Art Exhibition: DAZE
Opening event
Friday 30 July 2010
4.00pm - 5.00pm
Palazzo Casali
Free event
31 July - 6 August 2010
Palazzo Casali
Each year the festival is host to a visual artist. This year we are excited to present an exhibition by the New York Urban artist DAZE, one of the pivotal figures of New York’s Urban Art scene in the late 1970s. Unlike the ‘taggers,’ who merely covered every accessible public surface with repetitive calligraphic writing, Daze had higher ambitions.
In the 1970s, New York young artists, finding no outlet for their creative visions, lashed out by taking their work to the streets and subways. The city would become their canvas. Daze – then but a teenager - was one of the pioneer ‘train bombers’ – artists who would enter train yards at night and cover the outside of the subway carriages with elaborate paintings depicting the city as they saw it.
In the coming years many of these artists would leave the streets and enter the gallery and museum world and Daze was one of the early participants. A cursory glance at Daze’s roster of exhibitions over the years clearly underscores the point that graffiti art has entered the pantheon of modern art movements. Thirty years on we see how graffiti art/urban art/street art – whatever one chooses to call it – permeates so many aspects of global culture. It is now part of the world vernacular, possessing an undeniable power to speak to youth and every day there is a kid from the Bronx, Beijing, Berlin and even Beirut, eager to pick up a spray can and make a statement.
In addition to his exhibition, DAZE will create art works in a public space during the festival. The exhibition is a free event, and DAZE will also give an interview as part of our Conversations with an Artist series (date and time to be confirmed).
Daze exhibition is curated by Fortune Cookie Projects: www.fortunecookieprojects.com
Art and Poetry
Exhibition: Painting the Poem, Poeming the Painting
Opening event
Friday 30 July 2010
5.00pm - 6.00pm
Nocchia Gallery, Via Guelfa 16
Free event
Open daily
Saturday 31 to Friday 6 August 2010
10.00am - 7.00pm
Poet Edward Kleinschmidt Mayes and Artist/Architect Alberto Enrique Alfonso have made a one year committment to daily jointly collaborate on a poem a day/ painting a day commencing 1 January 2010, and ending 1 January 2011.
The work is an investigation into the fusion of the high arts of poetry and painting, attempting a simultaneous creation of a constructive duality to create a unifed singular work. The artists will exhibit 60 pairings, that track 60 calendar days.
The writer Frances Mayes will give an introduction and commentary on the work, followed by brief statements by the artists. A reception will follow.
Art Workshops
Fresco Workshops 
Saturday 31 July 2010
10.00am - 1.00pm
Sant' Agostino Art Room
During a three hour interactive and hands-on workshop setting – Julia Perry will teach and demonstrate the techniques of making a fresco. Fresco making is a fascinating Italian painting technique widely used in the renaissance. In this workshop each student will make a small fresco painting that can be taken home. It will be a decorative piece based on an Italian motif. All materials will be provided and the pieces will fit in a suit case for those travelling – a day’s drying is required! The workshop is for beginners and all those who are curious. €55
Julia Perry works as both painting conservator and painter in neighbouring Umbria , Italy.
In 1985 as a student from the Rhode Island School of Design she came to Italy to study Italian art and decided to remain in Italy. Fascinated by the painter's craft she continued her studies in Florence , concentrating on painting restoration. After graduating she began working on Fresco restoration in the Naples Cathedral before moving to Umbria where she continued her restoration work. In Umbria she has worked intensively on paintings by such great artists as Giotto, Fra Angelico, Perugino, Pinturicchio among others. In recent years she has begun to combine working as a decorative painter – often in historical setting alongside teaching the art and the techniques of Fresco making.
Ceramic workshop: Clay Modelling
Sunday 1 August 2010
3.00pm – 5.00pm
Via Vittorio Alfieri 1
Over a two hour hands on course – Chiara Sciarri will teach an overview of techniques of how to create an object from clay by hand. Objects made in the class will be wrapped so they can dry while you take them home. If you are remaining in Cortona for longer than one day – Chiara will ‘cook’ it free of charge. Limited to 12 people €40
Ceramic workshop: Ceramic Plate Painting
Thursday 5 August 2010
3.00pm – 5.00pm (for participants staying in Cortona three days)
Via Vittorio Alfieri 1
Decorate a plate and learn how to paint ceramics in a way that is typical of Tuscany. The famous ‘daisy’ pattern will be taught over a two hour lesson. Participants will work with their own colours to create a permanent reminder of their time in Cortona. The ceramic must be baked and enamelled following the lesson – which takes three days. Limited to 12 people €50
All participants will receive an Attendance Certificate and a gift from the shop.
About L’Antico Cocciaio: Cortona’s oldest ceramic shop, L'Antico Cocciaio is located in the middle of the town. Renowned for creating ceramics using traditional techniques incorporating the yellow background of the symbolic daisy. In this olde worlde shop and workshop they create traditional earthenware furnishings, tableware, gardenware and gifts. They also produce a vast assortment of medieval Tuscan reproductions including wall plates and jars.
Mosaic workshops
Monday 2 and Wednesday 4 August 2010
10.00am - 12.00pm
Sant'Agostino Art Room
Discover the ancient techniques creating mosaics and make your own piece to take home.
Local fine artist Marzia Dottarelli will explain the techniques used to make mosaics using small glass tiles. During the class you will decorate your own object that you can fit in your suitcase to take home. During the course, each participant can also work with Marzia and create a bigger and more complex mosaic that will later be displayed during her own exhibition in Cortona after the festival.
Bring sunglasses/goggles as protection
Limited to 15 people €55 each workshop
Marzia Dottarelli was born, works and lives locally in Cortona. She graduated from the Art Institute in Arezzo in 1985. In 1997, while she was using all the traditional techniques of mosaic works, she discovered new experimental ways to work with mosaic tiles. She joined the VI and VII INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART in Florence where she has won awards in 2007 and 2009. Over the years she participated in many exhibitions and international competitions. In 2008 she met Pope Benedict XVI, and gave him a mosaic for the Vatican Museum. Her own solo exhibition "Fragments of Light" will open in Palazzo Casali, Cortona immediately following the festival.
