Tous Actualités
Suivre
Abonner Galleria Gottardo

Galleria Gottardo

Patong - Great Figures Carved by the People of Borneo from the Brignoni Collection, Museum of Cultures of the City of Lugano

Lugano (ots)

Indication: Pictures and Informations about the exhibiion can be
   downloaded free of charge under:  
   http://www.presseportal.ch/fr/pm/100000145 .
From May 23 to August 25, 2007 Galleria Gottardo
in Lugano will exhibit a group of 39 objects, dated before World War
II and carved by sculptors of different ethnic groups of Central and
Southern Borneo. These works belong to the Museum of Cultures of
Lugano and are part of the collection that Swiss artist Serge
Brignoni had started in the 1920s and donated to the Museum in 1985.
The whole collection includes approximately 650 objects, mostly from
Oceania and Indonesia. The exhibited works represent one of the most
important group of its kind on a worldwide scale.  More than half of
them will be shown to the public for the first time.
The exhibition is staged in close cooperation between Banca del
Gottardo, the Galleria Gottardo and the City of Lugano on the
occasion of the 50th anniversary  of the Bank. The new catalogue
raisonné of the complete Brignoni Collection, published in two
volumes, is a gift of Banca del Gottardo to the City of Lugano.
The larger works represent ancestors, shamanic priests and
spirits, or are anthropomorphic poles, used for sacrificial rituals
or as architectural elements, with carved zoomorphic figures. About
ten of these are veritable masterpieces of ethnic art. The word
Patong usually denoted the ancestral spirits or deities of nature,
which were carved on the occasion of the death of a member of the
village, or to commemorate the capture of an enemy in battle. When
these sculptures were used to represent a dead person, they could
also incarnate the immortal spirit before it started its long and
dangerous journey towards the afterlife. Together with the larger
objects, some smaller items of the Dayak culture, for example, a ba'
baby-carrier, a kelebit shield, and four tun-tun hunting sticks will
be exhibited.
The exhibition, curated by Francesco Paolo Campione, director of
the Lugano Museum of Cultures, is structured in three sections: the
first represents the relationship between men, animals and the
spiritual forces of nature; the second is dedicated to the
relationship between men and their ancestors, the subject of the
"good death" and the supranatural sphere; the third section focuses
on some of the most important creative and expressive features of the
works in exhibition. Each of these three areas is introduced by an
object of exceptional importance, and which constitutes a kind of
identifying element for the specific section. The artworks are put in
contrast to one another through their stylistic assonances and
dissonances, making the exhibition architecture even more intriguing
also from an optical point of view. The set-up and especially the
alternation of lights and shadows makes it possible to "reveal"
details that are not visible at first sight, due to the strong
expressiveness of the different objects taken as a whole.
Both the exhibition and catalogue raisonné are the result of a
research project meant to analyze and scientifically document the
singular objects and their local cultural significance based on field
research in Kalimantan. The main goal was to clarify the expressive
and semiotic significance of design motifs and sculptural decorations
in local classificatory systems, and particularly to know more about 
the relationship of these objects to funeral practices, the analysis
of the relevance of the figurative language in relation with the
ideological determinants of cosmology, and finally, the study of
interrelations between sculpture and architecture from a functional
as well as from a symbolical viewpoint.
The exhibition and the catalogue project were overseen by Franco
Rogantini, director of Galleria Gottardo. The research, exhibition
and catalogue were carried out by a team of anthropologists
coordinated by the director of the Museum of Cultures of Lugano,
Francesco Paolo Campione, in close collaboration with the South-East
Asian section of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in
Marseilles, and in particular with Bernard Sellato and Antonio
Guerreiro, whose essays are published in the catalogue together with
an essay on the history of Borneo by Nila Riwut, professor at the
University of Jakarta.
Media conference:          Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 9.30 a.m.
Public opening:            Wednesday  May 22, 2007, 6pm to 8pm
Duration of exhibition:    from May 23 to  August 25, 2007
Opening hours:             Tuesdays 2pm - 5pm; Wednesdays -
                           Saturdays 11am - 5pm
                           Closed on Sundays and Mondays. Free entry.
Brochure / Catalogue:
The exhibition is accompanied by a brochure available at Galleria
Gottardo. The Catalogue raisonné (2 volumes) of the Brignoni
Collection, edited by Francesco Paolo Campione, is a gift of Banca
del Gottardo to the City of Lugano, on the occasion of the Bank's
50th anniversary. The catalogue is published in Italian and English
(Mazzotta Editors, Milan, Graphic design: Theredbox Communication
Design, Lugano).
Galleria Gottardo a cultural foundation of Banca del Gottardo has
been organising exhibitions since 1989, with the collaboration of
museums, cultural institutions and collectors. In over 15 years of
quality exhibitions it has explored human activities pointing at the
innumerable facets of art and photography, of ethnography and
archaeology, of design and peculiar objects that throughout the years
have become the fount of interesting collections and publications.
Bearing in mind the geo-linguistic position of our region, the
Galleria Gottardo sets itself as a meeting point, a crossing and
exchange point between Northern and Southern cultures. Its publishing
activity has attained great importance within the framework of its
production especially as far as texts and page proof are concerned
and the quality of its catalogues. The Galleria Gottardo's strong
point is its availability to dialogue which allows it to find
important partners for the realisation of new projects and start
long-lasting collaborations.
Information:
Galleria Gottardo
Viale Stefano Franscini 12
6900 Lugano, Switzerland
Tel.:     +41/91/808'19'88
Fax:      +41/91/808'24'47
E-Mail:    galleria@gottardo.com  uessearte@tin.it
Internet: www.galleria-gottardo.org
Uessearte
Via Natta 22
I - 22100 Como
Tel.: +39/031/269'393
Fax:  +39/031/267'265