These will be the three spectacular interventions by Fabrizio Plessi, the pioneer of video art ready to enchant the Umbrian city during the Todi Arts Festival which will take place in the village in the province of Perugia from 26 August to 25 September.
Now in its third edition, promoted and organized by the Beverly Pepper Projects Foundation, in collaboration with the Municipality of Todi and the Todi Festival, the Festival curated by Marco Tonelli celebrates the artist from Reggio Emilia, born in 1940, one of the best known and appreciated internationally, with a series of initiatives ready to involve the historic center of the town.
Fabrizio Plessi, Todi Today, 2022, drawing
It starts on August 26 with the inauguration, in Piazza del Popolo, of the monumental work Todi Today, a 12 meter high digital fountain with its continuous cycle of rise and fall. This sort of double-sided electronic monolith that will light up every evening to stay off during the day, standing out in the square like an enigmatic presence, winks with its mighty silhouette at the verticality of the towers of Todi, interacting with the Columns of Beverly Pepper and with the Steli by Arnaldo Pomodoro, installed in past years on the occasion of the Arts Festival.
From 27 August to 25 Septemberthe Sala delle Pietre of Palazzo del Popolo will instead be the seat of the personal of Plessi, Projects of the world. Presented simultaneously with the opening of the Todi Festival, the exhibition will include large-scale paintings made in 2013 and never exhibited in Italy. These works, inspired by cities such as Rome, Bombay, Nagoya, Kyoto, Mallorca, give life to a collage of sketches, projects, evocative notes of video installations that are actually realized or only imagined. Very close to the suggestions of the Prisons by Piranesi, in black and white, these works embody the projection of dreams and fantasies of an artist who has always linked the practice of drawing to the mood of places, lights, history.
Fabrizio Plessi, Projects of the world, 2014, Mixed technique on canvas
Finally, the Roman cisterns will be the frame of Secret Water, a sculpture composed of four columns of electronic water, created specifically for the underground space and which will remain permanently, becoming part of the cultural heritage of the city. In these large vertical ledwalls, the theme of water returns with the aim of historically reconstructing the ancient route for supplying the city. In this way, contemporary art is a bridge between past and future, strongly rooted in everything that is archaic and ancestral.
Secret Water, Todi Today And Projects of the world they will be conceived as a single large exhibition by Fabrizio Plessi divided into three different places in the city, in a “futuristic and visionary dialogue between history and contemporaneity, electronic flows and stones, scenarios from the world and cultural identities”.
Fabrizio Plessi, Projects of the world, 2014, mixed media on canvas
“For Plessi – explains Marco Tonelli – the crossing of genres, the hybridization of materials, the exaltation of the graphic sign as a seismograph of the times are elements that characterize his idea of art, thought and creativity, in a continuous exchange of energy that from the seventies to today he has been a protagonist on the international scene as a video artist and video sculptor who has been able to update the technological equipment without changing the poetic conception of the world “.
During the festival, the public will be able to participate in a series of guided tours and free workshops for families. During the’Urban Art Tour (Saturday 27 August and Saturday 3 September) expert guides will accompany the participants from the Beverly Pepper Park to the center of Todi to admire the installations by Fabrizio Plessi, on an urban journey to discover contemporary art.
Sunday 28 August and Sunday 4 September the Kids Art Dayin the Beverly Pepper Park, will offer a journey through history and nature, inviting children and families to participate in a series of workshops in the presence of professional educators.
Fabrizio Plessi, Secret Water2022, drawing
Read also:
• The Golden Age by Fabrizio Plessi: Evangelical tribute to Venice in the sign of rebirth
