Luciano Caruso and his archive, comparing experiences and considerations

Curated by Sonia Puccetti Caruso

Tuesday, 20 October – h 5.00 pm / 7.00 pm

Fortezza da Basso, Spadolini Pavilion, Theatre Area

 

The biographical and artistic path of Luciano Caruso runs across two cities – Naples, where he grew up, and Florence, where he settled in 1976.

The cultural fervour of the Neapolitan society during the 1960s fostered Luciano’s literary and artistic experiences even before he graduated in Medieval Aesthetics. Also formative were his relationships with the painters adhering to the Gruppo 58, particularly Mario Colucci, who would put him in contact with Milanese artists such as Enrico Baj, Sergio Dangelo, and Piero Manzoni. Colucci would also introduce him to the Parisian “lettristes” and “situationistes”, as well as to François Dufrêne. This Parisian influences left deep marks on Luciano’s work: they lie behind his attempts of using an analogical process derived from Surrealism, and recovering the value of the “letter” once freed from the “word”.

Thanks to his encounters with other authors, particularly the poet Stelio Maria Martini (with whom he would found the Gruppo Continuum in 1967), Caruso further addressed his aesthetic research towards overcoming the insufficient expressive power of poetry (as mere verbal language) through its enrichment with the visual and material elements of writing.

Caruso’s first book artwork dates to 1965. Starting with il gesto poetico (published in Naples in 1968), Caruso intertwined his essays and writings with his production of artworks, which he exhibited internationally within the framework of events dedicated to the Nuova scrittura (New Writing), Poesia visiva, Poesia Visuale (Visual Poetry), and livre d’artiste (artist’s book).

In 1980 he initiated the International Festival of Sound Poetry named Il colpo di Glottide. Luciano Caruso’s late works, for instance La vita della seta, Atlante, and Periplo, uphold his way of seeing life and art as a journey with countless passages between the past and the future.

Speakers:

Rolando Bellini, direttore artistico della X Florence Biennale.

Giorgio Zanchetti, Università degli Studi di Milano

Stefania Stefanelli, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.

Diana Toccafondi, soprintendente archivistico della Toscana.

Sara Landini, archivista.

Sonia Puccetti, direttrice dell’Archivio Luciano Caruso.

With a performative reading by the actor Antonio Petrocelli

(photo Ana Mireles: Libro di Musica VIII, libro-opera, Napoli, inchiostro di china, sassi e scrittura su carta)