“Via Aemilia”: Art on the Road
In our region, when people say “Via Aemilia“, it makes us think of traffic jams, the elderly playing cards on balconies and kiosks selling melons. We’ve forgotten that the Milan-Rimini roadway is of Roman origin! And, actually, it still looks good after two thousand years! Along with the energy of our forgotten past and the frenzy of our modern real estate growth, we have discovered that “Via Aemilia” is also the “road of contemporary art“.
Starting from Reggio Emilia, we are greeted by the white sails of Calatrava’s bridges stretching skywards over the A1 highway. In the city centre, we can encounter the minimalist statue “Less Than” by Robert Morris, which rejuvenates the San Domenico Cloisters. The city’s students get to study under a multicolored ceiling in the public library painted by Sol Lewitt.
Continuing east to Modena, we catch sight of the Ghirlandina Tower, an ancient city symbol, now undergoing restoration, the scaffolding of which has been covered by Mimmo Paladino.
In the 17th-century, the Este family built an amusement area for their court, which is now the trendy “Palazzina dei Giardini“. The building in the public gardens hosts the Civic Gallery of Modena and many modern art shows.
The Bologna highway tollbooths have become the site of experimental art in a project created by the Arts and Culture District working with the Faculty of Visual and Performing Arts. MAMbo, the Bologna Museum of Modern Art, is hosted in what was once a bread factory and is the heart of redevelopment in the city centre creating an innovative approach to contemporary art.
Further east is Faenza, the northern heartland of Italian ceramics, which will host a Contemporary Art Festival from 17 to 19 April 2009.
And so, once you get all the way east to Rimini, even the “piadina” - the famous local flatbread - has a more artistic taste!
Technorati Tags: Art, Bologna, Calatrava, Robert Morris, Sol Lewitt
