mother reclining with her child, to the distracted mother inserted in an austere beachscape, to the final images of a small arm reaching out of the darkness towards an old man. 

Both a mother – the show is dedicated to her daughter Miranda -- and a daughter, Silvia Codignola infuses the works with a reflection, a kind of chronology, of mother and child. 

As we walk through the show, we think of Silvia the woman, but we also think of Silvia the artist as the link between life and the strong symbolism, especially in Italian art, that woman represents.  She is the life giver, the universal mater, the bearer of the seed and the symbol of fertility; she is wisdom and intellect and war and protection.  In short, she is Mother.

A long-time fan of Silvia’s art, I am always excited to see new work and the new way that she thinks of her previous work.  This exhibition fulfills both.

Shara Wasserman

Director of Exhibitions

Gallery of Art, Temple University Rome

Pasquetta: in Villa Borghese:

Unlike most Americans, who go back to work on the Monday after Easter, Italians celebrate Pasquetta, or "Little Easter."  There's more eating to be done, of course, and most of the museums are open, which is unusual for a Monday.

But for Romans, anyway, the great pleasure of Pasquetta is spending the day at one of the city's enormous parks.  Most of the parks--Villa Ada, Villa Pamphili, Villa Borghese--were once owned by very wealthy families,usually families lucky enough to have royalty or a Pope  or two in their genealogy.  That all ended after 1871, when Italy became a nation and began to expropriate lands and buildings that had once belonged to the Catholic Church (in the case of Villa Ada's case, the land was purchased in 1872 by the Savoia family for their Royal residence in Rome).  One by one, the parks became public property, available for everyone to enjoy.

And enjoy them they do, especially on Pasquetta, as we discovered this past Monday on a walk through Villa Borghese, the massive and complex green space that lies north of Piazza di Spagna and
and northwest of Piazza del Popolo.

Very unusual--a table

The park has no picnic tables--at least we didn't see any--but Romans love to sit on the grass, with or without a blanket, and even if the grass has gone to high weeds, as it had in some areas of the park.

One family (out of hundreds) had brought a folding table on which to put food and drink, but by and large the eating had been done earlier.

Playing on the statue, or kicking a ball against it

Granddads and Dads (and now and then Moms) were everywhere kicking a ball with a kid or kids.

Three young men were throwing a regulation-size American football (though only one had any real sense of how to do it, and one of them gave up after a few wobbly throws and a dropped pass and retreated to a fountain bench to finish a beer--you can buy beer in the park, in glass bottles no less).

There was some tanning going on.  The Italians were/are late to quit smoking, and now, it seems, they're late to the recognition of skin cancer.


Bicycling was popular on the broad avenues that run through Villa Borghese.  You can rent a single bike or, for a healthy sum, a covered vehicle that can be pedaled by two or four.  Pedestrians watch out!

Line for the bathroom

Our goal was to see exhibits at two museums in the Villa, both of them free: the Carlo Bilotti Museum, named for the wealthy American who financed most of it, and the Museo Pietro Canonica Museum, home and working space to the sculptor (1869-1959) by that name.

Neither was crowded, and the long line at the Carlo Bilotti was for the restroom.

Notwithstanding beer sales, the police had little to do. 

We had a grand time watching the Romans have a grand time, en masse on Pasquetta.

Bill

An Artist's Life: Giorgio de Chirico's home in central Rome - home in Rome series 2

de Chirico on his terrace overlooking Piazza di Spagna

Giorgio de Chirico is without doubt Italy’s most famous 20th century artist. The style and movement he represents are referred to as “metaphysical.” And, if you have as much trouble with that as we do, we recommend you visit the to the Carlo Bilotti museum in the Villa Borghese park (#33 on our Rome the Second Time Top 40 list), AND de Chirico’s home.

De Chirico’s home is run as a museum but looks basically as he and his wife left it when he died in 1978, after living there 30 years. The place is so homey it looks completely bourgeois. One of our friends pointed out the worn leather chair parked opposite the TV – looks like he spent a lot of time there!

Visiting the artist’s home, which has his studio and many of his works, as well as inspirations for his work, is a treat. The location is easy – just off the Spanish Steps. But you must make a telephone reservation. Days and hours for tours are limited – usually a couple mornings a week - and the most recent information we have on cost was Euro 5. It’s worth the phone call, in our opinion

One of de Chirico's metaphysical paintings

It’s hard to explain de Chirico’s art, except to say that it is unique in many ways and embodies Italian figures from Roman times to the present. And we won’t even try to explain “metaphysical” as it’s used here. Just look at the paintings. You can always consult Wikipedia for more information on the artist, but we like better a blog on de Chirico that was inspired by the blogger’s visit to the home. You can also get some information from the de Chirico Foundation website, although it’s in process of being updated.

De Chirico’s home at Piazza di Spagna, 31,  is just around the corner from the Keats-Shelley museum, that is, the bedroom where Keats died. Quite a contrast – in wealth, centuries, and art. Try them both.

Dianne

RST Top 40: #33. Carlo Bilotti Museum in Villa Borghese

We came across this gem of a museum accidentally one day - a year after its 2006 opening. It has a fascinating history and a small collection worth viewing.

So here's the story : Carlo Bilotti, big deal cosmetics guy, originally from Southern Italy but long a U.S. citizen and resident, goes to Rome's then Mayor, Walter Veltroni, known as a patron of the arts (and author of the introduction to Rome the Second Time) and they cut a deal - Bilotti contributes his collection, and Veltroni kicks a bunch of government workers out of a long-neglected building in the middle of Rome's largest and most famous park and restores it to house the collection. Bilotti died in late 2006, the year the museum opened.

