A natural environment, rich in history and transformations, hardly anthropised, with marked features, has become an effective integration tool between nature and culture, contemporary art and environment, thanks to an increasing environmental awareness. This combination has lead to more homogeneous relationships: the environment becoming sculpture and the sculpture becoming part of the environment itself.
The location chosen to develop site-specific works is crucial, since it allows the artist to combine the use of natural elements with materials taken from the site itself. The variety of techniques/approaches used by Italian and international artists to intervene into the landscape, their sensitivity in capturing the character of the site, their capacity to sense the “genius loci”.
Masafumi Maita - Japan - ``Luminuos Trees`` 1990
Born in Manchuria, China, in 1944, he moved to Japan when he was three years old. In 1986, he exhibited his works at the Japanese pavilion of the Venice Biennial, where Hiske, fascinated by his work, invited him to visit MUSABA, in the perspective of a potential cooperation. The works of the huge project “Luminous Trees” began years later, in spring 1990; the artist was supported by his Japanese assistant-sculptor, Tahiro Takeda, two young Turkish artists, as well as by local welders and workers. This sculpture by Maita reveals a new way of preserving and conceiving nature. Made of twisted, recovered materials, like iron, at first glance this sculpture resembles an ungraceful heap of metal fragments, welded in several points; however, when carefully observed, it is evident that this is an impressive work, which seems to be representing a sacred space. It is placed along the pebbly riverbank of the Torbido stream. Created for the Foundation, the artist hints at a “return to nature” through this more complex work.
Technique: welded iron and recovered material, stone flooring.
Size: 9x8x8 metres
Close
Jin Jong Chen - Taiwan - ``Fountain`` 1987/8
He was born in Taiwan in 1956. Attracted by the formal and ideological features inspiring the Italian Arte Povera, the artist combined them with a strong memory of the culture pertaining to Free China. His work reflects an almost religious attention to the purely natural features of the four symbolic elements (air, water, fire and earth) which are identified with primordial energy. This poetic thread explains the employment of materials like stone and water in the work that marks the Eastern entrance to the Park: a coloured, concrete-made, triangular-plant fountain, a sphere divided into two sections, whose semi-spheres are staggered and out of axis.
Technique: painted concrete, covered in small sea pebbles
Size: 9.50x9x9 metres
Close
Italo Sganga - USA - ``Fireman`` 1984
He was born in Lago (Cosenza-Calabria-Italy) in 1932, and died in La Jolla, Ca – USA in 2001. He was a Professor at the Visual Arts Department, of the University of California, San Diego, La Jolla from 1978 onwards. Scanga was the American artist who denounced his original matrix the most, though without suffering from excessive nostalgia, and without remaining trapped into romantic melancholies. Being aware that he had a more than millenary fund of experience behind him, he created the work “Fireman”, inspired by the Saint Patron of the town, “Saint Barbara”. This work is placed in front of the ancient Santa Barbara chapel dating back to the year 1000, where the medieval bust of Saint Barbara, holding the tower in her hand, was found. Through this gesture, the Saint seems to be protecting the Park Museum from thunder and flames.
Technique: painted concrete
Size: 7x4x2 metres
Close
Pietro Gentili - Italia - ``L'Angelo di Santa Barbara`` 1986
He was born in San Vito Romano in 1932. He lives and works in Milan. A friend of Nik and Hiske’s since the 60s, they used to live in the same street, Via Solferino, in Milan. They were poor, but motivated, and wanted to make their way in the most culturally advanced Italian city. Since 1979, Gentili has been constantly present at MuSaBa. His work “L’Angelo di Santa Barbara” (The Angel of Saint Barbara), placed opposite the ancient Monastery walls, reflects the image of the monastery itself on its wings. In 1965, Lucio Fontana wrote, “Gentili’s research on the point of view, being the start and the end of each thing, have led him to elaborate a spatial creation based on a rigorous geometric composition, characterised by circular shapes. Though, the work is definitely far from being a cold formula, it expressing a vision of mystic spirituality”.
Technique: painted concrete and mirrors
Size: 5x5x0.45 metres
Close
Shigeo Toya - Japan - ``Tredici Sassi`` 1989
He was born in 1947 in the Nagano Prefecture, in a Japanese feudal mountain village. In 1988, Shigeo Toya met Hiske at the exhibition in the Japanese pavilion of the Venice Biennial. Three elements are always found in Toya’s works: sculpture, fire and colour. They represent creation, death and rebirth. The artist visited the Foundation and was fascinated by the site, thus decided to design a work made of olive wood. In June 1989, he started carving the wood, deliberately leaving the traces of his chainsaw work in the sculpture. The artist intended to send a message where his Leitmotiv coincided with his symbiotic bond with the trees, thus reflecting Toya’s incessant artistic will. The work’s shapes recall the shapes of stones, and just like stones, I (the artist) roll over in matter, being part of this universe and its multiple images. The meaning of a work is not a problem for those who have created it, but for those who see it. A work of art exists only for it to persist over time and be seen by others. In an interview for RAI television, he was asked about his experience at MuSaBa and his opinion about the Foundation’s cultural exchange programme; Toya replied: “I only choose places where I can isolate myself from the rest of the world and talk with matter. This is the first time I have used olive wood, and, after only one day, I was able to establish an intimate relationship with wood. I became the olive tree and the olive tree became myself. There was no more difference between the matter and myself. This is part of the human beings’ culture. I always try to be myself and I am the witness of the culture of a distant people”. “There are many cultural exchanges sponsored by initiatives promoted by governments or local authorities, but I just can’t trust their programmes. Conversely, I can sense Nik and Hiske’s intention to create an oasis of art and culture in the Foundation’s programmes. And I believe that the notion of artist is at the core of their programmes. Everything else looses its value when facing the artist at MuSaBa, a place where the work of art becomes common property, and artistic differences are accepted and left unaltered”.
