Open-Air Museum

The work of Jorgen Sorensen and more. In Pietrasanta

Nestled between the white marble quarries of Carrara, which since the fifteenth century have been a reference for the activity of great Renaissance artists from Brunelleschi to Donatello, and later Michelangelo, Pietrasanta has developed a tradition of art and craftsmanship, consisting of workshops, art foundries, ateliers and galleries. The existence of this chain of production has catalyzed many Italian and foreign artists - Botero, Cascella, Folon, Mirò, Mitoraj, and Moore, to name only the best known - who have made it their chosen land. This has also meant the establishment, after decades and decades, of a true open-air museum, to the extent that it has just been named Parco Internazionale della Scultura Contemporanea (International Park of Contemporary Sculpture) with an ad hoc route that allows visitors to follow the traces of artists by walking down the street, in an open-air museum. This original promenade is called ZTA, artistic traffic zone. At present, there are about seventy open air works: in Piazza Matteotti, for example, there is the Il Guerriero by Botero, the Memoria di Pietrasanta by Cascella, L’adoratrice del Sole by Maria Gamundi, the Peace Frame by the American Nall at the entrance to Via di Mezzo (perfect spot for selfies and photographs), and the evocative Key to Dream by Kan Yasuda is in Piazza Stazione. Incapable of resting on its laurels, every summer Pietrasanta starts again by setting up prestigious outdoor exhibitions that add to the already fascinating ZTA, beginning with the extraordinary setting of Piazza del Duomo, and going on to the Cloisters and the Church of Sant’Agostino. This year the Danish artist Jorgen Haugen Sorensen is having a great solo exhibition entitled The Witness running from June 17 to August 6. His works will interact with contemporary dance, bringing to Pietrasanta for the first time the Dap Festival, a premiere of the debut scheduled from June 18 to July 1, 2017, an extensive program of events and shows with some contamination between visual arts. There will be three Danish artists in the Dap Festival’s artistic project: in addition to Sorensen, composer Kim Helweg and choreographer Sebastian Kloborg in collaboration with the Royal Danish Theater Plus.