Ghastly modern art in Basilica celebrated paedophile priest, who is still promoted today by a Foundation in his "honour"

From March 21, 2015 to May 3, 2015

Borgo San Lorenzo | Florence

Location: Villa Pecori

Promoters:

Municipalities of Borgo San Lorenzo and Vicchio

Don Lorenzo Milani Foundation (Cathcon: the foundation still exists with an active website!)

Borgo San Lorenzo and Vicchio, two municipalities united under the name of Don Lorenzo Milani. A series of initiatives dedicated to and inspired by the figure of Don Milani will begin next Saturday, jointly promoted by the two municipalities of Mugello and the Don Lorenzo Milani Foundation.

On Saturday, March 21st, Villa Pecori Giraldi, an increasingly important cultural center in Mugello, will be the privileged setting for the exhibition of three works by the Italian-Canadian artist Antonio Di Palma, inspired by Don Milani and his school. Considered one of the most promising young artists of the new Italian avant-garde in the 1980s, Di Palma chose to leave the galleries and Biennales to retreat to Barbiana, where he continued to work independently. The project, promoted and conceived by the Don Lorenzo Milani Foundation and the artist, is titled "The Universal Language of Silence" and was curated overall by Sandra Gesualdi.

The main work on display, previously displayed in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence a few months ago during the final event commemorating the 90th anniversary of Don Milani's birth, is a monumental triptych in expertly crafted wood, chromed in blue with gilded details and panels in yellow ochre and bright green. Original black-and-white photographic images from the Barbiana school, digitized and cataloged by the Don Lorenzo Milani Foundation, will be projected above the work, blending with it and absorbing its color. This work draws inspiration from the profound silence Don Milani encountered when he arrived in Barbiana, the same silence the artist has come to know and experience over the twenty-plus years he has lived on the slopes of Monti Giovi.

In addition to this work, two other works, both unpublished and created specifically by the artist, will complete the exhibition, which will remain open until May 3rd (only the two unpublished works, displayed in the Sala degli Stemmi in the Chini Museum, will remain open until May 10th). The two small new works, titled Lorenzo and San Lorenzo, are twin sculptures that hide, protect, and preserve two digital canvases—artist proofs—representing the triptych exhibited in Florence and a small bust of San Lorenzo colored by the sculptor.

Antonio Di Palma's entire work will be introduced by a short photographic exhibition featuring original images from the DLM Foundation archive, selected for the exhibition.

At the exhibition opening at 5:00 pm, speakers will be the Mayor Paolo Omoboni and the Councilor for Culture Cristina Becchi for the Municipality of Borgo San Lorenzo, and the Councilor for Culture Carlotta Tai for the Municipality of Vicchio, as well as Marco Bontempi, President of the Don Milani Institution, Sandra Gesualdi of the Don Lorenzo Milani Foundation, and Giovanni Pallanti, journalist for La Nazione.

"We are truly proud to host this prestigious project at Villa Pecori Giraldi," explains Cristina Becchi, Councilor for Culture for the Municipality of Borgo San Lorenzo. "Inspired by the figure of Don Milani, in the name of art, culture, and education, we have developed an important synergy with the Municipality of Vicchio, demonstrating once again that sharing ideas can lead to worthy and meaningful experiences for the entire region. The message we want to convey with these initiatives, reflecting precisely on the Milanese experience," concludes Councilor Becchi, "is to encourage educational programs that enhance the individuality and abilities of our children."

Carlotta Tai, Councilor for Culture for the Municipality of Vicchio, agrees: "This event demonstrates how much we, as an Administration, believe in shared purpose and planning in an area that already boasts great historical and artistic richness. In the Mugello of the Medici and Giotto, the Chini family, Beato Angelico, and Campana, and where the exceptional, unprecedented, and unprecedented experience of Lorenzo Milani was born, there are no suburbs. In this context," Councilor Tai concludes, "the figure of Don Milani remains relevant and an important reference point. I can therefore only thank the Don Lorenzo Milani Foundation and the Don Milani Institution for organizing the initiatives leading up to the Barbiana March, which this year more than ever will be a march of knowledge, with an inevitable focus on our girls and boys, whom we must teach to paint what isn't there, to dream what isn't there, and to fight intelligently and consciously to make it happen."

"As the DLM Foundation, we are delighted to bring such a unique project to the heart of Mugello, where we are based," adds Sandra Gesualdi of the Technical Scientific Committee. "From Barbiana, Don Milani's thoughts and work have spread far and wide, reaching many consciences. Today, that place is a symbol of a just school that should offer its students high goals but also a space where they continue to create, with commitment and dedication, doggedly pursuing ideas. Antonio Di Palma offers us a work that only in Barbiana and only the purity of silence could have inspired. A work conceived and constructed up there, by an artist from Barbiana, with wood from those forests; uncompromising, born of the ethics and consistency of the master and of those who believed in him when everyone had forgotten him."

The initiatives dedicated to Don Milani will continue in May, with a major conference scheduled for Saturday, May 16th, in Borgo San Lorenzo, at the "Pio La Torre" room. This conference will feature the presentation of the Irpet report on school dropout in Tuscany, with particular attention to the chapter on school dropout in Mugello high schools (which was developed by Professor Marco Bontempi and Professor Giovanna Del Gobbo, members of the Don Milani Institution Cathcon: ).

On Sunday, May 17th, the Barbiana March will conclude the series of initiatives with the traditional march to the places associated with Don Milani, joined by institutions, associations, teachers, and, above all, young people, to reaffirm the civic sense of study.

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