Ph. Credits Isabella Mancini
J. Kosuth, “The Chair in front of the Doorstep” – Arte all’Arte
Piazza del Bagolaro
San Gimignano
Joseph Kosuth, USA, putted an installation inside the Loggia del Podestà in San Gimignano: the site was for centuries the seat of the political power.
Kosuth’s piece of art is a 35-meters-long stone engraving on wich is written a quotation by Walter Benjamin about San Gimignano – to remark the existing connection between himself and the city; taken by “Städtebilder” the statement talks about the tradition to sit in front of the house door:
Where you can stand, you can also sit. Not just the children but even women have their place on the doorstep, close to the earth, its traditions and perhaps its gods. The chair in front of the door is a sign of town’s innovation. About the possibility to sit at the cafè that is unheard of, then only men make use of it”. [free translation]
The artist’s choice of the text highlights the connection between San Gimignano and the culture & intellectuals by mixing tradition and innovation: a contemporary visual artist narrates of the present and past culture through the words of a 20th century’s academic, as an eternal return to a symbol place of the modern culture.