“Lo Stato Poetico” is a special exhibition at the Venice Biennale’s Italian Pavilion celebrating the 150th ANNIVERSARY of ITALIAN UNIFICATION. The exhibition, which opened on 3 June and can be visited at the Spazio Thetis garden until 27 November, features works by the sculptor Rotelli.
Open books sculpted in stone, with verses by such poets as Edoardo Sanguineti and Mario Luzi, rest on the lawn of Thetis’ garden. Rotelli conceived this work as a combination of art, culture and history. The curator of the event, Annamaria Orsini, explained that “several great contemporary Italian poets were invited to express in verse the sense, feeling and uncertainty of belonging to a common culture, aware of the multifaceted nature of identity”.
Their thoughts were inscribed on blocks of travertine, Carrara marble, Istrian stone and Sicilian lava stone to “give visible, material form to an existential treasure. As a whole, the installation is a journey that explores an identity lost and refound, a journey filled with verses and meanings, in which the poets’ words come together to create a chorus of diversity that opens new horizons of perception”.
Orsini noted that “the work conforms to the Italian Pavilion’s overall theme – conceived by curator Vittorio Sgarbi – which highlights the close relationship that exists between literature and art in Italy”.
POETS PARTICIPATING IN THE PROJECT, at the invitation of Marco Nereo Rotelli and with the guidance of Lucrezia Lerro
o Andrea Zanzotto
o Maurizio Cucchi
o Franco Loi
o Pierluigi Bacchini
o Cesare Viviani
o Valentino Zeichen
o Antonella Anedda
o Patrizia Cavalli
o Maria Attanasio
o Davide Rondoni
o Tiziano Broggiato
o Roberto Carifi
o Giuseppe Conte
o Claudio Damiani
o Tomaso Kemeny
o Vivian Lamarque
o Lucrezia Lerro
o Giancarlo Majorino
o Roberto Mussapi
o Loretto Rafanelli
o Antonio Riccardi
o Gemma Bracco
o Mario Santagostini
o Maria Luisa Spaziani
o Gianmario Villalta
o Sergio Zavoli
LO STATO POETICO
The project was realized in collaboration with the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities – Directorate-General for the Landscape, Fine Arts, Architecture and Contemporary Art.
A work by Marco Nereo Rotelli
Curated by Annamaria Orsini
Consultant: Lucrezia Lerro
Coordinator: Elena Lombardi
Sculpture director: Pier Italo Torri
Main sponsor: Campolonghi Group
Special thanks to: Spazio Thetis
The catalogue, entitled “Lo Stato Poetico” (Edizioni Interlinea), is a collection of the verses written for the project along with images of the works, with an introduction by Lucrezia Lerro and Annamaria Orsini. The publication was introduced on 1 June at the Doge’s Palace in Venice, as a corollary event to the "Notte di Luce" light installation.