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Laura
Tansini: How
did it happen that the City of Rome commissioned Novecento?
LT: Novecento is not the only public work you have installed recently. You have also completed Sfera di San Leo at Santa Giulia and a new project in the restored industrial district near Milan. AP:
That’s right. The work at Santa Giulia is an important project to
upgrade a very large, almost abandoned ex-industrial area. Architect Sir
Norman Foster is in charge, together with an Italian urbanist. This is
the area where Montedison built its factories and offices, where Redaelli
built its steel mills. Parts of the old office-buildings will be restored
and kept as a memory of Milan’s development; they stand in what will
be the main square of Santa Giulia. I was asked by the owner and the developers
(Risanamento S.p.A.) to erect a monumental sculpture in the square. I
suggested my Sfera di San Leo. Foster approved it, and we—Foster
and I—planned to install it in a sheet of water in the middle of
the square. AP: Foster and I checked everything virtually. We enlarged the image of Sfera di San Leo to the right proportion with the square and the existing buildings, and only when we were convinced that it was the right form and the right size for the site did we continue with the project. We created a sheet of water that slightly overflows the edge of the interior basin, which gives the perception that Sfera di San Leo is overflowing. Reflections from the water glint against the dark patina, making it more alive. I usually polish the smooth outside parts of my Sfere with a gold patina, but I did not do this for Sfera di San Leo because it pays homage to the Duke of Montefeltro and the Rocca di San Leo and has to look as if it will last through centuries. I dedicated
the sculpture to the city of San Leo, a medieval citadel close to the
town of Urbino in the region of Montefeltro, where I was born. It was
built by Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena (1430–1502) with minor
contributions by Bramante. Later Giuseppe Valadier (1762–1839) pulled
down the drawbridge and connected the citadel to the village of San Leo.
The sculpture is my homage to the capability of the brilliant builders
and architects of the past and a sign for the future. It is strong, dynamic,
full of signs, and its interior hides another sphere—an intact perfect
sphere, a promise for the future. AP: In both Sfera di San Leo and Novecento, you will find destruction and erosion. Together, they form a summa of my sculptural signs and marks through 50 years of work. Sfera di San Leo is full of arrows, rising elements, tie beams—it may look aggressive. It is as complex and contradictory as daily life. We are living in a very difficult time, but still it is our time, and we have to learn to live with contradictions. In Sfera di San Leo some parts are about to blow up, but it contains a perfect sphere. People think I am always tense. But how could I be relaxed? Artists represent and anticipate the world around them—that is our job. Sculptors are asked to celebrate the spirit of a site, of an event, of their time; we create testimonials of our time. My nature is optimistic and positive, I stick to myself and my work, and I always try to avoid compromise.
LT: What does it mean for you to compromise? AP:
For me, to compromise would be to accept a commission for a work I do
not feel. Some years ago, through Marlborough Gallery in New York, I was
asked by the Archbishop of Milwaukee to make a work for the Milwaukee
Cathedral, a radiant crown of thorns with a crucifixion inside. Now, to
create a six-meter-diameter crown of thorns was something I was prepared
to do—there is nothing more abstract than a crown of thorns—but
I was not prepared to do the crucified Christ inside. But I had an idea:
I asked a sculptor-friend, Giuseppe Maraniello, to work with me. I did
the crown of thorns, and he did the figure of Christ. We prepared a model
that I submitted, and we realized the commission. Inside my abstract crown
of thorns, Maraniello did his Christ, whose open arms make the cross. LT:
I would like to understand better your relationship with architects. You
never complain, but I remember that you once said: “Contemporary
architects do not need sculptors because their architecture is sculptural.
The maximum I could obtain is to have the opportunity to locate one of
my sculptures in a site which the architect planned without involving
me in the project.” Architects are going more and more in that direction;
still, I know that you have always been willing to collaborate.
AP: I was commissioned by the Lunelli family (owner of Spumante Ferrari, the classic Italian sparkling wine) to create a sculpture celebrating the company’s centenary. It is installed at the front of their property in Trento. Centenarium Ferrari is an “open spiral” bronze sculpture that takes the form of a fountain in recognition of Spumante Ferrari. LT: I heard that the Lunelli family asked you to become their architect. AP:
Yes, they asked me to build the cellar at their new wine-making facility
in Bevagna (in Umbria). I am planning to build it in the form of a monumental
tortoise, with a metal roof, in copper if possible. Of course, I do not
dream of doing everything by myself, I will share my project with engineers
and technicians; each of us will do his part. When
I was asked to design a memorial for Giovanni Falcone (the magistrate
killed by the Mafia in Sicily, his car and those of his escorts blown
up by a bomb attack in 1992), I did a model of an arrow entering the road
at the point of the bomb attack. The part of the arrow under the road
would have been the memorial to preserve the memory of Falcone and his
anti-Mafia colleagues. I asked the architect Vittorio Gregotti to share
my project and to solve the structural problems.
AP:
At that time in Italy many key people in the administration were replaced,
and the project was abandoned, as were many others during my long career.
I call them utopian projects. One day, I will maybe publish all of them
in a book. AP: I never abandoned Europe and Italy, even when I spent most of my time in the U.S. In 1984, I was offered a permanent chair at Mills College, but I declined the offer. I like teaching, but I felt that I wanted to spend more time in Italy. LT: When you went to the U.S., did you simply feel the need for new experiences?
AP:
At that time it was very important for any young artist. Then came the
teaching experience, which I greatly enjoyed. When I was at Stanford and
Berkeley, my real problem was the lack of a foundry where I could cast
my sculptures with the lost-wax process. There was only one foundry in
Berkeley, and they were so busy I had to wait six or seven months to cast
a small sculpture. In Italy, it would have been done in one or two months.
Besides, to cast sculptures it is necessary to have very good and experienced
craftsmen: in the U.S. they are few, and their work is much more costly
than in Italy—the casting problem was another good reason to come
back to Italy. AP: Not really, I give lectures from time to time. LT:
Do you miss teaching?
LT: Since students do not have to pay for the course or for their living, it is a kind of a grant. How do students have access to it? AP: We send notices to art schools. To be admitted, students are required to have a degree and to be interested in the artistic treatment of metals. The problem is not how to find students but how to select them. We receive requests from 50 or 60 students each year, and we cannot accept more than 22. LT:
Do you teach yourself? LT: In this way you continue teaching and sharing your experience with students. I know that you will also do this for your foundation once the new space in Milan is ready. AP:
Yes. The Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation is moving from Rozzano to Milan,
on via Solari. It is a very large space (about 3,500 square meters). Part
of it will host my sculptures and my private collection, part will host
temporary exhibitions, mostly of young sculptors. We will also have a
library, a coffee shop, and a conference hall. It is a space for young
artists and students, giving them a chance to meet, to exhibit their works,
and to have the opportunity to learn from visiting guests. The new space
will be unveiled at the end of September 2005, with an exhibition dedicated
to 20th-century Italian sculpture. <Back to Contents page> Sculpture Magazine Archives
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