Exhibition of woodcuts and paintings by artist Tatiana Balchesini.
10 – 14 October 2022, RUFA Space – via degli Ausoni 7.
The exhibition was realised as part of RUFAlumni, a project that gives former students the opportunity to exhibit their work in the Academy’s spaces.
Text by the artist
This project was born from the experimentation of a new approach: elaborating from a personal story and a historical event, in this case 8 September 1943, a work of art.
There has been much talk of partisans, of the resistance of civilians, particularly women, but of those boys born in 1922, few remember.
Those young soldiers of 20 years of age, rich in ideals for their homeland, full of enthusiasm and courage, did not cowardly run away like King Victor Emmanuel III and his followers. Young men who did not back down at Porta San Paolo, even though they knew they risked death, but instead put up a strong resistance, thus liberating Rome, the Eternal City.
Among those young men was my great-uncle, Alfredo Solla, a handsome dark-haired boy who, although encouraged by everyone to flee and save himself, chose not to do so.
This is the story that emerges from my woodcuts.
These works communicate strong feelings and enormous youthful ferment. I perceived how much these young people loved their country as their homeland, to what extent they identified with it. Most of them came from the countryside and deeply loved its traditions, customs and food. They loved it so much that they could not bear that an invading foreign people could colonise it and deprive it of any freedom.
Unfortunately, even today, Putin’s war confirms how, despite past massacres all over the world, Power continues to want to subjugate peoples, depriving them of every fundamental freedom.
“Freedom”, many associate it with a specific ideology. For me, this is not the case. Freedom is not identified with someone in something, it is inner. It is that delicate balance that is established between emotion and reason, thus merging soul and mind.
It is from this that art springs.
A series of paintings by the artist belonging to a second project will also be exhibited in the room: “The Magic of the Universe”.
See photos of the opening
