XXI Giornata del Contemporaneo

Presentation of the work CANTATA BLUIA – LIBRO DORE

by Pier Paolo Calzolari, Pierre Thoretton, Bruno Corà, Edizioni Essegi

Rome, Istituto Centrale per la Grafica – Palazzo Poli, Via Poli 54

Saturday, October 4, 2025, 4:00 – 7:30 p.m. (opening), 5:00 p.m. (presentation in Sala Dante)

On the occasion of the XXI Day of Contemporary Art promoted by AMACI, with the support of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, scheduled for Saturday, October 4, 2025, the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica presents the recent acquisition of the work CANTATA BLUIA – LIBRO DORE by Pier Paolo Calzolari, Pierre Thoretton, Bruno Corà, Edizioni Essegi.

This is a complex, multimedia, and installation artist’s book that has been assigned to the contemporary collections of our Institute following a mafia seizure, thanks to the close collaboration between the Ministry of Culture and the Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Unit.

Director Dr. Fabio De Chirico states:

*"I am pleased to inaugurate my directorship at the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in a meaningful way with the Day of Contemporary Art by exhibiting the work CANTATA BLUIA – LIBRO DORE, coming from a mafia seizure. The intense collaboration between local and central institutions has made the work, which until now had not been part of Italian public collections, available for public enjoyment, reinserting it into the sphere of legality.

This initiative, culminating in the day of presentation, highlights the virtuous relationship between culture and legality: the State responds to the mafias by seizing illicitly accumulated wealth and returning it to citizens, offering them democratic access to beauty and knowledge."*

CANTATA BLUIA – LIBRO DORE was completed in 1999 and consists of 60 loose sheets enclosed in two lead covers, with only two printed interventions (screen printing and lithography), which were further manually reworked by Calzolari and Thoretton. It also includes two lead sheets in a plexiglass case, a reading table, and three sheets extracted from the interior, which arrived at the Institute already musealized inside plexiglass cases, according to the choice of the previous owners.

Like ancient books of hours, this is a manuscript-like work in which the contributions of the two artists alternate, creating the complexity and chorality of the object. As the title suggests, the research focuses on shades of blue and the use of gold leaf.

Published in 1999 by Edizioni Essegi in 70 copies, the work also contains a text by Bruno Corà and one by Pier Paolo Calzolari.

The installation will be exhibited in the gallery on the first floor of Palazzo Poli and presented to the wider public in Sala Dante.

The book has always been one of the primary instruments of “education” that, since the invention of paper and later printing, has conveyed knowledge, allowing it to circulate among people. This work appears highly significant as it engages with different forms of knowledge and does not necessarily require literacy. Moreover, the absence of binding and the free arrangement of the pages allow each viewer to reconstruct the visual text in their own way—an approach that in 1999 may have appeared pioneering in relation to knowledge, but today aligns with the tradition of public history and, more specifically, with participatory research processes (citizen science) that place the public at the center of knowledge acquisition.

CANTATA BLUIA, presented in the exhibition SalvArti. From confiscations to public collections in Rome, Milan, and Reggio Calabria, is being exhibited for the first time at its destination institute. This occasion underscores the close relationship between art, culture, knowledge, and legality.

Venue and times

Rome, Istituto Centrale per la Grafica – Palazzo Poli, Via Poli, 54

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Opening: 4:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Presentation: 5:00 p.m. (Sala Dante)

Free admission

Contacts

Tel. +39 06 699801

ic-gr@cultura.gov.it

www.istitutocentraleperlagrafica.cultura.gov.it

Contemporary Art Department

Giulia Spoltore +39 0669980223

Ilaria Savino +39 0669980246