Page 65 - 50.La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

Born in 1930, Pierre Restany spent his childhood in Maroco and continued his university
studies in France, Italy and Ireland. He has a “licence ès lettres” and diploma of superior
studies in Aesthetics and Art History. Since 1963, he has been contributing to Domus
architectural and art magazine, and lives and works between Paris and Milan. Since 1986,
he has been directing the quarterly magazine ARS.

Thirty five years of passionate and often controversial activities have made him an
outstanding personality in the artistic scene. He’s known all over the World for his various
contributions to the Press and to the audiovisual media, and for his numerous tours for
conferences in Universities and Museums, as well as for his participation as a jury member
in many international art events.
The last text by Restany to Gina Lollobrigida for OPEN2003
(Text and photo curtesy Paivi De Grandis (Arte Communications)

PIERRE RESTANY

A MOMENT OF TRUTH

She made us dream, especially us French when watching beyond the frenzy of staging. Beauty and truth get
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Fanfan the Tulipe. along well and the lesson of great performance leads
Gina represented the ideal of a Mediterranean beauty, to the achievement of the individual’s truth. In these
fiery and wild, an emotional temperament expressing sculptures reflecting her image, we see that Gina intends
the depth of her deep humanity. It was Vittorio de Sica to respect the premiss of her authenticity. These figures
who took her away from the Academy of Fine Arts in in her likeness are the evidence of her authenticity.
Rome, to immerse her in the universe of movies. And Movies made her a vedette of the star-system without
now, after a long and glorious career, Gina Lollobrigida depriving her of her being, and sculpture returns
returns to her youthfull vocation, sculpture, at the perfectly this sentimental and emotional proceeding.
end of a long, and rich experience, leading her own The different faces of this humanity become each time
identification in thridimensional bronze, in the same The Blue Fairy, Lola, Esmeralda, The Queen of Sheba,
characters Gina has embodied on the screen. or Paolina Borghese. There is no antinomy between
these extreme visions, and the common denominator
Sculpture so becomes the concluding evidence that her of character becomes incarnate in the reference to the
career has allowed her to develop the sharp profile of deep humanity of the woman with her child, Intimacy
a strong personality. Her works reveal a real vein of or First Emotions. It is here, in her sculpture, “la Lollo”
truth running through her different performances. The just as movies have made her, and here she has found
norms of beauty apply to staging fantasy as well as the truth of her being. And this truth is the one of her
interpreting the popular mood. From being a character world, of a world, The World for Children: a world of
in the hands of a movie director, she has made herself purity and youth, a world of love and generosity in life.
her own model as a sculptor reproducing her image It’s the great family of Esmeralda. Gina Lollobrigida’s
just as it was previously shaped by movies. Gina, as a beauty made us dream watching her movies, and her
sculptor, overcomes every temptation of narcissistic sculpture illustrates our dreams in a popular reality
nostalgia in order to reach a more serene vision of her filled with youth and love for life: the conclusion of an
work. Gina shows us the unalterable side of her truth artistic destiny in a moment of truth.(Pierre Restany)

WORLD of ART 65