The Contemporary Art Gallery of Palazzo Pianetti houses the ‘Annunciazione’ (The Annunciation) by Michelangelo Pistoletto, a homage to Lorenzo Lotto which became part of the collection after a major exhibition in 1981 dedicated to the Venetian painter.
Thanks to a collaboration with IRM - Marche Restoration Institute of the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata, a conservative restoration of the work was carried out by Lucrezia Nuzzi under the supervision of Professor Grazia De Cesare. The work consists of two separate figures joined by a precise joint. The base consists in a statue of Venus made in reinforced cement concrete, painted with vinyl dye. The overlying figure represents the archangel Gabriel and is made of different materials which cover a structure in polyurethane. Polyurethane, which belongs to the family of polymers, is one of the materials used in contemporary art which have renewed the production of works by introducing new forms and solutions. The presentation of the restoration of Pistoletto's Annunciation dovetails with the exhibition ‘Archeoplastica. Stories of waste and reuse of civilisations’, hosted at the Civic Museums of Palazzo Pianetti in Jesi (AN) until 27th October 2024, which combines heritage education and environmental protection awareness. The exhibition starts from Archeoplastica, a project born in 2008 that led to the cataloguing of plastic waste released by the sea dating back to the period between the 1960s and the 1980s, which are read as relics of contemporary society. The exhibition suggests, therefore, a parallelism with the more classic relics exhibited at the archaeological museum, juxtaposed with the plastic finds according to aesthetic criteria or taking into account the original function of the objects. The exhibition also proposes a reflection on a conscious use of plastic. Through juxtapositions with works of art and design objects made of plastic, attention will be drawn to the aesthetic and functional properties of this material, which, however, also poses a major problem from an environmental point of view in relation to its disposal.