25 settembre – 8 novembre 2015
The fifth project promoted by the Ceretto family was once again the fruit of synergy with the organiser Bill Katz and involved Kiki Smith, an American painter and sculptress and one of the most acclaimed on the world contemporary scene.
For this occasion, the artist chose 3 large sculptures, which are representative of her artistic output. Mary Magdalene, in in honour of the very name of the place hosting the exhibition, is a work of 1994, made in bronze, silicone and steel, representing Mary Magdalene as a wild woman, as in the mediaeval and renaissance tradition. Annunciation, this is a sculpture created in 2008, in a fusion of aluminium, representing a sitting man, with a disproportionately large head, and one arm raised in a gesture of greeting, as often represented in Christian works. The artist defines the work as “an androgynous image of the virgin at the moment of annunciation”. She-Wolf, is a sculpture in bronze, from 2001, representing a she-wolf, which is a recurring figure in the art of Kiki Smith, a meeting of the mythological world, the unconscious and the realm of nature.
This personal exhibition of Kiki Smith is just the latest of the links between the Cerettos and the artist. In June 2014 a special, permanent work involved the façade of La Piola, the traditional restaurant owned by the family and situated in Piazza Duomo in Alba. Underneath the portico that frames the restaurant, there is the bright image of La Speranza, a poetic drawing made in gold leaf, that rounds off the installation of My happy dream, which was created two years ago for the interior of the dining room.
“I believe in art as one of our opportunities for self-representation, representation of our human experiences. Sometimes I create hard images, but for me they are all attempts to survive.”
Kiki Smith
