Organized by Accaventiquattro Arte at BESTE HUB and Gualchiera di Coiano, Prato
05/12/2023
Exhibition book (ENG+ITA)
The evening starts at the Beste HUB company courtyard and ends at the Gualchiera di Coiano. The project connects a modern workplace and a former industrial facility
in the process of musealization. The Gualchiera di Coiano, a hydraulic workshop of medieval origin, was used for centuries to shape fabrics through wool fulling.
The event explores past and present labor's legacy and impact beyond the factory walls, inviting the public into a transition.
The title of the projects recalls the fulling process, which is the finishing of the fabric through felting and compacting. In the Italian language, the term evokes
the image of many people coming together and recognizing themselves as part of a larger but refined social body.
Beste HUB: Dark canvases cross some crowd control barriers. They stretch a fabric waiting to be finished since 1995 when the Gualchiera di Coiano was closed down. The material is divided into frames of 200x140 cm, which is the amount of tissue needed to create a “universal” garment based on a sewing pattern distributed on June 17, 1920, by the local newspaper “La Nazione.” The garment was proposed by the artist Thayaht as modern clothing. It reduced costs and times to dress the fluidity of bodies in the future. Soon, he said, “everyone will be in an overall.” The installation also preserves a treasure in 24 chilled beer bottles,representing 24 carats of pure gold. The sculpture expresses compressed emotions, tensions, and desires with rigor and control. It evokes a sense of a missing crowd to connect specific stories with vast and collective energies.
Gualchiera di Coiano: The building is dimly lit at night, resembling a place where abandoned machines rest. Various Amazon Echo devices play different alarms in the middle of the stillness. The cloudbased assistant Alexa powers the voice-controlled speakers from above. One alarm, the “C’mon City” chant of Manchester football fans, stands out among the others. The alarms are calibrated to maintain pleasant and bearable volume and tone. This choice emphasizes the charm that occurs before a moment of transition. Soon, Gualchiera will undergo restoration work, and this is one of the final opportunities to inhabit the factory before it is transformed into a museum.
Stefano Giuri (Neviano, Lecce, 1991. Lives in Florence). Visual artist. He spans across performance, video, and sculpture. Approaching the present from a historical perspective, he unveils aspects of contemporaneity based on what emerges from oblivion.
La folla
Stefano Giuri
curated by Gabriele Tosi
Tuesday, December 5th.
A project by
Accaventiquattro Arte
With the contribution of
Comune di Prato
Project manager
Filippo Bigagli
Progetto grafico / Graphic Design
Maria Cecilia Cirillo
Press
Giulia Gonfiantini
Texts
Gabriele Tosi
Giulia Gonfiantini
ChatGPT
Thanks to
Mario Barbacci (Insieme per il recupero della Gualchiera di Coiano), Luca Biancalani, Tommaso Bigagli, Daniela Degl’Innocenti (Museo del Tessuto), Marco Pace, Francesco Lauretta, ragazzo trinchero, amici di cecilia che tirano le tele. Chiara Ramazzotti (Beste), Lucia Schinco.
La folla by Stefano Giuri is in continuity with Marcello Spada's exhibition Like a Virgin (February 2023). The two projects address the connection with the territory from the perspective of the irrational and the sentimental.
Accaventiquattro Arte (accaventiquattroarte.com) is an association. It operates in the planning of cultural and contemporary art events by collaborating with artists and curators and engaging with public and private partners. It addresses social issues, work and territory.