Close
Stevi Kerwin - USA - ``Donna Fontana`` 1987
She was born in 1942 in Annapolis, USA. The Foundation asked her and two other female artists to design a fountain for the park museum, and she created an ironic fountain/sculpture depicting a woman lying on her stomach with a jet of water spouting from her mouth. In 2006, the sculpture was decorated with fragments of coloured ceramics by the artist Nik Spatari, assisted by students and volunteers coming from all over the world.
Technique: concrete covered in fragments of ceramics, metal curls and small pebble flooring
Size: 6×2.60×1.50 metres
Close
Karl Heinz Steck - Austria - ``Lancia`` 1988
He was born in Innsbruck in 1963. He has lived and worked in Milan since 1980. For the Foundation, he designed and created a work standing out against the restauration/alteration of the façade of the millennial former chapel of the monastic complex. The work symbolizes a spear piercing a side of the historic building.
Technique: iron, steel, painted concrete, wood covered in gold leaves
Size: 5×1.80×1.80 metres
Close
Petra Rhijnsburger - Holland - ``Passo di Danza`` (Colored Dance Strip) 1985
She was born in Rotterdam in 1957. An artist, a choreographer and a performer, she creates environmental spaces. She developed the “Colored Dance Strip” for MuSaBa outside the former church of the monastic complex. The concrete slabs, of various sizes and colours, were made locally. The rectangular-tile paving recalls the geometry of a particular dance choreography. The coloured shapes symbolise dance strips. On completion, the work was inaugurated with a performance of contemporary dance carried out by Petra Rhijinsburger herself.
Technique: coloured concrete slabs
Size: 9×2.30 metres
Close
Hsiao Chin - China - ``Stele di David`` 1980/1981
Born in China in 1935, he lives and works in Milan and China. In the 70s, he exhibited his works in the Studio Hiske in Milan, and he was one of the first supporters of the Saint Barbara Project. Upon request of the founders of the Museum, Spatari/Maas, he designed a work aiming to prevent the building of the Ionian-Tyrrhenian clearway in the area of the Park Museum. It is a vertical jigsaw of geometrical shapes that develop a high tower.
Technique: painted concrete
Size: 7.20x2x2 metres
Close
Barbara Quinn - USA - ``Solstizio d'Estate`` 1984
The big Greek cross, designed by the New York artist and created by Nik Spatari, is placed on the plateau of Santa Barbara. Designed to make the summer solstice visible to the naked eye, the external frame of the cross beholds an inner cross, within which sunrays are visible at sunset. The work is made out of large blocks covered in fragments of animal bones and earthenware (which were dug up in archaeological excavations on the site), as well as mosaics, pieces of glass and mirrors. The path and the staircase leading to the work make it more impressive.
Technique: concrete, mosaics, various fragments, paint, stone
Size: 6x5x2 metres
Close
Bruno Conte - Italia - ``Vegetazione extraterrestre`` 1982
The Roman artist’s work is a cluster of thin, white missile-trees of different sizes, facing the sky, and underlining the futuristic element within the Art-Environment project as a whole.
Technique: painted concrete, ceramic, stone
Size: 5x3x6 metres
Close
Artisti vari ``Sculpture Wall`` 1980-1981
Local people and volunteers from all over the world learnt how to sculpt under the guidance of Spatari. Young international artists created sculptures which were to be placed both in the new and ancient walls of the Park Museum. The works were made of sculpted sandstone and placed into wall structures.
Alberto Coluccio – Canada- ” Donna Montagna” 1981
He was born in New York in 1914, from Italian parents (from Gioiosa Jonica). He met Nik and Hiske during Spatari’s exhibition in Toronto and when he came to visit Calabria to rediscover his roots, he sculpted the “Madre di tutte le madri” (Mother of all Mothers) in sandstone. The sculpture was placed in a niche in the “Sculpture Wall” at the East side entrance of MUSABA.
Technique: local sculpted sandstone
Size: 1.40x1x0.90 metres
Bruno Kempf “Totem” 1982
Techinique: Stone structure and concrete .
Size: 4 x 1.20 x 1.20 meters
Close
Motoaki Ozumi - Japan- ``Onda`` 1979
He was the first Japanese artist to arrive at MuSaBa, introduced by an acquaintance, a Chinese artist. He created an environmental work placed beneath the West slope of the promontory named “Hiske’s island”. At that time, his arrival was considered as an “event” by local people. An Asian artist had awoken their curiosity, despite communication difficulties. They did not understand his work but were fascinated by the technique he used to create it.
Technique: painted concrete
Size: 5x3x0.50 metres
Close
Mary Jane Moross - USA - ``Stele`` 1983
A young American artist, Mary Moross created a parallelepiped on which she carved a sequence of symbols on parallel lines, according to a personalised alphabet, which had been inspired by the historic site.
Technique: painted concrete
Size: 3×1.80 metres
Close
Bruno Sutter - Switserland - ``Maschere`` 1986
Born in Zurich, where he still works, he created two big masks for MuSaBa: two brightly-coloured faces, stylized in relief and geometrically outlined.
Technique: painted concrete, glass, stones
Size: 3×2.20×0.60 metres
Close
Gilles Jean Giuntin - USA - ``Nave`` 1983 (distrutto)
The American sculptor created a peculiar, red-painted hull, suspended in space by means of support cables.
Technique: wood, iron and cables
Size: 4×2.50 metres
Close
