Mario Giani, Detto Clizia Biography
The sculptor and painter Mario Giani, aka Clizia, was born in Turin in 1923. Having reached artistic maturity, around the age of thirty, he approached ceramics and terracotta sculpture, signing his works "Clizia the potter". In the first half of the 1950s he presented his first works, of archaic inspiration, in terracotta and majolica created in the particular style he created called "reticular". In 1958 he went to live among the ruins of Bussana Vecchia, uninhabited at the time, and in 1960 he founded the International Artists Colony of Bussana Vecchia, receiving artists from all over Italy. Director of the Sanremo Ceramics School, in 1963 he moved to Castigliole d'Asti where he organized a ceramics school also dedicated to teaching the disabled. In 1965 he was awarded at the Florence International Exhibition and in 1966 he was at the Sanremo International Exhibition. In 1967 he returned to Turin where in addition to ceramics he also dealt with jewellery. In 1981 he obtained an important recognition at the Castellamonte Ceramics Exhibition. In 1985 he was awarded first prize at the Asti International Exhibition. In 1998 he received the A. Parini prize at the Caltagirone ceramic exhibition. He died in Bussolino di Gassino, in the province of Turin, in 2000
