È tutto vero – Una Boccata d'Arte

Lulù Nuti

È tutto vero

curated by
ALTROVE - Vincenzo Costantino e Ehab Halabi Abo Kher

Motta Filocastro - fraz. Limbadi (VV), Calabria

There is a specific location where, as you approach Motta Filocastro, the asphalt turns into stone. This is the threshold where a visitor from elsewhere becomes a guest. The project by Lulù Nuti specifically addresses these liminal points, with a series of bronze works deriving from casts of several doormats given to the artist by the people living in the village. Installed both at the entrance and at the end of blind alleys facing the sea, the works create a dual sensation: on one hand, arriving from the asphalt road, there is the sense of crossing a threshold leading to the heart of the village; on the other hand, when looking out from the internal streets of the village, there is a sense of being both protected and isolated. Seen from above, È tutto vero (It’s all true) appears as a luminous ring of protection, evoking the towers that once defended the village. The ancient fortress, now reduced to a single stone, seems to become a new type of “watchtower”, a suspended space where a foreigner is assessed to determine whether he or she represents a source of danger or of new horizons. The artist reflects on public space and how it represents an intimate, diffuse dimension here. The transformation of a soft and familiar object like a doormat, into a bronze work, celebrates the ambiguity of the domestic environment, midway between a welcoming home and an impenetrable fortress. The use of bronze gives the original object a sacred dimension, and honors the art of hospitality, which is exemplified in Motta Filocastro. Seen through the artist’s eyes, the village is a magical place, where the boundaries between truth and legend become blurred, and historical documentation is blended with folk tales in a depiction that is based both on reality and imagination.

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Artworks:
01. Lulù Nuti, È tutto vero, 2024. Bronze, 120 x 40 x 1 cm.
Corso Pietro Lazzaro 42, Motta Filocastro

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02. Lulù Nuti, È tutto vero, 2024. Bronze, 60 x 39 x 1 cm.
Via XXIV Maggio 6, Motta Filocastro

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03. Lulù Nuti, È tutto vero, 2024. Bronze, 78 x 45 x 1 cm.
Via XXIV Maggio 14, Motta Filocastro

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04. Lulù Nuti, È tutto vero, 2024. Bronze, 67 x 37 x 1 cm.
Via XXIV Maggio 21, Motta Filocastro

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05. Lulù Nuti, È tutto vero, 2024. Bronze, 45 x 75 x 1 cm.
Via Montenegro 30, Motta Filocastro

There is an invisible door that creaks as soon as a stranger crosses the threshold. A sound with frequencies inaudible to the outsider alerts the residents of Motta to the arrival of a guest. It would not surprise me if, at the point where asphalt turns to stone, they asked me to take off my shoes.

Lulù Nuti, *È tutto vero*, Motta Filocastro - fraz. Limbadi (VV), Calabria. Ph Matteo Gregoraci

Lulù Nuti (Paris, France, 1988) graduated in 2012 from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. She has participated in severa exhibitions in Italian and international institutions, including: Biwako Biennal (JPN, 2012); Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris (FR, 2014); MO.CO. La Panacée, Montpellier (FR, 2018); the Italian Cultural Institute in New Delhi (IN, 2019); Villa Medici, Rome (IT, 2021); Musée des Beaux-Arts, Angers (FR, 2023); British School at Rome (IT, 2023); Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto (IT, 2023); Fondazione Nicola del Roscio, Rome (IT, 2023); Fondazione Pescheria, Pesaro (IT, 2024). Among her solo exhibitions are the site-specific show Sistema at the Case Romane del Celio, Rome (IT, 2015) and Terrain Amère at Galerie Chloé Salgado, Paris (FR, 2021). In 2022, her wrought iron work Too much heat Nothing to Eat, part of the project We Love Art, vision and creativity Made in Italy, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CDP Foundation, was displayed worldwide from the Italian Cultural Institute in New York to Seoul, Korea, and the Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art in China. In 2018, she co-founded with Pamela Pintus the artistic duo LU.PA, primarily engaging in performative actions and site-specific works. In 2020, she co-founded Post Ex, a collaborative research studio in Rome.

If the memory of an event is transmitted in genes and water molecules react to the tone of voice, I can then assume that matter has its own intelligence, its own baggage, its own point of view. That a sandbag carries memories of the place from which it was extracted and I can find ways to bring out the information it holds.

Motta Filocastro - fraz. Limbadi (VV)

Calabria

Motta Filocastro is a hamlet of the village of Limbadi, perched on a hill at a height of 362 metres above sea level. Its historical origins run back to between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.
Greek and Byzantine influences can still be recognised in the place names and architecture. In the Middle Ages, this was an important fortified town, home to a university and the houses of Norman nobles.
The panoramic balcony, named “il Tocco” is a fine viewpoint over the Aspromonte mountains, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Gioia Tauro plain and the Strait of Messina. There are many examples of religious architecture, such as the Church of Maria Santissima della Romania, with the revered statue of the Black Madonna; the Santuario (Shrine) of the Holy Cross; and the first house of the Suore Missionarie Francescane del Verbo Incarnato (Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Incarnate Word), an order founded in 1930 at Motta Filocastro by Mother Giovanna. Father Ludovico Cumi from Reggio Calabria is an important historical figure, instigator of the Capuchin reform in Calabria, which led to the construction of the Franciscan Monastery of S. Maria della Neve in Motta Filocastro, in 1535.
The village is famous for its crafts and agricultural traditions, visible in the remains of ancient terracotta workshops and mills for crushing olives and grinding grain. The old mill at the entrance to the village dates back to the 18th century and retains its original structure: it is a significant historical and cultural location.

Thanks to: Municipality of Limbadi, Associazione Il Tocco, Fonderia Riolo, Anna e Gianluca Perrella, Augusto Peluso, Simone Testi, Coro Polifonico Musica Nova di Nicotera, Monica La Malfa and all the people of Motta Filocastro.