see gallery
May 11, 2009 permanent installation of the benches Birth with color
P.zza G. Amendola, Siena
Siena Municipality – press release – May 29, 2009
Three new benches have been installed in the gardens facing the historical space the “Balconata” thanks to the collaboration of Sienese artist Franca Marini. They complete the artwork “Nascita con colore”
Piazza Amendola: three new artistic benches
This installation is not the only project carried out recently in the area of Piazza d’Armi. A new drinking fountain has been turned on and the older street furniture has been replaced
Three new benches in Piazza Amendola, in the gardens in front of the space the “Balconata” designed by Sienese artist Franca Marini. The project of the travertine benches was donated to the 5th City District by Franca Marini herself who also created the artwork “Nascita con colore” installed right here in Piazza d’Armi. The installation is an integral part of the artwork and in the artist intentions it has the function of contextualizing the sculpture in the green space and providing the garden with more benches for the many regular and occasional visitors.
<< In 2006 – as Giacomo Paoli, President of the 5th City District recalls – Franca Marini donated “Birth with colour” and today the Balconata space in Piazza d’Armi is being further enriched by her good-will and sensibility. The choice of the context is not casual, but continues the long term course of the City District to improve and promote the Piazza d’Armi area which is a vital green space for the territory >>.
“Birth with colour”, in which ceramic inserts realized with the collaboration of Monica Putti, teacher of the Ceramics Department of the Istituto d’Arte Duccio di Buoninsegna of Siena, were mounted, enriches, in short, the cultural inheritance of Siena, especially of its immediate suburbs.
<< The three bench installation is not the only project carried out in this period in Piazza Amendola – Giacomo Paoli, President of the 5th City District wants to point out. As a matter of fact, recently a new drinking fountain, which will quench the thirst of the many children who play in the gardens daily, has been turned on and the older benches in metal have been substituted with new and more comfortable wooden benches >>.
Franca Marini, in the conceiving of “Birth with colour” imagined a work of art which could be an integral part of the urban context, useful and usable by the citizens. Marini was born in Siena where she attended the Istituto Statale d’Arte Duccio di Buoninsegna. She graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence and went on to broaden her academic art studies in the United States, in San Francisco. Later she resided and showed her work in New York City for about 10 years.
From 1984 until) today she has exhibited in many personal and collective shows. Her work is part of public and private collections in Italy, Costa Rica and the United States. Presently she teaches painting at the Siena School for Liberal Arts and at the Buffalo State College “Siena Program”, where she has taught since 1999. After many years of training in painting, since 2005 she has started to explore new media such as video art and site-specific installations.