Through the workshops of the public program “A memoria di forma”, Caterina Sbrana and Gabriele Mallegni bring the landscapes, bodies, and thoughts from the “outside” into the Gipsoteca di Arte Antica (Plaster Cast Gallery of Ancient Art), turning it into a place of living memory.
On Monday, March 9, Caterina Sbrana and Gabriele Mallegni, along with the students from class IV C of the “Russoli” Art High School in Pisa, transformed the plaster cast gallery into a workshop of shapes, hypotheses, and fragments, once again revealing the true nature of this space of the imagination.
The workshop opened with historian Gianluca Fulvetti in front of Palazzo alla Giornata. Amidst the sounds of the city, he spoke of a Pisa scarred by war, of the Resistance, and of wartime strategies that target civilian populations. Together with the artists, the students observed the traces of the damage that serve as the starting point for the installation “Una brillante memoria” (A Brilliant Memory). They also discussed the importance of walking, observing, and stepping off the beaten path to ask themselves questions. Afterward, at the Gipsoteca, the students selected a cast from the archive of marks and wounds collected by the artists. They then transferred it onto domestic objects they had previously crafted out of clay, creating a “souvenir” (from subvenio, “to come to mind,” but also “to come to one’s aid”)—an object that helps us question and remember.
Participants included the students of the Russoli Art High School in Pisa; sculpture professors Luca Vargiu and Massimo Villani, and professor Mirella Sbrana from the Russoli Art High School; and Gianluca Fulvetti, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Pisa and curator of the exhibition “Dalla guerra alla liberazione” (From War to Liberation).