The Fondazione Mario & Maria Pia Serpone – Segni d’Arte (Artistic messages) was established in 2009. The search for the right conditions to appreciate and contemplate art motivated the owners to move outside of the cacophonous and crowded metropolis. This is how the idea of the sculpture park organized 45 km away from Rome, in close vicinity to the Tevere-Farfa Nature Reserve in a picturesque river valley came to life. What distinguishes it from other similar initiatives that can be found in Italy, such as the Giardino di Daniel Spoerri in Seggiano, La Scarzuola – la Città Ideale di Tomaso Buzzi in Montegabbione, or Giardino dei Tarocchi in Garavicchio with the works of Niki de Saint Phalle, to name but a few, is the active dialogue between the site-specific works conceived by international artists with the natural and historical identity of the place – a philosophy somewhat close to that of an eco-museum. I was guided along the visitor’s route indicated by the Taurus Constellation by Christin Pettibone – the Vice President and Director of Marketing and Development at the Mario & Maria Pia Serpone Foundation.
Marta Wróblewska: Let’s start from the very beginning – can you tell me more about the history of the Foundation as well as its present location?
Christin Pettibone: We’re a small family-run Foundation located just outside of Rome. It started back in 2009; however, Mario and Maria Pia Serpone had already begun collecting when they were teenagers. Now the Foundation is run by their son (and my husband) – Ottavio Serpone. Mario Serpone inherited his passion for music from his father Ruggero, and for art from his grandfather Vincenzo, who not only actively supported many artists, but also decided to donate part of his collection to the most prestigious Neapolitan institutions – Museo di Capodimonte and Certosa and the Museo Nazionale di San Martino. Having created this incredible collection consisting mostly of contemporary art, Mario and Maria Pia decided to create a special place to present it which would offer an unforgettable experience combining both a sense of aesthetics and the beauty of nature. They found an abandoned historic villa located away from the city, but within reach via private or public transport in less than one hour. The surrounding landscape offers a sense of peace and equilibrium.
MW: How big is the sculpture park? How many artworks does it feature? How do you organize a visit?
CP: The park expands over 4 hectares. There are 12 installations, many of monumental size, including the Hermann Nitsch art chapel, but each year we expand. For example, this year we added two new installations. In order to book a visit, all someone has to do is send an email or message through our socials.
MW: What can we expect from a visit? Can you give our readers a little insight into the park?
CP: We lead guided tours that last about an hour. That said, we do encourage people to observe and enjoy the visit freely, to contemplate the evocative surroundings on their own. We’re also developing an audio tour in many different languages to make the park even more accessible. We let Taurus lead the way – a conceptual work conceived for the park by Maurizio Elettrico in 2009. It constitutes a sort of stellar mapping of all the works which are aligned with the stars of the Taurus constellation. The zodiac sign constitutes a playful and intimate point of reference for the Foundation owners who are both Tauruses. It also pays homage to the historical owners of the villa whose surname – Del Bufalo – is represented in many visual motifs still visible around the property. Recently, we modified the walk to accommodate the newly installed sound walk by Robert Paci Dalò. Fabula is a 16-channel sound and sculptural installation which unfolds along a walkway shaded by centenary cypress trees and elaborates on the literary motif of being lost in the woods. Next, we arrive at the pond where you can find a site-specific bronze sculpture of a Dormiente (sleeping figure) by Mimmo Paladino. This sculpture aligns with the tip of the right horn of the bull if we follow the Taurus Constellation. We pass by one of Bruno Munari’s Traveling Machines, which toured Italy in the 1990s, executed in Corten steel. This work was also presented along the seafront in Naples before it found its home in our park. Behind it, there is a Mobile, a reference to the time Munari spent working with Alexander Calder. A few steps away we have Alice’s Bedroom (alternatively referred to as Impossible Monumental Beds) by Luca Maria Patella, which was actually based on a project conceived by Marcel Duchamp. These arrived here from the Fossato of Bari’s Castle and from Castel Sant’Elmo in Naples. Next, we see an iron piece by Jannis Kounellis, untitled like all his works are. It was produced in the period of work entitled Inferno and it recalls the idea of the violence of a railroad accident.
