Love Project——美思美尔艺术
Daniele Maxmeyer美思美尔 2016-08-11
Maxmeyer支持的艺术项目活动：Love Project（爱之心项目）
爱之心项目是Fabrizio和Keane两名艺术家创作了100幅作品，每个人根据同样的一个主题去反复创作独特的50幅作品。
Fabrizio 将主题确定为“心”，心的形状进行演变，重组，再构；
针对这个主题进行无限变化，从而脱胎换骨；
通过Maxmeyer的不同产品来表达，通过不同的工艺手法来持续完善相同的主题。
心即是重要器官，是身体的发动机，也是跟心灵和情感紧密相连；因此这份作品在给人的直觉和隐喻中平衡，是一份独特的礼物。
“爱之心项目”计划是把我们两个人的作品放在托斯卡纳大区的最重要的五个城市：
Florence 佛罗伦萨, Siena 锡耶纳, Livorno 利伏诺, Pisa 比萨 Lucca 卢卡
任何有缘人碰到这些作品，喜欢作品就可以带走，是全免费的。”—Keane
艺术家创作的作品会在城市中心展示一天
展示结束后会匿名放在市中心纪念碑下或者标志性建筑物墙角
余下的几个小时内；路过的行人和这些作品开始发生交流，有着非常不同反应，有的喜欢，有的赞赏，有的抗拒，甚至有的去破坏。
作品被赋予了新的功能，一份礼物。
行人们对每幅作品所传递出来的信息感到好奇，除了艺术家的签名之外，从作品中传递出来作者的情感，思维的表达，摆放位置的选择和活动本身的意图等，都让行人们感兴趣去探究。
爱之心项目的第二站是将作品奉献给托斯卡纳大区的–卢卡城
从图片中看到，卢卡城市对这些作品还是非常欢迎，数小时内作品被素不相识的行人取走，爱之心活动继续顺利展开。
今年夏天，Fabrizio将Love Project（爱之心项目）作品带到了中国，并作为礼物赠送给了美思美尔张总经理。
Full article in China can be seen here
The loveproject has now reached out and has landed on the Chinese mainland as can be seen on the following site: here (in Chinese)
The most conventional chapter in the saga of the Love Project was the exhibition that opened it — and even that had its unusual twists. On the 13th and the 14th of June last year, the well-known local artists Keane and Fabrizio da Prato inaugurated a joint exhibition of 100 paintings. The venue was not a gallery in Barga or Lucca, but a deserted 13th century church in the long-deserted (and now slowly gentrifying) village of Isola Santa, rising like a ghostly medieval wraith over a lake deep in the forested Apuan Alps.
All 50 of Keane’s works were portraits of biroldo, the classic blood sausage of the Garfagnana region. The human heart, mostly but not exclusively in its familiar iconic form, was the subject of all 50 da Prato canvases. The 100 paintings had been carefully documented by photographer Giorgia Madiai.
The mostra was scheduled to last two days, with the paintings offered for sale. After that, very little was predictable.
The plan, says Keane, is to “place two paintings from each of us in five of the most important piazzas of Tuscany’s five most important cities: Florence, Siena, Livorno, Pisa and Lucca. Anyone who wants them can take them away, at no cost. Absolutely free.”
The rub is that no one will be informed exactly where — or when — the gratis works will appear for the taking. The schedule will be stretched out over at least six months. If things go according to plan, the artists or their representatives will be on hand to watch what happens. Da Prato says they may even set up video cameras. Will passersby simply grab a biroldo or heart and walk off with it? Will they react in bewilderment or suspicion and pretend to ignore the paintings? Will those who do pick one up look furtive? Or blithely unembarrassed? Will crowds gather and discuss the event’s meaning?
“The idea is to provoke conversation and exchange, both in the piazzas themselves and at an online site we are designing. Our intention is to get people thinking about the role that art does or can play in contemporary life,” explains Keane. Adds da Prato: “It is also to make a statement about the commercialization of art, about our tendency to value only those objects that carry a price tag.”
It’s no accident that this unorthodox project is focused on Tuscany, the cradle of the Renaissance, where the role and value of art have been debated for nearly a millenium.
The two men, who have been collaborating since founding the group “Artists at Work” 25 years ago, prefer to leave analysis of the exhibition’s themes and title to their audience. But they are willing to share a few thoughts of their own. “Blood, obviously, is one thing biroldo and the heart have in common,” notes da Prato. “The scope of my subject is global and universal — everyone, everywhere, recognizes that iconic depiction of the heart. But Keane’s attention is focused very locally, on a traditional food that is consumed in a small, isolated region, under a name that hardly anyone outside that region has ever heard.”
Like his earlier exhibitions on the “Mutande di Barga” (the undergarments its citizen dry outside in full view of their neighbours) and the bas-reliefs of the Duomo, says Keane, “the biroldo paintings are about local identity, giving visibility to what is essential but often unremarked upon in a traditional culture.”
Not the least of the project’s challenges is convincing the mayors of their five target cities go along with the give-away plan. Some may be nervous about the longterm effect of encouraging citizens and visitors to abscond with works of art. As for the mostra’s title, Da Prato accounts succinctly for the fact that it is not in Italian despite the setting. “English always works better on search engines,” he said.
Article by Frank Viviano
Viviano’s articles have appeared in more than 200 newspapers and magazines internationally, including Mother Jones and National Geographic. His books have been published in 14 countries. He is an 8-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize, and has been named Journalist of the Year by four media and current events organizations in the United States, including the World Affairs Council and the Society of Professional Journalists.
