Franca Ghitti Biography
Franca Ghitti (Erbanno 1932 – Brescia 2012) was born in Val Camonica. He studied at the Brera Academy in Milan, attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and the engraving course directed by Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg. He began painting in adolescence. Starting from the early 1950s he began a series of paintings and pictorial cycles where a sense of tradition and invention combine to produce original and highly fascinating works, among these the first: Racconti della Valle. In 1963 he collaborated with Manuel Anati on the foundation of the Camuno Center for Prehistoric Studies and began studying the engraved maps of Val Camonica. He reinvents his first maps on wooden tablets, with metal nets and nails. In the 1960s he created his first wooden sculptures (Vicinie, Rogazioni, Litanie), aiming to define an image of space that also had a dimension of time and history. He recovers worn wood, sawmill scraps, nails, to evoke the presence of a culture woven from constant and repeated elements. In 1966-1967 he created the Tales of the Valley, a series of frescoes for the Palazzo del Comune of Breno. From 1969 to 1971 he lived and worked in Kenya, where he created, on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Cultural, Scientific and Technical Cooperation), the large cement-bound windows of the Italian Church in Nairobi. Travels and contacts with many tribal cultures clarified the value of formal codes as sediments, "other alphabets" left by communities and social structures. Hence also the experiment of topology-based cartographies with the organized presence of local materials (stay in Wamba and Loiengalani, on Lake Turkana in 1969). Having returned to Italy, she works with wood and iron, revisiting now marginalized languages, linked to the old traditions of working in the woods and in the forges. Between 1972 and 1976 he created The Creation and the Apocalypse, two cycles of stained glass for the Church of the People of Costa Volpino (Bergamo). In 1977, on behalf of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, he carried out research activities in collaboration with the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions of Rome. In this area of historical-anthropological investigation, in 1978 he launched and directed the Camune Popular Arts and Traditions series (publishes: La Valle dei Magli, 1978 La farina ei giorni, 1979) for Edizioni Scheiwiller of Milan. In 1979 he created Ghitti-Gate, a sculpture-gate for the Agricultural Museum of Brunnenburg Castle (Merano). Her exhibitions are presented in important venues in Mantua, Turin, Milan, Heidelberg, up to the great anthology At the Museum of Palazzo Braschi in Rome in 1988. Already since the 1970s Franca Ghitti's sculpture, which took its inspiration from the structures founding the architecture rustic (knotted ropes, notches on bark, alignments and joints of wood and stone), dialogues directly, in large installations, with modular techniques and contemporary architecture. It can be seen in relation to multiple cultures, from the installation with the wooden tiles of Pipmuacan in Labrador in 1980, to the “irretited” stones of Pantelleria in 1983, to the bricks, tiles and terracotta tiles erected as a functionalist construction on the outskirts of Guatemala City in 1996. Among the various public interventions, the idea of a sculpture creating places of reflection and collective identification is expressed in a large installation in relation to the urban space for the Nadro square in Val Camonica and in large installations in iron for various offices, in Italy and abroad, of the Banca Credito Italiano. Between the end of the 80s and early 90s, Franca Ghitti set up exhibitions on the Forest in Milan, Regensburg, Munich and at the University of Pavia (where the Wald and the Sundial are arranged like large maps); he created The city and its imprint in 1994 at New York University, the Memory of Iron in Brescia and Vienna; starting from 1993 the Homage to Brancusi in Vienna, Oradea, Cluj, Debretin, Budapest, Munich, New York, with new installations in each location. In 1995 an anthology of his was hosted in the rooms of Palazzo Martinengo and in the former Church of San Desiderio in Brescia. In 1997 he created significant public interventions, such as The sign of water, a large iron waterfall structure in Lake Iseo (Brescia); The Materials Archive, an environmental intervention with glass block, stone, iron and wood in the new residential building district of San Polo in Brescia; The cubic map for the Brescia Builders' headquarters. Thus he renews his research on the Maps, recovering scrap iron. In 1998 he held a conference at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York on the theme Lost Alphabets: a transversal rereading of his own sculptural path. In the same year he completed the stained glass windows for a new church in Bergamo and as Visiting Professor at the Akademie del Bildenden Künste in Vienna he created five installations entitled Altri Alfabeti, entrusting different materials (earth, lime, iron mesh, ropes) to a rethinking of some junctions of his set sculptures, real Maps. The dialogue continues with architects and designers who find in his works moments of meeting and discussion for a lively reflection on space as a "place of belonging". In 2000 he exhibited Other Alphabets at the OK Harris Gallery in New York; the Gates of Europe in September in Munich (Pasinger Fabrik) and in November in Bilbao (Fundacion Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa). In 2001 he created a large iron sculpture for the Rocca di San Giorgio in Orzinuovi (Brescia) where he set up the Cancelli d'Europa exhibition with seven large iron installations. In 2002, the exhibition: Gates of Europe was presented at the Young Arts Gallery in Vienna in collaboration with the Association of Viennese Architects. In the Twin Towers Park of the Spalti San Marco in Brescia presents a large iron sundial. In 2003, at the invitation of Pitti Immagine Uomo, he created the Sail-Mast and the Spiral, a large iron installation, at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence. Also from 2003, the anthological Altri Alfabeti: sculptures and installations in Palazzo Besta in Teglio (Sondrio). In November-December of the same year he presented: Maps-Mapping, sculptures and installations at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. Here the theme of