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- Stanze della Memoria Istituto Storico della Resistenza Senese e dell' Età Contemporanea, Siena, December 2016
fabric, vellum paper, copper, iron threads, brass and copper threads, spray paint 12¾x8x9¼(h) ft
realized with the interplay of the archival footage of the day of the liberation of Siena, July 3 1944
photos by Franca Marini
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Liberazione is a site-specific work, specially created for the “Stanza della Liberazione”. Created for and within this space, elsewhere it would lose its meaning and would cease to exist.
The artist began the construction of Liberazione with the intent of interacting with the historical film projected on the floor of the room, which revokes the entry of the French allied troops into Siena on 3 July 1944.
The images of the film footage flow rapidly over white surfaces, sheets hung by the artist like screens which capture, absorb and fill with intense light the beautiful smiles of those who experienced the joy of that unforgettable moment. Men and women, the old and the young who throng the streets of the city, eager to celebrate the end of the dictatorship and enemy occupation, are thus brought back to life and to the present to become universal images of a new beginning.
The theme of “the Liberation” is interpreted by the artist on two fronts, the historical and the reality of the present, to be perceived as an active process of self-determination which implies intense struggle.
Pain and trauma suffered are redeemed through the realization and affirmation of a new identity, both collective and personal. The red blood, reminder of an immense mutilation and suffering is transformed into an image of vitality which explodes in suspended shapes that soar into the surrounding space.
A counterpoint is formed by a figure in shadow in the opposite corner, a mute, inert presence, representation of non-being, by now devoid of consistency.
Franca Marini, March 2017
