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Vado a veder come diventa notte nei boschi

From the book

G. Martino Spanzotti, the Frescoes of Ivrea of Giovanni Testori.
Published in the series Quaderni d'arte of the Olivetti Cultural Center, 1958.

Site specific installation and video design

Paolo Calafiore

Direction

Valter Malosti

Music

Coro Bajolese

Chiesa di San Bernardino, Ivrea.

2002

Abstract

In the austere spatiality of the church of St. Bernardino, evocative images take shape toward the viewer intent on listening to the extraordinary Testorian pages on the fresco cycle dedicated to the life and passion of Christ by Piedmontese Renaissance painter Giovanni Martino Spanzotti. The architecture and images suspended over the apse, reveal the origin of the large frescoed wall, condensing around the reading of the text two projection surfaces where the images appear, coming to life in the form of fragments and accumulations until they reach large fields of light and color, and then dissolve as if erased by the very light that generated them, as in memories suspended in the dark chamber of memory, until they reach the vision of the original fresco that is revealed at the end of the poetic journey, guided by the voices of Valter Malosti, Giovanni Moretti enveloped by the songs and lullabies of the Bajolese Choir.

Press review

Frescoes as a theater

And there is a moment of unparalleled excitement when the audience-from the first room where the work is evoked with slides projected on a screen, and elegant video processing reflected on the floor-moves into a second space and is suddenly in front of the real frescoes, being overwhelmed by the dazzling perception of those images.

Renato Palazzi, Il Sole 24 Ore (9th june 2002).