Burri e Pistoia

A day to settle down and then the work started. I found myself in what
was to say the least a disconcerting situation: Mancini and Jack the
Spark hoisted an enormous sheet of cellophane, all of five meters by
five, up to the ceiling after anchoring it to the floor with weights.
Once the operation of mounting the large sheet of plastic was over,
Burri, with a blowtorch in his hand, said: “Now I start working with
this!” Bewildered and somewhat intimidated, I wondered what was
about to happen.
I was using traditional film, and still do, so I didn’t have more than
twelve exposures at my disposal. As Burri lit the torch I took all the
pictures that would make up the famous sequence! He asked me at
once what I’d been able to do; I replied that I wouldn’t know until after
the photos were developed. The day after he set to work again and so
on over the following days. And my bewilderment began to give way
to understanding.
In the meantime Burri had loosened up a bit: my free and easy way of
doing things had succeeded in overcoming his distrust. For the esteem
and friendship that I was eventually to win, more time was needed. We
used the formal mode of address and it was only in the last years that
we shifted to the informal one. In any case the “combustion” was not
finished, but my time was up.
You know that I love black and white, but I decided that color was
indispensable for this work. When I developed the film, excited
and thrilled by the results, I called Burri on the phone: “Maestro,
I have the pictures, I think they turned out well!” With his usual
sarcastic laugh he replied: “We’ll see, we’ll see!” I printed them
ni. Conobbi altri amici di Burri, compagni
all and took them to him: faced with the whole sequence he was
di vita: Beppe Volpi addetto alla cucina,
enthused, and so was I. From that moment on I became Burri’s
Roberto Mancini tuttofare, e Jack scintilla
photographer and friend until his death, although it is known that
[Giacomo Di Sabbatino, detto “Jack scintilla”
per la sua capacità di trovare soluzioni
artists never die!
In 1994, already very ill, he called me from Beaulieu. He wanted to see
geniali ai problemi più disparati n.d.r.].
me: I went there at once with Lella and it was really sad to find him
Un giorno per acclimatarsi e poi il lavoro cominciò.
Mi trovai di fronte a una situazione
in such a state. Not long afterward he was hospitalized and I couldn’t
find the courage to go and visit him. I came for the last farewell, here in
a dir poco sconcertante: Mancini con Jack Case Nove di Morra, 1977
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