Burri e Pistoia
a cura di Bruno Corà
a cura di Bruno Corà
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e glimpsed through the brightly lit windows, in front of the entrance a crowd is<br />
waiting impatiently to be let in.<br />
“Nemo Sarteanesi and Mario Gambuli, director and president of the collection<br />
respectively, received the guests. Many distinguished figures, coming from all<br />
over the world, attended this momentous event. One exceptional presence was<br />
James J. Sweeney who, despite his venerable age, had come from the United<br />
States to affirm his admiration for the artist.<br />
“It was Sweeney, director of the Guggenheim in 1955, who curated the first<br />
monograph exhibition of <strong>Burri</strong>’s work. The association between the two men,<br />
founded on mutual esteem and trust, was never interrupted.”<br />
CS: In 1983 you documented the Sextant [Sestante] series created for Venice,<br />
first in the “shed-studio” and then in the Cantieri Navali, the former shipyards<br />
on Giudecca. Of all the venues proposed, <strong>Burri</strong> chose an abandoned industrial<br />
structure, for which he made seventeen paintings of a large size and a sculpture.<br />
AA: <strong>Burri</strong> often picked spaces not normally used for exhibitions, and<br />
preferably dilapidated ones, which fascinated him. Places in which it<br />
would never have occurred to anyone else to show, but which they all<br />
made use of after him.<br />
“Like all great artists <strong>Burri</strong> was not just a painter and sculptor, but also an<br />
‘architect.’ He had a special feeling and insight about the potentialities of a<br />
building. In Italy he was a precursor of the use of works of architecture from the<br />
industrial heritage, and other such structures, to stage exhibitions.”<br />
CS: From the “shed-studio” in Città di Castello, where he began to work in 1978, to<br />
the former shipyards on Giudecca and the former Peroni brewery in Rome there was<br />
a whole series of interventions of this kind, culminating in the whole complex of the<br />
Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco, the former tobacco drying sheds. All photographed by you!<br />
The year 1984 was a very intense one for <strong>Burri</strong>: in May he inaugurated the<br />
spaces of Brera 2 in Milan with a retrospective. In June he took part in the<br />
Biennale, at the invitation of Maurizio Calvesi, erecting the Grand Theater<br />
Sculpture at the entrance of the Giardini.<br />
rizio Calvesi, con l’allestimento della “Grande Scultura Teatro” all’ingresso<br />
dei Giardini.<br />
AA: Quell’opera era impressionante con quegli archi alti nove metri!<br />
Nessuno avrebbe potuto ignorarla, anche perché, per accedere ai vari<br />
padiglioni, bisognava passarci sotto e, lì, ho ritratto <strong>Burri</strong> e Calvesi<br />
mentre parlavano.<br />
Anche in quell’occasione trascorsi delle belle giornate, oltre al piacere<br />
di essere lì come fotografo.<br />
Una sera eravamo seduti in piazza S. Marco con tanti artisti e a <strong>Burri</strong><br />
venne in mente di organizzare una partita di calcio per beneficenza,<br />
proprio in quella piazza! E cominciò a prendere le misure per delimitare<br />
il campo da calcio.<br />
CS: E poi?<br />
AA: Non se ne fece nulla, era troppo complicato! Ti racconterò un altro<br />
episodio molto simpatico di quella volta. In Biennale tutti andavano<br />
a mangiare al ristorante con degli assembramenti di gente impressionante;<br />
<strong>Burri</strong> non voleva fare file. Così con Bacchi, andavamo a comprare<br />
panini e birre, per consumarli con lui, in una delle panchine a<br />
disposizione dentro il giardino della Biennale insieme a <strong>Burri</strong>. Divenne<br />
un punto di ritrovo: passava Lichtenstein e si prendeva un panino per<br />
stare con noi, Ceroli [Mario, n.d.r.] mangiava con noi, Pistoletto [Michelangelo,<br />
n.d.r.], Gori, Sapone, Portoghesi e altri ancora, sicché, ogni<br />
giorno bisognava aumentare gli approvvigionamenti per altri eventuali<br />
passanti che si fermavano. Mi divertii molto a fotografare quei momenti<br />
indimenticabili!<br />
CS: Davanti all’ingresso della Fattoria di Celle, una delle collezioni di Arte<br />
Ambientale più importanti al mondo, creata da Giuliano Gori, è collocata la<br />
scultura: “Grande Ferro Celle” del 1986 che tu hai in più occasioni fotografato.<br />
AA: Nel 1985 Gori aveva invitato <strong>Burri</strong> a realizzare una scultura per la<br />
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