23 CAMPOBASSO

THE CAMPOCHIARO KNIGHT

The burial of the knight of Campochiaro with horse. 7th century A.D.

The excavation in the Campochiaro necropolises, at the foot of the Matese massif, has, so far, given back to light 300 burials, belonging to men and women of different ages. The two sepulchral sites, the Vicenne's and the Morrione's, are neatly arranged at the sides of the sheep track. The bodies found here were all entombed lying on their back in graves dug in the ground and propped up with pebbles. The deceased's personal objects are laid on his or her body and the vases, when there are some, are placed at their feet or near their head.
The necropolises date back to the Lombard age, around the 7th century A.D. Men's bodies are identifiable by single bladed swords, knives, spear flukes and waistbands decorated with bronze elements, while the objects found more frequently in women's burials are different kinds of silver and golden earrings.
The burials containing knight and horse, including the latter's caparison, are 5% of the total and the bodies in there probably belong to high rank members of the two communities, as is further witnessed by the prestigious objects also found next to them.

VANNI MACCHIAGODENA

Vanni Macchiagodena, sculptor, (Termoli, 1968) usually works with materials such as terracotta, wood and stone. His works have been shown in solo and group sculpture exhibitions all over Italy. In the last few years, he has focused on religious art.
vannimacchiagodena@virgilio.it

Echo,
63x67x21, terracotta, 2003

NICOLA MACOLINO

Nicola Macolino, (S. Croce di Magliano, 1974) obtained a diploma from the Liceo Artistico in Termoli and then studied scenography at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Urbino. Besides being a stage designer, he is also a visual artist, a graphic designer and an experimental stage director. His works are, for the most part, theatre devices.
nicola.macolino@tiscali.it

Theatre machine 1,
230x230 cm, wood and iron, 2003

GIANLUCA PARENTE

Gianluca Parente, (Chieti, 1972) has worked as a graphic designer since 1998. In 1990 he took a diploma in the Liceo Artistico in Campobasso and then he studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. Since 1998 he has exhibited his works in several group and solo exhibitions.
parente@dispenserstudio.it

One day butchered one day butchers,
80x170 cm, backlight, 2003

CAMPOBASSO

	MUSEO PROVINCIALE SANNITICO Palazzo Mazzarotta Via Chiarizia 12 tel. 0874/412265 VANNI MACCHIAGODENA NICOLA MACOLINO GIANLUCA PARENTE

critical text by Pierpaolo Giannubilo The most evocative piece in this small museum is not an artefact, but a box containing the bones of a Lombard knight and of his horse. Our three young artists have decided to relate to those millenary carcasses, to this debris that has become a museum piece. Gianluca Parente - who usually matches advertising slogans and pictures taken from the newspapers creating the illusion of an advertisement that works without its main reason to exists, a product to be sold - in the panel "Un giorno macellati un giorno macellai" (One day butchered, one day butchers) associates a line from the lyrics of a song by CCCP, "Guerra e Pace" (War and Peace) to a human bone. An analogy between writing and object immediately sprouts, becoming the starting point for a universal meditation on the concept of war. After all that's what a knight reminds of, a warrior. He was a butcher on the battlefield, and now, butchered, he is glassed and put on display for the pietas of his descendants. Vanni Macchiagodena and Nicola Macolino start from the bones, a rigid tissue rich in calcium salts and sediment of life, the most durable material in a human body, the essence of man, and try to perform a cloning. Macchiagodena recreates the horse and the knight crushed in the tomb: the bust of the man looks like an armour, the skull like an helmet, while the horse is a blessed equestrian statue, static and pierced in many parts. Macolino too wants to reconstruct the things time is reducing to powder, and he does this "rewinding" giving the remains a new function. The white horse becomes a theatre device and is brought back to life by the theatrical fiction. An actor will hold the sword and ride the horse again to fight those battles that were interrupted 1500 years ago. On a stage, death is, as life, "a dream" and art enables us to wake finally up.