The Embassy of Italy in Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, has celebrated Italian Contemporary Art Day by organising a “diffused museum” in collaboration with the Turin Gallery of Modern Art. Four works by Luisa Valentini, depicting roses, were installed in four different institutions where they will remain on display until March.
“Rosa Charme” is in the foyer of the Astana Opera House, a building designed and decorated by the Italian architect Paolo Desideri that is today the most important musical institution in Kazakhstan. “Rosa Lunaire” is on display in the Kazakhstan Central Concert Hall, also designed by an Italian architect, Tancredi Nicoletti, which contains the most important concert hall in Central Asia and has a capacity of more than 3500 seats. “Rosa Caprice” is on exhibition in the splendid setting of the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a veritable temple of Kazakh culture. Finally two other works, called “soffioni”, will remain on display at the Italian Embassy throughout the winter.
As well as celebrating Italian Contemporary Art Day, this initiative is also intended as a tribute from Italy to Kazakhstan on the 30th anniversary of its independence, which falls on 16 December. Art and culture are identifiers of countries, and excellent channels for developing solid and lasting relations that are rooted in the present but, at the same time, are orientated towards the future.
“In the language of flowers” – underlined the Ambassador, Marco Alberti, presenting the initiative to the local media – “the rose not only indicates love, but also respect and admiration. A rose needs care and attention: the same elements that are needed for the relations between two countries to flourish. With this initiative, via the extraordinarily evocative channel of Italian contemporary art, we are paying tribute to Kazakhstan for its 30 years of independence.”
For Luisa Valentini “roses, which are compact yet versatile and open in their petals, are the result of twenty years of research into the beauty and fullness of community, whilst dandelions express a desired lightness in their task of carrying the seeds of life and culture far away”.
