www.musaba.org
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI SUOR ORSOLA BENINCASA
MUSABA HISTORY 1969-2015
“A me piacciono soltanto gli spiriti creativi Eretici quali Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Borromini, Wright, Le Corbusier, Scharoun ed ora, forse, Eisenman e Gehry. So che Lei e’ uno spirito creativo inquieto ed eretico. Sono a Sua disposizione con la rivista e la rubrica su l’Espresso. Non Le chiedo niente, perché non ho mai chiesto niente a nessuno. Le dico solo che Le sono solidale.” “E’ un museo-scuola-laboratorio unico nel suo genere in Italia: sormontato da un levitante involucro di vetro, legno e piastrelle colorate, assomiglia ad “una montagna che si muove, che vola come un uccello sugli strapiombi dell’acrocomala struttura poli-funzionale AMA- Ambiente Mediterraneo Arte. L’immagine, ispirata al linguaggio dei frammenti storici locali, gioca su combinazioni di triangoli, con esclusione asso“I only like heretic creative spirits such as Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Borromini, Wright, Le Corbusier, Scharoun and now, perhaps, Eisenman and Gehry. I know that you too are an unquiet and heretic spirit. I am at your disposal with the magazine and my column in Espresso. I ask you for nothing, because I have never asked anyone for anything. I merely tell you that I support you.” “This museum-school-laboratory is the only one of its kind in Italy: topped by a levitating shell of glass, wood and coloured tiles, it looks like a “mountain that moves, soaring like a bird over the plunging cliffs of the highlands and the River Torbido. A friend of Le te Mediterraneo Arte. The imagery, inspired by the fragments of history in this place, plays on combinations of triangles, with a total absence of squares,
Arch. Bruno Zevi
n on and beauty, Calabria and the universe, colours and nature. This is a story that began long, long ago - here stood ancient temples, Roman baths, medieval monasteries. Great artists have passed this way and here they have created their art - a story that looks into the future. It’s a laboratory that is endless, as light, imagination, wind and art are endless. , because it is they who invented, dreamed, planned and built . So close and so bara, a plain overlooking the Ionian Sea, in the ancient heart of the Locride area. It was buried in brambles and neglect, and they turned it into Musaba, Calabria’s only open-air museum, one of the few in Europe which is also a laboratory of artistic experimentation and landscape protection. He is a painter, sculptor and architect: a precocious and irresistible talent, a self-taught artist formed by frequenting and collaborating with the great names of the twentieth century, from Picasso to Le Corbusier, Jean Cocteau to Max Ernst; she is in charge of organisation and communication. She is also an artist by vocation and training. ewinding the tape of memory, Hiske revisits her existential adventure using a singular unit of measurement. “My personal history is linked to art. I was born in a wonderful 17th century farmhouse, and I distinctly remember that even as a small child I was contrary. I grew up in a sporty family (sailing and hockey); I was fairly free but soon realised I had to escape from the usual course of the daughter of a wealthy family - university then a good marriage. I had always drawn and painted, as well as reading a lot, and with the help it day after day, nourishing it with their dreams and their efforts.
came Paris and Lausanne. Then New York. Completely independent, working and studying art, I learned a lot about life. . circles in Europe and America, where I gained more awards and the attention of top critics, and above all became friends with the great names of the time, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, Sartre, Picasso and Le Corbusier.
1973
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NIK SPATARI E HISKE MAAS: LA FORZA DELLA COPPIA Questa è una storia di passione e di bellezza, di Calabria e di universo, di colori e di natura. Questa è una storia che nasce da un tempo remoto – qui sorgevano templi arcaici, terme romane, grange e monasteri medievali – una storia che vive di contemporaneità – da qui sono passati grandi artisti e hanno creato le loro opere – vento, l’arte. Nik:“Fu d’idea di produrre Le armonie universali, ove forme, colori, energia sono parti tridimensionali di cosmico-terrestri.” La storia di Musaba solo Nik Spatari e Hiske Maas possono raccontarla, perché sono loro che l’hanno inventata, sognata, progettata, costruita giorno dopo giorno, alimentata di sogni e di fatica. Nik e Hiske. Lui è calabrese, lei è olandese. Così vicini e così lontani. Così diversi e così simili. Sono una coppia da cinquant’anni, da quando, insieme hanno scelto di vivere qui, a Santa Barbara, un pianoro che guarda al mar Jopaesaggio. Pittore, scultore, architetto lui: un talento precoce e irresistibile, un autodidatta che si è nutrito della freRiavvolgendo il nastro della memoria nio bene.Da sempre disegnavo e dipingevo oltre a leggere molto cineasta potevo frequentare l’accademia di Belle Arti ad Amsterdam. Volendo di più mi trasferii prima al nord Inghilterra poi Londra presso famiglie alle pari frequentando accademie d’arte. Poi Parigi, Lausanne. New York. Totalmente indipendente, lavorando e studiando arte, imparai molto della vita. Nik: “i primi anni, Lausanne, venni a contatto con gli ambienti cosmopolitici d’Europa e del continente americano arricchito da altri premi e dall’atSartre, Picasso, Le Corbusier.”
INTRODUZIONE
FONDATORI del MUSABA-Fondazione SPATARI/MAAS
, and went to live in Milan, with a studio in Via Solferino and a gallery in Brera. Work, more work, exhiit’s a return, for her, a revelation, a new world, a challenge to leave everything behind. Nothing is easy, the place is beautiful but hostile, nature is violent but fascinating. Starting with the “change your life” moment in 1969, we took on the challenge. A corrupt and violent environment. An abandoned site, the work required for the innovative restoration of the ancient structure, how to preserve its history and testimony to the past, restoration and architectural work on the former Calabra-Lucana station, the building of the Guest House and the new Wind Rose annex to the museum. Hiske: “In spite of all the problems, all the injustice we’ve faced, here I feel at home. This feeling has grown over time. My story is here, the creation of MUSABA, so many friends”. We committed ourselves to building MUSABA, which today has gained recognition and offers an image of dynamism in artistic endeavour and culture that is not found anywhere else. Our efforts, our love of beauty and art, and our lack of prejudice in our pursuit of what we believe to be right, even though it may be against the prevailing current. We lead our lives in parallel, suspended between work and shared interests. Each of us has a role”. There are undoubtedly other priorities in life, but if we don’t pay attention to culture, we risk becoming increasingly impoverished.” Together, Nik and Kiske live in the absolute necessity for creative expression, which all too often clashes horns with ignorance, bureaucracy, politics and institutions. Nik and Hiske hear the same things, but Nik hears only with the heart and the imagination, which can hear much further. Nik has been deaf since he was a child, and it is well known that the deaf suffer terribly from their enforced isolation, especially those who lack inner spiritual or cultural resources. history.
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Niente è facile, l’ambiente è bellissimo, ma ostile, la natura è violenta, ma affascinante. Hi
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MUSABA in progress…l’equilibrio perfetto tra arte, architettura, paesaggio
Conduciamo le nostre vite in maniera parallela sospesi tra lavoro e interessi condivisi. Ognuno di noi ha il suo ruolo”. Nella vita indubbiamente ci sono altre priorità, ma se non pensiamo alla cultura rischiamo di impoverirci sempre di più.
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to di acuire la sua sensibilità e “sentire” la voce dei colori, della fantasia e della storia.
2015
INTRODUZIONE
Nik e Hiske s’incontrano a Parigi tissimo lavoro, mostre, riconoscimenti, viaggi per il mondo.
N and bathed in the solar spectrum; they collide and explore, from fundamental to complementary, creating a three-dimensional dimension; the essence, the abstraction of life, the unknown. Nik Spatari’s enormous creative talent and his ability to fuse different cultures, his love for Calabria. A lot of people have talent and enthusiasm, and many of them never get anywhere. Natural talent is like an athlete’s strength. You can be born with greater or lesser ability, but no-one can become an athlete because he is born fast or strong. What makes an artist is work, dedication and technique. The intelligence we are born with is just a gift...to make something of it we have to turn our minds into a precision instrument. Every work of art is aggressive. And the life of every artist is a small or large war, beginning with the war with himself and his own
, is inseparable from the recovery of the area’s historic monuments, among which it conpast, but which seeks to interpret its deep meaning, its yearning for life, as the optimum condition for the conservation of historic remnants. As a historian, an artist and an architectural inventor, Nik Spatari has reawakened the ancient stones within a museum complex destined to be one of the emerging facets of high culture linked to art, able to place a region like Calabria within an international vision, connecting and distinguishing the legacy of a thousand-year-old civilisation with the making of the new languages of technology and virtual reality.
Talento Il grande talento creativo di Nik Spatari e la sua capacità di riunire più culture, il suo amore per la Calabria. Ci sono tante persone che hanno talento ed entusiasmo, e molti di loro non arrivano mai a nulla. Il talento naturale per riuscire a farci qualcosa è necessario trasformare la tua mente in un’arma di precisione. Ogni opera d’arte è aggressiva. E ogni vita d’artista è una piccola o grande guerra, a cominciare da quella con se
Il progetto MUSABA redatto da Nik Spatari rappresenta un unicum inscindibile con il recupero dell’area monumentale storica, di cui esso costituisce un momento esemplare di inserimento all’interno del concetto culturale di Nik Spatari come storico, come artista e come inventore di architetture, ha ridestato le vecchie pietre all’interno di
INTRODUZIONE
Nik: che cosa è per me l’arte “Il parallelo vivere dell’interminabile universo, ove luce, forme, colori sono parte di un’architettura materiale e spirituale, motivati e bagnati dallo spettro solare; si urtano ed esplorano da fondamentali a complementari, creando una
. No other country in the world can boast the like. And Calabria is not distanced from the rest of Italy. Even the smallest villages conceal great artistic legacy. Calabria’s greatest wealth does not lie in the sea and the sunshine. There is a hinterland, both geographical and cultural, which is full of surprises, which unites local and global, contemporary and archaic, past and future.
e distinguendo i lasciti di una civiltà millenaria con il farsi dei nuovi linguaggi dell’era tecnologica e della virtualità. L’Italia, dicono Nik e Hiske, è uno straordinario giacimento di cultura, di capacità, di conoscenze. Nessun altro paese al d’Italia”. Anche nel paese più piccolo si nasconde un grande patripieno di sorprese, che unisce il locale e il globale, il contemporaneo e l’arcaico, il passato e il futuro.
INTRODUZIONE
Articolo pubblicato sulla rivista “L’Architettura” di Bruno Zevi: “Questo parco museo laboratorio, nel cuore della Calabria, è l’opera in progress di un uomo insieme alla sua compagna, di continuo ritoccata dalla mano e mai tradita dalla mente. E’ un exploit moderno anche nell’uso del rudere che gli fa da spalle. Si innesta nel paesaggio con antimimetico furore, il senso del futuro coincide con la coscienza ancestrale, quasi misterioso, sembra però noto all’anima, come ogni creatura organica. cui un outsider versa nella terra il sale dell’architettura.” Article by Bruno Zevi published in “L’Architettura” magazine: “This park-museum-laboratory in the heart of Calabria is the work in progress of a man and his companion, continually retouched by their hand and never abandoned by their mind. This is a modern exploit too in the use of the ruins that provide the backdrop. It nestles in the landscape with inimitable fury; the sense of the future coincides with ancestral, almost mysterious confreedom, but total structural control. This is one of those extremely rare cases where an outsider pours the salt of architecture onto the land.”
in the heart of Calabria, in Italy’s southernmost mainland province, Reggio Calabria. Sited in the Torbido River valley near the village of Mammola, MUSABA is ten kilometres uphill from the Ionian Sea and can be reached directly by the Ionio-Tirreno highway. A place of striking and unique character, MUSABA is situated in a vast open space in an ancient valley between the creeks and folds of the surrounding hills. interactive programme. art, architecture, environment, archaeology, history, botany and biological farming and research centre relevant to the Mediterranean artistic-cultural heritage. innovative programmes at MUSABA. In 1969 they decided to work on a global project involving the production of art in the direct context of its historical points of reference and its natural surroundings. All projects and works have been esecuted under the direction of Nik Spatari and Hiske Maas. Exponents of art-architecture-environment, the two artists gather their natural surroundings - the Torbido valley, the rivers Torbido and Neblà, the sheer drops of the highlands and the ancient monastery, and the new Wind Rose wing, the mediterranean gardens biente-Mediterraneo-Art (Mediterranean Environment-Art) project. A process of integration between past and present which is extremely interesting and relevant, creating a unique park-museum-school-laboratory with great visual impact. that involves large sections of the area and consists of multiple installations varying in time and space; it’s a constantly-evolving construction. What impresses in this place is the richness and originality of the architecture, the greenness of the trails, the functional layout of the overall design, even before the artistic content of the works. This work of environmental art’s relationship with history as an open and ongoing process, its continuity of reinterpretation, restoration and innovation and its rapport with the natural context, become the pretext and the determining “material” in the planning process. No committee, no consortium, no team would be capable of creating what a man and a woman - two artists, Nik Spatari and Hiske Maas - have created: a unique park-museum-laboratory, which makes their region, Calabria, unique too. MUSABA is distinctive for its extraordinary artistic and architectural rigour and formal severity: images of art and architecture as synthesis and expressive force. The landscape, the four horizons. These were the compass for MUSABA.
MUSABA Location
MUSABA – Fondazione Spatari/Maas
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Creata dagli ar
Il Parco Museo Scuola Laboratorio Santa Barbara Esponenti di arte-architettura-ambiente, i due artisti costringono gli elementi naturali – la vallata del Torbido, i torrenMUSABA è un’opera in progress, coinvolge parti estese del territorio, si articola in molteplici interventi diversi nel prima del contenuto artistico delle opere. Il rapporto con la storia, come processo aperto e continuo e la continuità tra ta pretesto e “materiale” determinante nel processo progettuale. Nessun comitato, nessun consorzio, nessun team ospita. .
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MUSABA HISTORY
MUSABA è un parco museo all’aperto, improntato da un principio di Presidio attivo un vero e proprio parco scienti-
NIK SPATARI SEMPRE IN CAMMINO… solo quando è disegnato a partire da forme semplici, ancestrali”. “Nel corso degli anni – dice Spatari – sono diventato un uomo. L’ARCHITETTURA Spatari manifesta un forte interesse per le forme
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raccolta di fonti e rapporto con la storia Le opere spatariane espressività scultorea che ricorre a forme e ad associapiù di carattere puramente ornamentale.
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capaci di osservare, di scoprire; da qui il fenomeno Sintesi, dunque, del costruito ma anche della processualità compositiva. La parte scultorea denota uno straordinario sentimento L’architettura plasmata come e vera e propria scultura. Ogni elemento architettonico, sebbene non perda mai secondo l’estetica che fu quella dell’arte arcaica delle grandi civiltà. La ricerca delle forme sotto la luce
di gestirlo, ciascuna con i metodi appropriati. personalità creatrice. L’artista è essenzialmente un plastico
C Spatari non concepisce una banale e semplicistica subordinazione della pittura all’architettura; non concepiO ponibile, profondamente coerente al suo interno. Le opere architettoniche e musive della maturità possono essere comprese appieno soltanto dopo averle inserite e la storia.
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L’opera dopo il
MUSABA HISTORY
Spatari always on the move A character who refuses to be pigeonholed, Spatari designs using archetypes, “because a space is perfect and communicates pleasure only when it is designed on the basis of simple ancestral forms”. imperative landscape”. The work of spatariane artistic synthesis highlights a relationship with history that strongly characterizes the approach of the master. are characterized by a strong sculptural expression that draws from ancient and primitive forms and associations. They present biblical, cosmic and mythological themes in a vocabulary that mixes symbolic abstraction with the outside world. reinterpreted in a modern key. This re-reading and revisitation of the past is a search for inspiration in new designs and colours where
Only in this moment can the intuitive phenomenon occur, can you invent and create! A synthesis, then of the built, but also of the compositional process. The sculptural element denotes an extraordinary feeling for space and a well-judged interpretation of immense spatial possibilities. Architecture is shaped, like veritable sculpture. Every architectural element, without ever losing its function, is a sculpture packed with expressiveness, following the aesthetic of the archaic art forms of the great civilisations. To dominate space and proportion in all things, this is the true intention of Spatari in his plastic research. Painting, mosaic, sculpture The key to aesthetic emotion is a spatial function. the plastic dimension is what rises into the space; in its moulding one can recognise the It is within this continuity with tradition and study of the past that MUSABA’s modern reinterpretation of function and meaning must be located, as a place characterised by a living, fertile aesthetic for the future of art. In the continuity of spatariane experience, within different art forms, his paintings, his sculptures and his architecture do not constitute distinct chronological developments but mark the stages of the formation of a single creative personality. The construction of spaces through pure volumes, and in particular coloured volumes, because colour has evidently taken on new Spatari does not conceive of a banal and simplistic subordination of painting and architecture, that is, he does not conceive of a canvas or a sculpture as a function of an architectural whole or as a perspective of a merely decorative role. returns and brings us closer to all Spatari’s other works, in a single entity that can be dismantled and rebuilt and which is profoundly coherent in itself. The architecture and mosaics of his later years can be fully understood only when considered in the light of this extensive research. A limpid emergence of symbols, a moving rapport with the natural surroundings and their history. Colour The architecture is conceived in an inner equilibrium which reveals the need for colour as the highest and most complete formulation. Each colour used for the roof of the Residence and the Wind Rose, according to a strict geometry that leads to dimensional compositions, is accompanied by a predetermined symbology. Complementary colours take on a primary function: colours, in other words, as the result of meditated visual communication and real perception, in opposition to the colours of the reality represented by the design. The image of space is perceived through strong colours, inspired by Spatari’s theory of complementary colours, used by the artist in his architecture, paintings, sculptures and mosaics. on the discovery of colours - now pale, now intense - and transparency, which vanish into splashes of colour and light. The colours, ordered and distinct within the free spaces, give the building its tonal vigour, essential in terms of space. Visitors can now discover the architect, the sculptor, the painter, the gardener, the defender of nature. The formidable structural con-
architecture.
dei Venti, all’interno di geometrie rigorose che conducono alle comri. I colori complementari svolgono cioè, quale risultato di comunicareale, contrapposto ai colori della realtà che il disegno rappresenta. L pita attraverso i colori forti, ispirato alla teoria spatariana dei colori che, pittoriche, scultoree e musive. Pitagorica controlla il movimento matico si nutre della scoperta dei colori, ora leggeri ora forti, e delliberi, danno alla struttura il vigore I visitatori ora possono scoprire, l’architetto, lo scultore, il pittore, il giardiniere, il difensore della natura. Il formidabile controllo strut-
di fusione tra uomo e natura, connubio tra storia e arte/architettura luppato enormemente in quest’ultimi decenni bandono, l’aspetto selvaggio e l’ambiente circondato da un terreno roccioso, irregolare e deserto
MUSABA HISTORY
Colore L’architettura è concepito in un equilibrio interno che rivela la necessità del colore come formula-
CENNI STORICI
Calabria Leggende fantastiche avvolgono la storia di questa remota Regione d’Italia, come i mostri omerici Scilla e Cariddi e il racconto Normanno della Fata Morgana. Una successione di genti e civilizzazioni (Villanoviani, Ausoni, Fenici, Greci, Romani, Svevi, Arabi e Aragonesi), fusi con gli originari abitanti italici, lasciò un’im-
Calabria Fantastic legends envelop the history of this remote region in Italy, from the Homeric monsters Scylla and Charybdis to the Norman tales of Fata Morgana. A succession of peoples and civilizations (Villanovans, Ausonians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Swabians, Arabs, and Aragonese) fused with the proto-Italic inhabitants and left their imprint upon local customs and traditions as well as upon architectural and artistic styles. The geographic isolation of this region, broken only with the development of modern transportation links in recent years, has preserved a rich cultural and archaeological patrimony from as far back as the Neolithic period.A place of striking and unique character, MUSABA is situated in a vast open space in an ancient valley between the creeks and folds of the surrounding hills. The promontory Santa Barbara holds the remains of the monastic complex whose origins date back as far as the fourth century. In 1193, the Carthusian monks were replaced by the Cistercians. When the Carthusians returned in 1300, they asked Emperor Charles V to reinstate the abbey’s feudal by archaeological excavations indicating that the Santa Barbara area contains not only necropolis of the XII-VIII century B.C. period but also a settlement that overlaid it in the VII-IV century B.C. period. Santa Barbara interpretato da Nik Spatari effetti un’isola lambita da questo lago detto “Sagros” che si estendeva dalla rupe di Santa Barbara a quella di Mammola, rupi ancora oggi parzialmente a noi e ai reperti emersi dall’interno del complesso e del resto dell’acrocoro. 1.The graphic panorama of 1300-600 B.C, shows the creeks and folds of the surrounding hills of the once great lake, which disappeared between the VI and VII centuries. The plateau was, in fact, an island surrounded by this lake, which was called “Sagros,” and it extended from the cliffs of Santa Barbara to those of Mammola, cliffs that are still partially visible today. We observe in the panoramic scenery a close view of the promontory where the ancient acropolis was situated and surrounded by a great wall and the underlying lake “Sagros” with its small jetty and the steps leading to it. In the graphic reconstruction of the acropolis
Tempietto pagano. Presentava tre nicchie a levante, i cui ruderi sono tuttora visibili, con un’entrata cui si accedeva dai pendii e dagli strapiombi ad ovest. Dalle macerie accumulatesi nei crolli secolari, rinvennero stupendi capitelli angolari paleocristiani, una colonna da parete e vari altri reperti scolpiti . Allora, fu possibile
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risultò molto vicino allo stile della tipologia cristiana di Cappadocia. I capitelli a forma semi-circolare, che ornavano i quattro angoli (in rosso nella piantina), scolpiti in maniera incerta e libera, tra l’ordine small pagan temple. It presented three Levantine niches, and the ruins are still visible. It was entered from the east from the slopes and precipices. A stupendous Paleo-Christian angular capital, a wall debris accumulated throughout the many secular falls. Therefore, it was possible for Nik to make an attentive graphic reconstruction of the building, and the whole image was very close to the style of Christian Cappadocia typology. The semicircular capitals that decorated the four corners (red on the map), sculptured in an uncertain and free way between the Roman-Anatolian and Comma3) Crollata in seguito a terremoto, fu ristrutturata tra il 1000 e il 1100 dai Certosini prima e dai Cistercensi grandi riformatori agricoli e proprietari di immensi territori circostanti, che vi aggiunsero un vasto fabbricato-grangia con un’architettura nuda, senza decoro e 3.Collapsed in consequence of an earthquake, the monastery was then by the Cistercians, who were great agricultural reformers and the owners of the vast surrounding areas. The Cistercians added a
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monastery underwent another architectonic reconstruction in conformity with the Renaissance humanism period. The new owners of the Serra San Bruno Abbey built a raised roof in an inverse position to the previous one. There were cross-vaulted arches inside decorated with plaster relief’s and decorative Baroque representations. 1969 all’arrivo di Nik e di Hiske. Dopo aver preso possesso del rudere dietro le concessione della Curia vescovile di Locri, ultima proprietaria dello stabile, hanno incominciato a ripulirlo dalla vasta vegetazione e dalle macerie che lo ricoprivano con l’aiuto di giovani volontari. 5.In the graphic design, we can observe the remains of the monastic complex in 1969 when Nik and Hiske arrived. After taking possession of the ruin by concession from the
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cleared away weeds, overgrown vegetation, and rubble with the help of volunteers. 6) Riproducono lo stato attuale del complesso dell’ex cap-
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e normanni e l’aggiunta di tre nicchie, con la collaborazione di studenti in architettura e delle accademie d’arte internazionali. Il lavoro si basò su richiami dei tre absidi delle prime chiese paleocristiane di Göreme, di Stilo e di quelli del santuario del Kellerano. Venne allungato di tre metri la topoil tetto costruito con le volte triangolari a vela o a campana. 6.This is the actual state of the ex-chapel complex restructustians, and on Normans, with the addition of three niches, realized with the collaboration of international students in architecture and art departments. The work was design to
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of Göreme, of Stilo, and of the sanctuary of Kellerano. Facing east the topography was lengthened three metres compared to the previous Carthusian structure, and the roof constructed with triangular or bell-shaped vaults 7) Il restauro e i nuovi interventi architettonici della chiesa vennero concepiti in funzione dell’opera d’arte monumentale “il sogno di Giacobbe” che copre interamente l’abside e 7.The reinterpretation-restoration of the church was conceived by Nik Spatari in functional relation to his three-di-
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CENNI STORICI
nuova ristrutturazione architettonica conforme al pieno periodo dell’umanesimo rinascimentale. Ristrutturata dai nuovi proprietari della badia di Serra San Bruno con il tetto rialzato in posizione inversa a quello antecedente.
Il MUSEO L’antico complesso in rovina (1500 mq) iniziato nel 1969 trasformato in un museo contemporaneo) dove gli storici resti accentuano i nuovi interventi in contrasto con i sorprendenti spazi interni. L’interno è una equilibrata varietà di colorati e monumentali ampi spazi. The ancient ruined complex (1500 sq. metres) has been transformed since 1969 into a museum, where traces of history emphasise the new additions and their contrast with the surprising interiors. Indoors is a harmonious variety of colourful and impressive spacious rooms.
VEDUTE 1969
Primi interventi di pulizie e sgombro detriti ruderi complesso monastico con volontari locali 1969-1970
Realizzazione primo spazio espositivo 1971-1973
L’ispettore Generale Tecnico Ministero per i Beni Culturali Dr. Arch. Giuliano Greci:
……”Nelle nuove strutture realizzate e da realizzare dalla Fondazione Santa Bar-
the ruins of ancient buildings, which one could not even dream of using directly - determines an assembly of contemporary presence and ancient testimony which could result in this complex becoming a multifunctional centre of great cultural and social value, past and present which is extremely interesting and useful.”
Chiesa esterno
REALIZZAZIONE PRIMO SPAZIO ESPOSITIVO 1971-1973
frammentarietà estrema dei resti delle antiche strutture, che non consentirebbero certo neanche di pensare ad una loro utilizzazione diretta, determinando un insieme di presenze contemporanee e di antiche testimonianze, che potrebbero portare il complesso a divenire un centro polifunzionale di valore culturale e sociale, di grande interesse ed utilità.” “La Fondazione Santa Barbara realizza un processo di integrazione tra passato e presente di grande interesse ed utilità”. General Technical Inspector for the Ministry of Cultural Heritage Architect Giuliano Greci:
REALIZZAZIONE PRIMO SPAZIO ESPOSITIVO 1971-1973
Prime edizioni Arti Visive Struttura Ambiente 1973-74
PRIME EDIZIONI ARTE VISIVE STRUTTURA AMBIENTE
Chiesa Restauro - Reinterpretazione 1985-1986
IL SOGNO DI GIACOBBE Nik su Giacobbe: “Giacobbe è l’uomo a me simile. Per sognare, vagare negli spazi dell’imprevedibile, alla ricerca del se e del mondo che ci circonda; l’amore, la lotta, il domani, Giacobbe è l’uomo ossessionato dal doppio. Il suo gemello, le due mogli, le due serve, le due patrie, le due terre. Giacobbe è Nik e Nik è Giacobbe. È dedicato a Campanella, Il Sogno di Giacobbe, a Campanella utopista della Città del Sole e a Michelangelo, “ Astronauta della Sistina”. pre la parete absidale della chiesa e, tutta intera, la volta. E una sensazione che ti richiama immediatamente quella che si prova entrando nella cappella Sistina. Certo, cambiano le tinte, le dimensioni. Qui, a MUSABA, non c’è la solennità vaticana, ma la sensazione è la stessa: un immediato ridimensionamento del tuo essere non più centro dell’universo, ma sua piccola, piccolissima parte. Cogli, ancora più piccolo di quanto già, per tuo conto, non ti senta. Nik Spatari ha impiegato non so, e forse non lo sa nemmeno egli stesso, quanti anni a pensare questo suo grandissimo, e non solo per dimensioni, lavoro. Le storie bibliche lo hanno da sempre affascinato, forse da quando, perse l’udito, aveva appena sei anni - ha cercato nel libro dei libri le ragioni dell’esistere e del vivere. ”Jacob is a man just like me. To dream, wander among the spaces of the unforeseen, in search of himself and the world surrounding us; love, struggle, tomorrow, the imaginary
”
Jacob’s dream, a 240 square meters tall dream. It stretches across the apse and the vault, along 16 sail vaults, in the Church of Saint Barbara. The technique Spatari uses is the result of his creativity: Jacob is the man obsessed by the double: his twin brother, his two wives, two servants, two native countries, two lands. Jacob is Nik and Nik is Jacob. Jacob’s dream is dedicated to Campanella, the a humanity which is extremely different from the one Michelangelo depicts – the artist says – the bodies are less swollen, more tense, more dynamic. They transmit energy, and perhaps even suffering, feelings that are unknown to the people of the Renaissance”. Jacob is depicted with the same features as Spatari, the same impressiveness, the same beard, the same melancholy and sweetness in his bending head. Once inside you feel enveloped, almost physically a part of the work that covers the apse area of the church and the entire ceiling. It’s a sensation which immediately reminds you of the feeling you get in the Sistine Chapel. With different dimensions and hues, naturally. Here, at MUSABA, there is none of the Vatican solemnity, but the feeling is the same: an instant re-sizing of your existence, crush you a little, making you feel even smaller that you already feel. I don’t know, and perhaps neither does anyone else, how many years Nik Spatari spent planning this, his greatest work in more than just size. He has always been fascinated by Bible stories, perhaps since he lost his hearing at the age of six, seeking in the Book of Books the reasons for existence and life.
1969
IL SOGNO DI GIACOBBE 1990-1994
IL SOGNO DI GIACOBBE 1990-1994
Nel 1988 iniziano gli scavi nel Chiostro: recupero Terme Romane
Interventi di risanamento conservativo, restauro e complesso 2005-2007
RIQUALIFICAZIONE SPAZI ESPOSITIVI 2005 - 2007
Restauro sala espositiva 2007
RESTAURO SALA ESPOSITIVA 2007