Antonello Ghezzi
I Am With you, I Have Always Been with You, Don’t Be Afraid
Il cielo stellato, la notte, a Santo Stefano di Sessanio, toglie il fiato. Le stelle allargano tutti i nostri confini immaginati, fino a farli sparire. L’infinito e l’universale prendono il sopravvento.
Antonello Ghezzi, I Am With you, I Have Always Been with You, Don’t Be Afraid, 2020, Santo Stefano di Sessanio (AQ), Abruzzo. Ph. Andrea Fiordigiglio
Antonello Ghezzi was born in 2009 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna via the meeting of Nadia Antonello (Cittadella, 1985) and Paolo Ghezzi (Bologna, 1980). The duo began their collaboration with the Toilet Project at the Bologna Art Fair.
Santo Stefano di Sessanio owes its prosperity to its strategic position near the very important “tratturo regio”, the main migration road that connected L’Aquila to Foggia. In the twelfth century, the village became part of the Barony of Carapelle. Later, it became a possession of the Piccolomini family, who were succeeded by the Medici from the end of the 16th to the 18th century, and then subsequently annexed to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies as a private possession of the King until the unification of Italy.
The period of greatest splendor for Santo Stefano di Sessanio corresponds to the regency by Francesco de ‘Medici and the commercial success of Carfagna wool, a particular dark-colored raw wool. The village was built according to the scaffolding technique: all the original buildings were built around a central element consisting of an ancient watchtower, better known by the misnomer of Torre Medicea.