So Rovereto is home to what I hear is a world-famous modern art museum. Also, it was basically the hometown of what I assume is a famous futurist, Fortunato Depero (this is not a genre of art I'm particularly familiar with). We started with the MART. Things started out reasonably enough. The permanent exhibit basically starts with (Italian) impressionism and shows how it lead naturally to the modern art movement. This probably says more about me than about the art museum, but today I learned that modern art apparently refers to the fact that the artist attempted to depict the context of the current time seamlessly within the work. Anyway, the museum's collection related to the birth of modern art was really well done. All of the 4 foot and over crowd greatly appreciated it.
There was also a really nice special exhibition called "La Coscienza del Vero" or "The Awareness of the Real" that did a very good job of demonstrating how realism actually (more so than other temporally nearby movements) captures "the real." The exhibit would show a video vignette (sometimes a clip from a period movie, sometimes clips apparently made for the purpose of the exhibit) and then there would be paintings in the same room on the same theme that were easily relatable to the "real" thing the video had just shown. (This sounds complicated, but it was as simple as, for example, showing a dockside street scene in a video, then showing realist paintings that capture similar scenes.)
Then we went upstairs. Ahem. This was (I guess) the "contemporary" collection. We largely didn't "get it." (Feel free to question our taste, but...) The contemporary collection did have a couple of cool things. First, right in the middle of the gallery were a pair of rooms referred to as "Baby MART." One for 6-12 year olds, and one for 0-5 year olds. It was a great opportunity for our kiddos to take a load off and make some art of their own. Second, there was an exhibit called "Sinfonia di un'esecuzione" or "Symphony of an execution." It was an audio/visual experience. You put on headphones (they even let Cora use a pair of the expensive headphones) and walked through a black room with about eight high resolution projectors projecting videos. The videos basically relate the cutting down of pine trees to the beautiful musical instruments that come out of it. It was really interesting and very well done. And meaningful.
The museum was really great. It was almost exclusively the work of this artist Fortunato Depero, who I had never heard of. It was great. In fact, most of Tim's photos below are from this museum.
After this, we wandered back to the center for some sweets, then on to the train station to catch the train back to Trento.
"The death of the tree leads to the birth of marvellous instruments in which the wood comes back to life. The raw material – rough, irregular and powerful – becomes harmony, lightness, fragility. To arrive at the creation of the sublime, a destructive, heart-wrenching gesture is necessary: an execution. Playing on the linguistic ambivalence of the term, MASBEDO tells how a death sentence is transformed into music, how form is generated from destruction."After the MART, we had lunch at Osteria del Pettirosso, conveniently located about a block from the museum, but also delicious. From here, we walked through the medieval center of Rovereto (in stark contrast to Trento, completely deserted on a Sunday) and to the Casa d'Arte Futuristo Depero. When we had bought our tickets at the MART, the ticket seller had asked us if we wanted to add this to our ticket. I replied "Non so." Therein followed a lengthy pause where I, stressed, tried to remember how to say "Che cos'è?" (Literally, "What is it?"... something we say to Cora on a regular basis.) Instead, I just stared at the ticket lady. Then she said, in Italian "It's two euros extra... and a ten minute walk." So, to recover, I simply said "Sì, va bene." Turns out to have been the right choice.
The museum was really great. It was almost exclusively the work of this artist Fortunato Depero, who I had never heard of. It was great. In fact, most of Tim's photos below are from this museum.
After this, we wandered back to the center for some sweets, then on to the train station to catch the train back to Trento.
See... it starts with impressionism. It always does...
Cool right? I want one.
"Death of Othello" ... seems like death of other people, too...
"On the River Adige"
Soon, I will start to be concerned about Tim's attraction to statues of flayed humans...
Art!
Cora's on the top left... then two of Maya's. Tim's is the crumbled "abstract" on the bottom.
Cora's up close. It's a man. With eyes. A mouth (that's the line across the middle). A nose (that's the dot at the very top). Two arms. Two legs. And some textured cheeks.
There were lots of these (~12 feet tall) portraits of famous people. Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, a pope (I forget which one, I think John Paul), Picasso, the guy from the Sex Pistols, Uma Thurman, Kate Moss, Salvador Dali, Jesus, John Lennon, Chopin, etc.
Cool street signs in Rovereto.
These appear to have been signs indicating the way to Depero's studio and office in New York City (Yes, I'm a super sleuth)
More of Depero's house...
These were wooden puppets. The highlight of this museum for the girls was a computer generated animated movie featuring these puppets doing various dances (from a cat and mouse chase to three drunken men dancing).
Many of the Depero works were "Tarsie in Panno". This translates to "Marquetry in cloth" which basically, I guess, is a fancy way to say "fancy quilting". I've probably offended someone now.
More puppets
Depero did a lot of designing for various magazines (including Vogue) and etc.
Chocolate!
Hide and seek (waiting for the train).
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