Bilotti's collection features more than 20 works by Italy's premier artist of the 20th century, Giorgio de Chirico (de Chirico thought pretty highly of himself too), although some have carped Bilotti's are not the best de Chiricos. A de Chirico from from the collection is at right. The collection also has art by the famous U.S. artists Bilotti palled around with, including Warhol and Larry Rivers (some of them portraits of Bilotti and his family).

On its ground floor, the museum hosts excellent temporary exhibits, often of very large pieces of internationally known contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst and Jenny Saville. The New York Times' review of the museum's opening gives you the flavor.

The building is older than the park itself and served many purposes, including as an"orangery" - or "aranciera," beautifully restored after centuries of neglect and misuse (including bombardment during the French defense of the Pope in 1849). Picture at top is from the 18th century. You'll see signs in the Villa Borghese to "Aranciera" - that's it. The City of Rome's website on the museum has excellent background information in English, as well as opening hours, ticket information (you don't need a reservation) and directions.

So here you have it all - famous Italian paintings that will immerse you into 20th-Century Rome, top U.S. contemporary artists, and a fascinating building.

Of course, it's hard to be in the shadow of the incomparable Borghese Gallery itself - and Bilotti's museum is "due passi" (two steps) from the Galleria Borghese, which would be in anyone's Top 40, not their second top 40.... but once you've done the biggies, Museo Carlo Bilotti, we think, is definitely on the "second time" list.

Dianne

RST Top 40. #35: The Gino Severini Mural at the Palazzo dei Congressi (EUR)

One day a few years ago we went out to EUR and to the Palazzo dei Congressi (the translation, Palace of the Congresses, sounds dumb), eager to see Massimiliano Fuksas's massive, avant-garde new hall (we thought), "Cloud." Once inside, we looked everywhere but the basement, even going up some stairways that were obviously not intended for the general public and poking around on the floors above. We were disappointed in not finding "Cloud" (we learned later that it did not yet exist), but more than pleased at what we did find: an enormous, didactic mural by Gino Severini, completed in 1953 (the same year the building itself opened) for the International Exhibition of the Federation of Agricultural Enterprises. We have included a view from the side (above left), sufficiently unrevealing that it shouldn't spoil your encounter with it. The mural employs a seasonal motif that Severini had first explored in the painting "L'Estate" (1951) [below right], part of the collection at the Museo Carlo Bilotti (a newer museum in the Villa Borghese - we recommend it).

Note Severini's murals, as well as the other EUR sites mentioned in this post, are on the EUR walk in our latest book, Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler.   See the end of this post for more information on the book.
 

Severini was no spring chicken when he did this mural (at 70, more like a winter chicken). He was born in Cortona, Italy and moved to Rome in 1899, at 16. As a young artist he was influenced by Futurism (he was a signer of the important 1910 Futurist Manifesto) and by Cubism, and, living in Paris, a good friend of Modigliani. The photo at left captures him on the scaffold, paintbrush in hand, working on the mural with artist Stefania Lotti. It was painted on Masonite (disclosure: my father was for a time Manager of Industrial Sales for the Masonite Corporation), often incorrectly referred to on Italian websites as Maronite.

Enjoy the mural. But don't miss having a good look at the splendid building in which it is housed. The Palazzo dei Congressi was one of many buildings planned for E42 (Exposition 1942), planned for the 20th anniversary of the March on Rome--the establishing moment of Italian Fascism. It has strong classical lines, as did many buildings of the Fascist era, but it also speaks to a modernist sensibility that was part of 20th-century culture all over the world, and which was deeply influential for many of the architects working under Fascism. Construction began in 1938, but the war intervened and delayed completion.

The building's architect was Adalberto Libera. In the late 1920s, Libera was one of the founders of the Italian Movement for Rational Architecture, based in Rome. He was influenced by both Futurism and Rationalism and maintained close ties with the Mussolini government--close enough, anyway, to get commissions and keep working. He also designed the superb post office on via Marmorata and was one of five architects who worked on designs for the Olympic Village (1960; a 5-minute walk from Parco della Musica in north Rome).

The Palazzo dei Congressi has many features, but none so obvious or original as that big cube in the middle, which houses the Salone dei Ricevimenti (Hall of Receptions, or Welcoming Hall). The cube is 38 meters on each side, big enough, as it is often said, to hold the Pantheon (though getting it there and inside would be daunting). The rounded top may have been necessary to bring the cube to Pantheon dimensions, but whatever its purpose, it's the Palazzo's signature feature.

To get there, take the Metro B line to the Fermi exit. When you walk out of the subway you'll be about 5 blocks south/southwest of the Palazzo. So walk north/northeast through EUR until you find the building.

Bill

 Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler features tours of the "garden" suburb of Garbatella; the 20th-century suburb of EUR, designed by the Fascists; the 21st-century music and art center of Flaminio, along with Mussolini's Foro Italico, also the site of the 1960 summer Olympics; and a stairways walk in Trastevere.

This 4-walk book is available in all print and eBook formats The eBook is $1.99 through amazon.com and all other eBook sellers.  See the various formats at smashwords.com. 

Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler now is also available in print, at amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores, and other retailers; retail price $5.99.