Praga 2010 – San Gimignano
GRUPPO DI FIGURE IN CAMMINO – Voci dal mondo
Marco Di Piazza linked to his work Gruppo di Figure in Cammino – Voci dal Mondo [Group of Figures Walking - Voices from the World] the mantra No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive, taken from a famous quotation by Mahatma Gandhi. This sentence is an integral part of his sculpture and a very clear key to interpret it. The inextricable link of the subject which envelops the work as though dancing, made explicit by the obsessive repetition of words in the widest possible variety of languages, is like an appeal to our civilisation.
In 2010, proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures, it is a warning we need to take heed of. UNESCO, in the person of its Director-General Irina Bokova, talks of a response to the crisis and the challenge of globalisation, by means of a “new humanism.”
It is in his Tuscan roots – which are steeped in this value – that a gesture like that of Marco Di Piazza crosses the boundaries to take hold in two mainstays of the cultural world heritage: Prague and San Gimignano, both of which are UNESCO sites. Being recognised as a World Heritage location creates an awareness of not being “exclusive.” This is part of its very nature: it no longer belongs to a country but to the whole of humanity.
The bridge that now connects Prague to San Gimignano is an answer to the concept of new humanity invoked by UNESCO. It is embodied in the indissoluble, tenacious and spiritual embrace that the sculptureFigure in Cammino – Voci dal Mondo offers us.
Carlo Francini
Technical Director of the Italian Association of UNESCO Heritage Sites and Cities