Bop Decameron exhibition continues into September at the Palazzo Pretorio, Certaldo, Italy.

30 May 2013 - Marco Bazzini, curator of Bop Decameron announced the 10 winning works:

Mataro Da Vergato, Madonna Fiammetta as Flora , photography, 120x90 cm

Armida Gandini, STORIE dedicato a coloro che amano , photography, 250x90 cm

Hermes Lacatena, Caccia di Diana , photography, 50x35 cm

Giulia Laddago, Lisabetta da Messina , photography, 80x60 cm

Ambra Lorenzetti, Masetto da Lamporecchio , photography, 100x70 cm

Matlakas, The Inner Flesh , photography, 210x297 cm

Fernand Percival, Decamerone quarta giornata / novella quinta , photography, 150x110 cm

Isabel Pérez del Pulgar, Suite Boccaccio , video, 3.34 min

Karen Sztajnberg, The Narrative of Inadequacy , video, 35 min

Zé Armando, Two Hearts Pulsing in Space , video, 4 min


Special mention:

Cornero, Amor s’io posso uscir de’ tu artigli , photography, 80x80 cm

Eleonora Manca, Confondere la peste , photography, 100x185 cm

Pietro Vittorio Pisoni, 0013 , photography, 50x70 cm

Andrea Poggipollini, Decamerone , video 3.28 min

Patrizia Ricchiuti, Madonna Filippa , photography, 100x70 cm

Angelo Zani, The Observer , photography, 36x24 cm


The 10 selected works will be exhibited at Palazzo Pretorio, Certaldo, Florence, from 11 July to 1 September 2013. Opening 11 July, 6 pm.

Introduction

In the seventh centenary of the birth of Giovanni Boccaccio 1313 - 2013, the city of Certaldo, Italy, is promoting a third call for works, after those in 1966 and 1997, inviting contemporary artists to investigate in their artwork, writings by the most famous citizen of Certaldo. The state region of Tuscany has invited the Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci in its role as regional museum of Tuscany to direct the event, and Celeste Network to organise, host and promote the call for works. The initiative is made possible by the contribution of the Tuscany region within the regional project Toscanaincontemporanea 2012.

The city of Certaldo wants to continue to collect works by contemporary artists dedicated to Giovanni Boccaccio in order to develop and update its collection to reflect the use of photography and video as contemporary forms of expression. In this way, the city of Boccaccio intends to keep alive a rich tradition that has made, the poet’s ‘Decameron’, one of the most ‘illustrated’ books of all times.

An exhibition of 10 works selected by an international jury will be held between July and September in the prestigious and historic rooms of the Palazzo Pretorio in Certaldo Alto. The selected works will become part of the public art collection owned by the city of Certaldo, which already contains more than seven hundred works by international and Italian artists.

Celebrations began last year with the exhibition, ‘Hoho – a tribute by contemporary artists to Giovanni Boccaccio’, organised by the Centre for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci. For this exhibition works by Francesco De Grandi, Andrea Mastrovito and Andrea Salvino were exhibited alongside those already present in the art collection owned by the city of Certaldo. This year’s tribute and exhibition is inspired by the original title of a film by Woody Allen, later replaced with ‘To Rome with Love’. Bop Decameron is a title which highlights the relationship that the book has had with Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film in 1970, in so doing it goes beyond the common notion that few of us are aware or know of the work by Certaldo’s famous writer – apparently this was the reason why Woody Allen gave up the original idea of titling his film Bop Decameron.

Theme

Celebrate the seventh anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Boccaccio with a series of contemporary artworks which tribute the writer and poet, in particular, contemporary themes present in his work ‘Decameron’. The object is to take stock of how artists today interpret the relationship between text and figure, in full respect of their independence and capacity to make research. How can the themes present in the hundred novelle of the Decameron speak ‘to’ or ‘of’ our time? Artists are called to investigate the relationship between written text and images, new ways of telling stories in figuration, so as to once again make this book contemporary or illustrate a version of it which is more connected to our world today. Artists participating in the call should create works which update themes typical of Boccaccio’s world. The fame and good fortune of this book can be renewed through the creative use of the figure, but also through the many possible reductions or reinterpretations in film, just as the title of this call suggests.


Bop Decameron is a collaboration between Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci of Prato, Toscanaincontemporanea of the Tuscany Region, Comune of Certaldo and Celeste Network: