suoi quadri sul mercato, ma tutto ciò era già stato raccontato dai giornali e dai libri su di lui. Non riuscivo a trovare una quadra. Io volevo stanare il 'Burri pensiero'. e così mi è venuta in mente l'idea di leggergli pezzi di critica scritti su di lui per fargli avere una sorta di diritto di replica. Ormai era giunto all'apice della sua parabola artistica e aveva lasciato tutto il suo spazio alla critica affinchè potesse fare il suo corso senza interferenze o ulteriori spiegazioni. Questo finalmente lo rese molto più "animato" nelle risposte dove finalmente si incontra il pensiero dell'uomo e la forza della sua arte». Com'era Burri nel privato? «Carismatico, ma simpatico e alla mano al tempo stesso, la sua semplicità era il punto di arrivo di un percorso molto ampio... lo ricordo con la sua sahariana e un modo di ragionare che era sempre tagliente, aveva un grande senso della dignità, mal sopportava comportamenti poco dignitosi e poco rispettosi dei valori. Un senso etico fortissimo che non consentiva sconti e il suo senso dell'umorismo arrivava a volte a sfiorare il cinismo». Le celebrazioni per il Centenario della nascita del maestro Burri: cosa promuove e cosa boccia? «Non ne so molto. Non so darle un giudizio, ma non ho visto granchè in giro... sono molto felice per la ricostruzione del suo "teatro continuo" a parco Sempione a Milano, ma è stata un'iniziativa privata.. Bellissima anche la grande antologica di New York al Guggenheim, che però mi dicono ha lavorato in grande autonomia». Il ricordo più bello che ha di lui? «La sua risata... un vero epitaffio a tante supponenze».
Burri vuota
il sacco
(BURRI EMPTIES THE SACK) Notorious for avoiding talking to journalists to whom he would habitually say: «My works speak for me about», Alberto Burri there are few declarations left. In this emptiness the new re-printing of "Burri vuota il sacco" (edited by Silvana) takes on a particular importance as it is a series of interviews left to Stefano Zorzi in 1994. For Zorzi, a passionate collector and friend of the artist, the maestro broke the silence that had lasted 30 years, deciding finally to talk about his work and his world. The volume (already edited by Allemandi with the title "Parola di Burri" (Word of Burri) will be complete with images provided by the Fondazione Burri of Città di Castello. We spoke with the author Stefano Zorzi.
In your book you have gathered some very rare interviews left to you by Alberto Burri, who notoriously avoided talking to journalists and critics. Why then, one very long interview released to you? «I can only say Burri was a person that I knew since I was a child, with whom I used to spend time. In the book, among other photos, there is a picture of a small crack (cretto) that he had made on a piece of asphalt that he had given to me when I was only five years old. He wanted this interview as a trace of his thoughts just because he had never released other ones that weren’t completely occasional. He told me the journalists write what they want and from the critics you can’t understand much». On which occasion did you have the chance to interview him? «The long interview originated from a meeting in Beaulieu in France, during the winter the year before his departure. I was travelling by the French Riviera and I stopped to say hi to him. We started talking about this thing, then understanding how much this was on his heart, we can back to it and we started our long conversation which required several trips to Beaulieu and to Città di Castello. We progressed slowly in the course of time». In the volume you also speak about the life of Maestro Burri: what comes out of it? «Initially I let Burri talk about his life, his story and the story of a doctor who in a concentration camp began painting and became a great artist, with several relevant facts about Città di Castello in those years, his mother, his university studies, the concentration camp, the beginning of his visits to Rome, up to the affirmation of his paintings on the market, but all these things had already been told by the journalists and the books about him. I did not manage to find a general picture. I wanted to drive the Burri thought out of him and so the idea came to my mind to read pieces written by critics about him in order to let him to have the right to reply. By then he had reached the peak of his artistic apex and he had left space for the critics so that it could take its course without interference or ulterior explanations. This in the end made him much more animated in his answers where finally the thought of the man and the strength of his art meet». How was Burri in private? «He was charismatic, but pleasant and easy-going at the same time, his simplicity was the arrival point of a very vast path... I remember him with his bush jacket and a way of thinking which was always sharp, he had a great sense of dignity, he wouldn’t tolerate behavior that was not dignified or without respect for values. He had a strong sense of ethics that would not allow for anything less and his sense of humor would sometimes almost touch on cynicism». The celebration of the centennial of the birth of maestro Burri: what does it promote and what does it reject? «I don’t know much about it. I can’t judge, but I haven’t seen much around... I am really happy for the reconstruction of his “continuous theatre” at Sempione Park in Milan, but it was a private initiative. The great anthology at the Guggenheim in New York is also beautiful, but they tell me that they also worked autonomously». The nicest memory you have of him? «His laugh... a true epitaph with many conjectures».
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