Premio Pieve Saverio Tutino 2023, exhibitions

Exhibitions connected to the event “Premio Pieve Saverio Tutino 2023”, promoted by the National Diary Archive in the village of Pieve Santo Stefano

Palazzo Pretorio
THE TREASURES OF THE ARCHIVE
Exhibition of manuscripts received for the Premio Pieve Saverio Tutino
Curated by Cristina Cangi

I used to go to people’s houses and immediately ask if they had a diary or some notes about their lived life, written and then hidden in a drawer. If they had one, I would ask to see it and after seeing it, to be able to read it. I realized that in the same way, a need of the whole society could be expressed: the need to access the autobiographical texts of others, their memories of the past.
That’s how Saverio Tutino wrote in 1991, talking about his “thirst” for diaries in one of the many interventions explaining why the Pieve Archive was created. For those who have come here with the same “thirst,” the same curiosity, and the same desire to encounter personal writings, ink-soaked paper, the Archive offers its “treasure” on display in an exhibition that showcases some of the most beautiful testimonies received in Pieve Santo Stefano over the past year.

Logge del Grano
DISEGNAMI
Curated by Giovanni Cocco, Lorenzo Marcolin, Maria Virginia Moratti, Mihaela Suman, Fausto Tormen

The “disegnami” project, which for five years has accompanied the collection of DiMMi migrant diaries with drawings that transform the narratives into images, enriches itself this year with a significant presence. The promoters of the project present it themselves: This year, 2023, we, Maria Virginia Moratti, Giovanni Cocco, Lorenzo Marcolin, Fausto Tormen, and, as a novelty, Mihaela Suman, one of the authors of the “DiMMi” diaries, are doing the illustrations for the “draw me” notebook. In the “draw me2023” notebook, there will be four pages of her drawings related to her own diary present in “DiMMi.” It is a beautiful novelty that we are gladly hosting in “draw me.” A very important step forward that we hope will be repeated. “draw me” is a notebook of encounter between written words and drawings.

Asilo infantile Umberto I
THE MEMORY GARDEN IN OUR FUTURE COMMON HOME

A symbolic place for the citizens of Pieve Santo Stefano, rich in memories for those who have experienced the Premio Pieve for many years. Asilo Umberto I will host the future headquarters of the Foundation and the Small Diary Museum, and starting from the 2022 edition, it has returned to being one of the central locations of the Award. The photographic exhibition “Dear Saverio” and the contemporary art exhibition “The Custodians of Memory” will guide visitors to discover – or rediscover – rooms and spaces, starting from the “Memory Garden,” a green space along the Tiber River dedicated to Saverio Tutino on July 7, 2023, on the occasion of the founder of the Archive’s 100th anniversary. Rooms and spaces that will be animated by the voices of some of the testimonies housed in the Diary Archive. Testimonies told by “book-women” who participated in their digital transcription. Testimonies that have become podcasts. Testimonies made accessible through the Archive’s new “Digital Storytelling Platform.”

Asilo infantile Umberto I
DEAR SAVERIO
Photographic Exhibition
Curated by Luigi Burroni and Loretta Veri

Anyone who has known or even just met Saverio Tutino cannot help but recognize him in certain hand gestures, facial expressions, and the pointed gaze that certain photographic shots have captured. The exhibition dedicated to Saverio Tutino starts from the 2023 Premio Pieve, the centenary year of his birth, and will be enriched over the coming years with new images and contributions. It is located in an unpublished space of Asilo Umberto I, the one that runs along the “Memory Garden” inaugurated on July 7th last year, Saverio’s birthday, and dedicated to him.
A series of images through the many lives of Saverio, also considering the family environment that nurtured them, making Tutino become a partisan, a journalist, and finally the founder of the Diary Archive. A journey that aims to be nothing but an affectionate tribute, realized with the help of friends, photographers, archives, editorial offices, agencies, and Tutino’s family who contributed to highlighting his restless figure, in search of a center of gravity that perhaps he found right here, in the Valley of Memory.

Asilo infantile Umberto I
THE CUSTODIANS OF MEMORY
Works by Elena Merendelli

Displayed outdoors, created exclusively for a specific natural context, objects that become landscapes and shape memory – this is what some sculptures inside a convent turned nursery in every sense can become. Elena Merendelli integrated her artistic method with this place, no longer seen as an aesthetic, decorative, or functional container, but as a deep integration between space and an individual recognizing and finding themselves here. Art that aims to reclaim memory, repossessing that identity that forgetfulness has denied up until now. What can be deduced while wandering through these courtyards and internal rooms is that the three installations by the artist are stories that intertwine, fragments of existences, stratifications, memories, and narratives that go beyond forms and history. They are living beings (mostly women and a small fauna of birds, inhabitants of the air) containers of events. The three installations represent her source of inspiration, namely the female figure carrying memory, shrouded in secret thoughts and mystery, but looking at them here will be like digging into time. We will find women who know how to communicate through gesture before using words. Women who open diaries, protect, wrap, and listen with closed eyes to concentrate better and initiate that emotional language capable of reconstructing the alphabet of memory. The balance of forms and the intensity of those faces will evoke painful historical events and outstanding personalities. In short, they will represent humanity. (Matilde Puleo)

Palazzo Pretorio
PICCOLO MUSEO DEL DIARIO
During the days of the Premio, the Piccolo museo del diario (Small Diary Museum) is open for free visits.
Reservation is required

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