Francesco Cavaliere
Piombino (1986)
Una Boccata d’Arte 2021, Francesco Cavaliere, La Lince D’Ombra e Pietra Sponga, Vallo di Nera (PG), Umbria. Courtesy: Fondazione Elpis and Galleria Continua. Ph. Daniele Mattioli.
The artist will realize a site-specific work in the village of Vallo di Nera, in Umbria. He writes sound stories and musical compositions, often in relation to installation and scenographic elements. His works stimulate the viewer on an imaginative journey populated by ephemeral presences, phenomena generated by glass and minerals and voices recorded with analogue technologies. His works have been presented at the Triennale Teatro di Milano, HAU 2 in Berlin, BOZAR in Brussels, Issues Project Room in New York, and MOT Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, among others. For more info: www.francesco-cavaliere.com/. Curated by Threes Productions. His Elpis collaborator is Chiara Ryan Izzo.
«La Lince D’Ombra e Pietra Sponga, is a tale inspired by mythological knights containing contemporary and surreal elements typical of Vallo di Nera’s stories, better known as vallanate. A fable that anchors itself to the beliefs and passions of the local area and its geological and religious conformations. Part of the text will be printed on fabric and hung on the main tower of the village. The whole story, which draws inspiration from the pastoral adventures of transhumance between the Sibylline mountains, will be read aloud from the tower. A booklet of the complete draft will be donated to La Casa dei Racconti of Vallo di Nera»
The exhibition
La Lince D’Ombra e Pietra Sponga
curated by Chiara Ryan Izzo
Vallo di Nera is a town at the foot of the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, the enchanted Lago di Pilato and the Grotta della Sibilla, a «castle in the valley» on the knoll of the Nera river, a crossroads for important trade, travelers and pilgrims.
A place of passage that is suspended in time. The stone houses cling to each other; they are the guardians of stories of epic travels that this place still detects the traces of today.
From the Torre di Guardia (watchtower), a few meters from Casa dei Racconti Ecomuseo della Dorsale Appenninica Umbra, Francesco Cavaliere will read aloud a fantastic story that draws inspiration from the knights’ tales which have so marked these places, and from the lives of the shepherds who, in verse, shared their tales of transhumance. As a trace of Cavaliere’s passage, a sign from the window of the Torre di Guardia: a contemporary banner will descend from underneath, suspended so that everyone can read his story.
At the end of September, traditionally the period of return to the valley for transhumance, once the banner is removed, a small book will remain as a symbol and given to the Casa dei Racconti (House of tales) in Vallo di Nera, a place where t the entire community’s oral tradition is kept.
Free access.
The village
Vallo di Nera, Umbria
42°45’18.4″N 12°51’53.1″E
Una Boccata d’Arte 2021, Francesco Cavaliere, La Lince D’Ombra e Pietra Sponga. Panoramic view of Vallo di Nera (PG), Umbria. Courtesy: Fondazione Elpis and Galleria Continua. Ph. Daniele Mattioli.
Vallo di Nera is an Umbrian village of 373 residents in the province of Perugia, which is 40km away. Named one of the Borghi più Belli d’Italia (most beautiful villages of Italy), an Orange Flag destination, Comune amico delle api (bee-friendly town), Città del tartufo (Truffle town) and Terra di racconti (Land of folk tales), Vallo’s tremendous can be seen through its numerous churches and the paintings they hold. Local monumental aesthetics take their cues from a kind of architecture that began in 1200: the houses in stone vaunt panoramic views that highlight the luxuriant nature of the surrounding landscape: woods, pastures, cultivated fields and waters of the Nera River.
→ Download the press release
→ Download the invitation
Acknowledgments:
Agnese Benedetti, Laura Luparini, Denis Rotondaro, Niccolò Tramontana, Emanuele De Donno, Augusto Lucidi, Valentina Ceccucci.