maps, fundamental in his journey, is rethought from a broader perspective and through a new search for materials. In the same period he created an installation Cancelli d'Europa for the new headquarters of the Confartigianato of Brescia. In November 2003, at New York University/Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, John Freccero and Margaret Morton presented his latest book: Maps-Mapping (Charta, Milan). In 2005 an anthology of his was presented at the Diocesan Museum of Milan. In 2005 he dedicated himself (between April and October) to an original reworking of the theme "Gates of Europe", through new installations presented in three universities (Brescia, Catholic University - Milan, Polytechnic - Houston, College of Architecture University of Houston) , anticipated by readings aimed at students and teachers of the same universities. In 2007 the book Ghitti – Iron Memory was published (Edizioni Mazzotta, Milan), with presentations in various locations and the creation of new installations (Palazzo Loggia – Brescia; Palazzo della Triennale, Milan; Accademia Tadini, Lovere). This was followed in 2007, from July to September, by the exhibition Percorsi (Accademia Tadini, Lovere). In 2008 the Pages – Nails exhibition at the OK Harris Gallery in New York featured the Nailed Pages, previously unpublished works of graphics and sculpture made with paper, cardboard and nails. From June to October 2008 he participated with Cancelli d'Europa in the International Sculpture Biennial in Agliè. In September, at the invitation of BresciaMusei, the exhibition The city and its imprint opens at the Castle of Brescia. In November 2008 he won the ideas competition for the creation of a museum itinerary in the city of Chiari. In May and June 2009 he presented the Project for the Navigli area: Sculpture in the city – Acqua sul Naviglio, Museo della Permanente, Milan. This will be followed in October 2009 by the new exhibition La ville et son empreinte – sculptures et installations in the rooms of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris La Villette. Between March and April 2010 the Doors of Silence and the furnishings for the chapel of the New Hospital of Como were completed. In the summer of 2010 he was the protagonist of the first edition of Aperto2010.[fare]arte in valle_art on the border in Valle Camonica, with different installations for the three locations of the event (Bienno, Erbanno and Breno). In September and October 2010 he exhibited Pagine e libri nailed at the Morcelli Repossi Foundation in Chiari. Between March and April 2011 he exhibited Frammenti dell'Albero. Sculptures and installations at the Foyer Hall of Bocconi University in Milan, where he also presents his latest monographic work Ghitti. The grammar of nails_The Grammar of Nail, which contains a collection of works from 1963 to 2010. At the Ancient Oratory of the Passion of the Basilica of S. Ambrogio in Milan in April 2011 he presents, inaugurating it on Holy Thursday, the installation Ultima Supper, already exhibited in the ancient church of Eribanno, Val Camonica. The same installation in a modified version compared to the previous one is presented at the Diocesan Museum of Brescia (May-July 2011). In July he is in St. Petersburg where he creates some installations for the Manege Museum of Contemporary Art (July-September 2011). From September to November 2011 his Tondi were exhibited in Franciacorta in the new cellars of Baron Pizzini. In February 2012 five iron installations were presented in Germany, in Dusseldorf. In recent years, Franca Ghitti's challenge has become that of facing her time, technologies and serial languages, restoring to them a rhythm of existential elements, in stratified sequences of molds and waste from wood and iron processing. His installations transform a geometric space into a historical space, so that the "place of sculpture" offers itself as a deposit and archive of real ideological, social and work structures. Franca Ghitti died on 8 April, Easter Sunday, 2012 due to a sudden worsening of the illness she had been struggling with for about four years. He rests in the family chapel in the small cemetery of Erbanno in Valcamonica. He leaves behind a large and partly unknown work. A series of initiatives were launched after his death for the conservation, cataloguing, valorisation and study of his work. For this purpose, the “Archivio Franca Ghitti” Foundation was founded in 2013. Among the initiatives are: the conference organized in New York: A Celebration of Franca Ghitti Life and Work, New York University, NY, November 2012, the Homage to Franca Ghitti of the Diocesan Museum of Brescia, March 2013, the Milanese exhibition: Franca Ghitti, An idea of a book, edited by Elena Pontiggia, Sormani Library, Scalone Monumentale, Milan, 10 April-10 May 2013; Franca Ghitti: The ways of water, thirty sculptures and installations, Sirmione Castle (Brescia) 30 June - 26 September 2013 at the invitation of the Superintendence for architectural and landscape heritage of Brescia Cremona, Mantua; Franca Ghitti, Last Supper 1963-2011. An installation. Galleria D'Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei, Villa Clerici, Milan, 20 March - 19 July 2014. Also in 2014, between July and November and at the invitation of the Musil of Brescia, an anthology of his curated by F. Lorenzi and M. Meneguzzo, Franca Ghitti: Iron, earth, fire, wood is hosted at the Hydroelectric Energy Museum of Valle Camonica. In 2015, as part of the Expo events, Franca Ghitti's Last Supper 1963-2011 was exhibited at the Catholic University of Milan (June-July). The exhibition was curated by Cecilia De Carli. On this occasion, two round tables are dedicated to Franca Ghitti, again curated by Cecilia de Carli who is in charge of the current publication. While the architect Giovanni Cadeo of the Studio-Cadeo of Brescia completes the project of the Archive-Museum dedicated to Franca Ghitti, the first monograph dedicated to Franca Ghitti is being prepared, edited by Elena Pontiggia, Skira, Milan (2016). In 2014 the Vatican Museums acquired two works by Franca Ghitti. A large wooden sculpture Stele from the 1960s and the nailed white book made of paper, cardboard and nails from 2010 entered the prestigious collection. In the same year the National Gallery D Modern Art of Rome has acquired: Bosco, a large sculpture-installation made up of three iron trees, immediately recognized among the assets of the national artistic heritage.
