Only five more days to go before finally the doors are opened on the long-awaited #loveproject –
On saturday, 13th of July there will be a presentation of the project at Isola Santa (Careggine) an ancient village by the side of the small lake of the same name and set in a breathtaking valley in the Parco delle Alpi Apuane.
Here, in the medieval church of S. Jacopo (XIII sec.), two large wooden structures will frame the mosaic of the 50 works by each artist that will remain on display and be available for sale for just the two days of the exhibition.
The striking effect of the setting (the church is completely bare and devoid of liturgical furniture) will be amplified by a musical performance by Andrea Guzzoletti who will be mixing the compositions of his album Invisible cities, inspired by Calvino’s Invisible Cities, with live sounds of the environment.
The church itself has recently been renovated after years of decline and decay resulting in the partial collapse of the roof and the real risk of the walls falling in on each other and destroying something which records show had been in existence in one form or another for around 1000 years.
As you can hear in the short interview (in Italian) below with Pietro Lorenzini responsible for the renovations on the church, it was a complicated and time consuming exercise as over the years the traditional method of using flat stones as a roofing material was practically lost.
It was very difficult to find people who still knew how to layout the stones in the traditional distinctive fanlike pattern across the roof and also the local quarry had been shut for sometime making it almost impossible to find the source material itself.
To complete the work, Lorenzini and his men had to reopen the disused quarry and relearn the traditional method of splitting the stones by hand and then haul the finished stones up onto the roof of the church.
