September 17, 2016The swallow mad flight
Just at the hour when her sad lay begins
The little swallow, near unto the morning,
Perchance in memory of her former woes
The swallow chirping anticipates Dante’s dream in the ninth canto of Purgatory. A vision that captures the poet during the sunrise, when the first lights of the day rise through the sky and dreams are closer to reality.
This is the literary episode that inspired the choice to pose three giant swallows in the garden of Alfredo Oriani Library in Ravenna. Three like the poet’s favorite number, swallows like the allegorical figures that express something abstract through a concrete image. While Dante with his poetic words brings reality to a metaphorical dimension, Cracking Art with its sculptures gives a metaphorical dimension to everyday life.
Tomorrow the city where Dante Alighieri spent the last years of his life, will celebrate the opening of Id_Dante, an ambitious project on the figure of the poet, created by Marco Miccoli with the curatorship of Maria Vittoria Baravelli. The project – which will culminate in 2021 – will start with the exhibition “Il Volto di Dante, per una traduzione contemporanea”: from September 18 to October 23 the exhibit will stay at the Library with the aim of promoting a new iconography of Dante using the contemporary art approach.
The Comedy pattern will be reproduced through the exhibition of 33 + 1 artworks which, using different techniques, will translate Dante’s different languages in a modern way: from graphics to comics, from mosaic to Technogel, from bread to Tape Art. Among them there will also be artworks realized by four of our artists which give a contemporary interpretation to the face of Dante, each one arised by a particular sensitivity and technique. The individual expression is not limited by the group dimension of Cracking Art which, as a movement, will participate with one of his most significant animals.
The swallows, not surprisingly placed near the tomb of Dante Alighieri, represent an invitation to reflection in order to inspire the new generations. Moreover, the swallow, symbol of rebirth and regeneration, will pursue a very important task. Small swallow sculptures will on sale at Caffé Letterario in Ravenna, launching a fundraising with the aim of creating the digital version of the early twentieth century books about Dante that are nowadays difficult to consult. It is the project “Art Regenerates Art” that this time brings a new life to poetry.
A book does not exist if nobody read it and give new usability to these texts means evaluating the memory of Dante and all virtues bound to him. The swallow with his “mad flight” is the mouthpiece of this mission, restoring vital energy to the written word and inviting people to be part of the project and, further on, of the artwork itself.