Another site-specific piece created especially for us is the one by Vettor Pisani. It includes some of his typical visual motifs, among which a column, the female form and two angels. The vicinity of cypress trees in the background brings up the reference to Arnold Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead, a recurrence in Pisani’s oeuvre. We pass on to an interactive sculpture by Eric Andersen entitled Headrest, made from Carrara marble. Visitors are encouraged to lie down with their heads resting inside of the work for an energetic reset. The next piece was made by Nino Longobardi, an artist that was part of the Terrea Motus movement created by the famous gallerist Lucio Amelio as a response to the tragic Irpinia earthquake in 1980. The ironic sculpture is composed of three bronze skulls that seem to be singing and constitutes a reference to the theme of life and death. Next, we proceed to the work by Gian Maria Tosatti entitled Spazio 8 which is the last piece in his series of ‘portals’. It shows a simple bronze chair facing an almost romantic landscape, which encourages contemplation and reflection. The pavement on which the chair stands is made of wax, which melts under the visitors’ feet or the sun’s heat, integrating the sculpture into the landscape. The next work is from the same Traveling Machines series by Bruno Munari and represents a bird in flight rising from among the centenary pine trees growing in the park. A few steps away, Monument to Happiness by Shōzō Shimamoto catches our attention. One of the co-founders of the Japanese avant-garde group Gutai, he worked at the crossroads of happening, performance and conceptual art. The artist aimed at freeing the color from the brush and I think this particular work, a ‘bottle crash’ renders that idea very well. It is one of only two existing works in progress made by Shimamoto. The artist’s indications were: gather all the glass bottles used throughout a year at the villa, fill them with colorful paint and smash them onto the base of the work during an event organized annually to celebrate the joy of life. It should be repeated each year for 100 years or until the work reaches a height of three meters. One of the recently inaugurated works is made by the Neapolitan street artist Trallallà, called Colpo di coda. A Corten steel sculpture that looks like a giant tail of a mermaid or a whale, adding a touch of playfulness to the breathtaking view of the Tiber River Valley in the background.
MW: And finally, we arrive at the Chapel…
CP: Which was specially built in 2012 for Hermann Nitsch. Hermann, who doesn’t need an introduction, spent two weeks creating his chapel, filled with red-painted canvases, stained-glass windows and various objects, among which religious garments and medical instruments, characteristic of his artistic language. The latter elements refer to the idea of sacrifice and rebirth based on the artist’s famous actions.
MW: Having described the art collection, can you say a bit more about how you achieve harmony with nature here?
CP: Ottavio completed a second degree in agriculture in order to approach the regeneration of the greenery around the villa with the necessary know-how and a deeper awareness of the local species. He has dedicated special attention to nurturing biodiversity over the years. Among everything else, he also produces olive oil here, while working to save some rare species of olives and other trees which are native to the region, but for various reasons are often removed in favor of species with higher production rates. We have our own vegetable garden and fruit trees, some ducks, hens and even turkeys. We produce our own electricity with solar panels. The philosophy of being harmonious with nature means that we can live off the land all year long.
MW: What maintenance issues does the Foundation face as an open-air sculpture park?
CP: We stay open to the public from April/May (the beginning of the Taurus season) until late September. We have to take down many of the artworks during winter and put them away in storage.
MW: How does the location of the Foundation inform its activities?
CP: We’ve engaged in different initiatives with the ancient town of Torrita Tiberina as well as other neighboring towns, as we want to contribute to enhancing the infrastructure, promoting eco-friendly tourism and preserving the local identity. The latter has included disseminating information related to the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro who resided in the town up until his assassination. My goal is to create a consortium uniting cultural operators in rural areas in order to make our efforts more visible and efficient. It would involve the promotion and formation of local artists, but most of all the creation of a network for diverse culture operators, as is the case with the Artevere project we’re currently developing. It’s also important to work with schools (for example, we do art therapy classes and engage numerous local schools in guided tours and school programming) as well as universities (for example, we’ve involved the students of Rome NABA in our activities with ad hoc programming).
MW: What are the artistic messages that resound in the Foundation’s name?
CP: The predominant idea was to conceive a place understood as a sanctuary of art and nature, where human-made works representing diverse modes of expression are directly inspired by the natural beauty of the surroundings.
MW: And what are the Foundation’s goals for the following years?
CP: Expanding the collection and developing a residency program to be able to host more artists in a home-like environment and extend our efforts in formation and career development, and in this way also enable this creative spirit to permeate the place at its maximum potential.
MW: Thank you very much and good luck with all your projects and plans.
CP: Thank you kindly for your time.
The article was first published in the printed issue of Contemporary Lynx magazine (20) 2023.
