On the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day, in the Aula Magna ‘Galileo Galilei’ of Palazzo Bo, in Padua, Tuscan artist Franca Pisani - who has always maintained a strong bond with the sacredness of remembrance - unveiled ‘Shoah, collective memory’, the work of art created for the occasion and donated to the University of Padua, in the presence of the Magnificent Rector, Rosario Rizzuto. At the request of the University of Padua, on the theme of the Shoah Franca Pisani created a diptych - two paintings measuring 150 x 100 centimetres each - painted on Lyon canvas with oxides and lacquer using ancient techniques. Not only that: Franca Pisani decided to include a message in several languages (Hebrew, Italian and English) in her diptych - the phrase ‘Shoah, collective memory’ - to reiterate the power of remembrance.
‘With the intention of homogenising the story suspended between art and thought,’ says Franca Pisani, ’I have decided to use an ancient technique, namely painting on Lyon silk, fluctuating and transparent as well as refined, which evokes in my work, vague archaeological visions of humanity. Furthermore, I will insert the phrase ‘Shoah, collective memory’ written in Italian, English and, of course, Hebrew, into the paintings. In practice,' the artist concludes, ’mine is a journey in honour of who and what has been brutally destroyed, erased. Faced with this, we can only appeal to memory, which transforms what was lost into homage, into an investigation of tradition, and educates generations. It will be an emotional journey'.
Soon Franca Pisani's work will find its definitive home in the auditorium of the botanical garden of the University of Padua.
It is worth noting that at the Altinate San Gaetano cultural centre, in the former courtyard that is now covered and has become an agora for exhibitions and events, a temporary exhibition of works and installations by Franca Pisani will be inaugurated next October. Together with an accompanying didactic exhibition, it will be dedicated to the memory of the ‘white rose’, the group of Christian students who non-violently opposed the regime of Nazi Germany.
