One of the most symbolic interventions in Matteo Fato’s multi-site exhibition The Difficult Is to Forget What You’ve Seen at Home (Portrait of Pescara by Chance) revolves around a fishing boat—a paranza—which, at various points during the exhibition, traversed the stretch of the Pescara river in front of the La Rocca Foundation. The sail of this fishing vessel, typical of the Adriatic, is made from rags the artist used to clean his brushes—sewn together and preserved for about ten years. Among the most recurring elements in Fato’s material vocabulary, the rag represents “a sort of shroud of the painting” (Christian Caliandro). On the occasion of Giornata del Contemporaneo, the paranza will make its final journey, departing from the canal port and landing on the adjacent stretch of beach to the north. This other site within the exhibition features a sculpture created specifically for the project: an easel made of Maiella stone facing the sea. An emblematic object of painting practice and another recurring motif in Fato’s work, the easel represents, for the artist, “the architecture that supports the idea of painting.” Translated into sculptural form, it becomes “a possible window onto the world […]. It is a lens that helps bring into focus the responsibility of painting.” Following an act of vandalism that destroyed the sculpture, it was left in its damaged state at the artist’s request.
This final journey—or landing—also recalls the first painting Fato created for the project, based on a photograph by Francesco Paolo Michetti (Boats at the Mouth of the Pescara, ca. 1890). Exhibited in the first room of the Fondazione La Rocca, the artwork conveyed this envisioned scene.
Florilegio sul mare was made possible through collaboration with Mario Camplone and Lega Navale di Pescara and is part of the exhibition The Difficult Is to Forget What You’ve Seen at Home (Portrait of Pescara by Chance), a multi-venue exhibition by Matteo Fato curated by Simone Ciglia
MEETING POINT: Saturday, 4 October at 5:00 p.m. in front of the Lega Navale di Pescara (Naval League of Pescara) at Via R. Paolucci n. 1
