Vicenza brings Italian Pop/Beat art to the Basilica

Vicenza officials held a ribbon cutting event to celebrate the opening of the “Pop/Beat – Italia 1960-1979 – Free to dream” exhibit at the Basilica Palladiana March 1.

“A lively, understandable, popular exhibition, that brings back to the community the lightness and social purposefulness of those years,” said Roberto Floreani, the exhibition curator in his welcome remarks.

Through a selection of more than a hundred works of painting, sculpture, installations, video, and literature created by 55 selected Italian artists, the exhibition offers a colorful plunge into the Italy of the ‘60s and ‘70s. To enhance the visitor’s experience, background playing of Italian hits of the Sixties evoke the vibrant atmosphere of the period.

Floreani added that: “Feeling free to dream,” Italian Pop and Beat generation artists found a unique way to express optimism for the future and awareness of the political commitment of the Beat generation.

At the invitation of local mayor Giacomo Possamai, Capt. Joseph Hart, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Garrison Italy, and Sgt. Anthony Henley, HHC supply technician, attended the ribbon cutting representing the Vicenza military community.

“I enjoyed most seeing the imaginations of the artists whose work depicted an era of freedom of thought and expression,” said Hart. “The art we saw made me feel like I was going back in time to a world of ideas from the past – a time that fostered Western pop culture as we know it today,” he said.

Commenting on the contrast of pop art showcased within the 15th century Palladian building, Henley said that: “The brick architecture made the overall feel quite fancy, and it truly brought out the elegance of the vintage theme.”

Hart added that: “What stood out the most to me was seeing the Lion of Venice hanging in the room overlooking the pop art exhibit, a gentle reminder of even more historic times.”

Asked what artwork they liked the most, Hart and Henley agreed on Aldo Mondino’s work called “Vento’ (wind in Italian.). According to them, the artist created a painting that seems to float upwards, in an optical illusion created by the movement of a balloon that seems to carry the painting with it.

“I liked the motion that you could sense from looking at the painting and the balloon in the wall made the art feel like it was not contained to the canvas, as if the balloon was blowing in the wind out to the spectator,” Hart said.

The exhibition runs until June 30, and it is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.