PINACOTECA CIVICA E MUSEI
Corso della Repubblica 72
tel. 0543/712606
exhibition
at: ISTITUTO STATALE D'ARTE
Viale Salinatore 17 - tel. 0543/26264
critical text by Davide Ferri
The
allegories of three rivers (Tigris, Euphrates and Phison) painted by Francesco
Menzocchi at the end of the 16 th century represent, for Maurizio Battaglia,
Tommaso Zavatti and the members of the group Unostudio, a chance to think
over the river and its connection with man and with the places it runs
through, therefore above all with cities.More so since Forlì, where
these three artists live, is situated just between two rivers, someway
marking its boundaries in two opposite sides.In this town, the presence
of those two rivers is not easily perceptible, though. Maybe this happens
because, a bit banally, none of the two crosses the town, differently
from what happens in many other places, or maybe even more because little
or nothing has been done in the past and in recent times to reintegrate
them in the urban fabric.Much could be done, even before modifying the
town planning, to recover a sort of collective imagination and consequently
a symbolic universe linked to the two town rivers. This is basically what
these artists try to do, focusing their attention on three different aspects
of the possible connections between man and river. Battaglia intensely
evokes the idea of “the land of the dead”, relating to the fact that in
antiquity the places between two rivers were considered ideal to bury
the dead. Zavatti looks for an “extreme” bodily connection with the river,
exposing himself to some small risks. Unostudio creates new visionary
hypothesis of cohabitation among the town, its inhabitants and its river.
All of this is carried on without loosing sight, since there has to be
a link to Menzocchi's work, of the allegory as a “traditional” means to
establish a connection with the natural elements.
