Beauty Revealed, whispers of freedom
“Art is a knowledge that makes us change our minds, a knowledge that puts us in touch with human experiences and their taboos, and it is not afraid, art has never been afraid to speak about something profoundly disturbing” writes Anselm Kiefer in “Anselm Kiefer, Artist's Words”, published by Rosenberg & Sellier.
This sentence sums up the idea behind Sara Masoero's artistic installation, which combines macro photography of flowers with historical research conducted in the archives of the former psychiatric hospitals of Racconigi and Collegno, which brought to light fragments of lives only now revealed.
The installation, which can be visited at Palazzo Santa Croce in Cuneo on the weekends of April 11th to 27th, was conceived last year and exhibited in Racconigi, with the aim of restoring life and dignity to forgotten people and stories, drawn from the dusty shelves of archives.
It has now grown, evolved, and become a sensory journey across multiple spaces: viewers will be able to experience the reality of mental hospitals before the Basaglia Law. This reality, though exposed in all its harshness, is then transfigured by artistic creation, which, with its cathartic and transformative power, reveals hidden beauty and makes up for what was lost.
The inmates, too, likely sensed the profound healing power of art, which soothes suffering and wounds, and from their confinement they left behind works that, saved by nurses, testify to their sadness and their hope. A section of the installation is dedicated to them, telling us that, as devastating as our pain may be, art can help us unravel it, to imagine a way out, perhaps starting from the small, hidden things around us. The research in the archives, which the artist approached with respect and on tiptoe, took time, a slow pace necessary to enter a world so different from our reality and to deeply understand these lost stories, to bring them to light in their truth and beauty and to mend, through art, what has been torn away.
Taking time means caring, listening, seeing what at first glance escapes. The viewer is also invited to take this time for themselves and slowly savor the installation, to descend into the depths of these stories, which recount our pain, that of others, and the world, and then be lifted up by art, which sweeps away suffering and leaves only beauty.
The installation, which has the patronage of the Municipality of Cuneo, the Municipality of Racconigi and the Piedmont Region and in which the University of the Third Ages of Bagnolo Piemonte collaborated, will be inaugurated on Friday 11 April at 4pm and will be open to visitors every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 11 April to 27 April inclusive, from 10am to 12.30pm and from 4pm to 7pm.
During the week, the installation will be open by appointment. Please call 333.5293937. Admission is free.
