Favourite Works From Mutations 2025 Art Exhibition

This year, the theme of the contemporary art exhibition Mutazioni (Mutations) was "The Signs".

Mutazioni is an annual art event in our town, Schio (VI) in the north-east of Italy. It is usually organised around the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. 

Since this year's theme was a bit abstract, the exhibits were very different. A distinguishing feature of this years' exhibition was a series of exhibits from different countries of Africa from the personal collection of artist and art-collector Bruno Sandonà.

As always, there was a lot to see and admire in the exhibition. In this post, I want to present some of my favourite art-works from the Mutazioni 2025.

The picture on the left is from an installation created by a group of artists from a cooperative working with marginalised persons and disabled persons called Coop Libra that I had liked very much.

A few exhibits seemed familiar to me, they were similar to those presented in earlier editions of Mutazioni exhibitions. So I have excluded them from this list.

Let me start with a hand-painted dress. You can click on the images for a bigger view. 

Hand-Painted Silk by Daria Tasca and Annamaria Iodice

Daria Tasca from Treviso is known for her art combined with woven materials. This time, she was joined by Annamaria Iodice, a sculptor, painter, designer and performer from Naples.

The two artists took a piece of silk woven in early 1950s, hand-painted it and created a two-piece dress out of it, wrapped around a framework of iron, copper and aluminium. It was inspired by the digital prints of an art-work called "The Earthquake" by Slavia Janeslieva and Teona Milieva.

Last year, in the Mutazioni 2024 exhibition, Daria had joined with a ceramic artist Vania Sartori to create a somewhat similar artwork focusing on ceramics, while this year the focus was on painting. I think that works like this are important to remind ourselves that art may not only be in the exhibits but even be worn by persons.

Ceramic Dresses of Lorenzo Gnesotto

There was another artist in the exhibition focusing on wearables. He had used ceramics for creating "dresses", though his interpretation of this idea was completely different. 

Lorenzo is from Bassano del Grappa. His artworks included 3 quirky ceramic "dresses" made from Terracotta bound by elastic fibres. Through the use of different kinds of clays for making the terracotta pieces, it gave them different colours and designs.

More than dresses, they seemed like body-decorations. They also remind me of the metal nets and armours used by medieval soldiers to protect their bodies.

Origami Sculptures and Sound-Installations by Silvia Tedesco

This artwork was by Silvia from Vicenza and it included three round bases on which origami sculptures covered with resins were placed. At the same time, each sculpture was associated with a specific soundscape. In fact, she describes her art as "Talking Artwork".

One of the sculptures, called "the Soul Dance" had dragonfly-shaped origami, another called "Dream and Bubble Soap" had soap bubbles and the third one called "Carpe-Diem" had the Japanese Kohako-Koi fishes. Click on the image for a bigger view.

Monotype Incision Prints by Manuela Simoncelli

Manuela was born in Australia and has her workshop in Mussolente (VI). For the past few years, she has been experimenting with incisions. Apart from her work as an artist, she is also a Jazz singer.

 She had three monotype prints in the exhibition, they were titled Rhythm 1-2-3. One had the silhouette of a woman reading a book, second with a girl and third, a woman with a mobile phone. She first makes the incisions using soft-wax and dry-point and then uses toner transfer for creating unique monotypes.

Abstract Art by Stefania Righi

Stefania is from Vicenza and she had three paintings in the exhibition. Her art tends towards abstract, using mixed material techniques by using materials like stucco and cementite along the oil and acrylic colours to create textured art-works.

I loved her art. For example, the painted shown above, felt like looking at a Zen garden with its soft colours, and hidden forms and shapes that seemed to come out of and disappear in the fog.

Art Works by Bruno Sandonà

Bruno Sandonà from Pastina is both an artist as well as, an art-collector. In the Mutations 2025 exhibition, there were 3 of his artworks. It also had a whole section dedicated to his collection of the art-objects from Africa.

From his art works, I have chosen one of his paintings for this post (left). It had a raw energy and seemed to be inspired by his collection of African art.

I also liked his ceramic-leg sculpture in the exhibition.  

There was a big collection of art objects from different parts of Africa, especially from the countries of West Africa.

About his art-works collection from Africa, in the images below you can see a sculpture that has a kind of ritual container placed on the legs of the two persons. It is from the Dogon people in Mali.

Abstract Paintings by Davide Piazza

Davide Piazza is the president since 2003 of the well-known art-circle La Soffitta located in Vicenza. Apart from being a well-known artist, he is known as a teacher, as he conducts courses of oil painting.

In the exhibition, there were three of his artworks, all three were in shades of blue and yellow. They reminded me of lakes and sand-dunes, with undefined borders, and seemed to transmit serenity and joy.

Hyper-Realism of Giovanni Meneguzzo

Giovanni Meneguzzo, who presented 3 paintings in this exhibition is originally from Malo and now lives in Olmi di Treviso. Malo had 2 other artists from the Meneguzzo family (Giobatta and Corrado) but I am not sure if Giovanni is related to them.

His three paintings in the exhibition, were in hyper-realism style. One had the autumn leaves, another had a discarded cardboard box  used for a gift and the third had left over stuff along with with an old demijohn wine-bottle. I liked all three of them.

Giovanni started as a teacher in an art school. His passion has been to collect left-over stuff such as old leaves, clay, bottles, etc. and create his artworks based on them or by using them in his art.

Absence-Essence Installation by Francesco Risola

The installation had a tree-stump surrounded by dry and cracked earth, on which shadows of a moving tree-leaves were being projected. Thus, the essence or the echo of the tree that had been there in the past was being evoked in the installation by the projection of the shadows of the tree.

The artist seemed to focus his art to share his emotions about thoughtless and meaningless destruction of the nature.

I liked this installation and its idea of projecting the moving shadows of a tree on the tree-stump & cracked dry earth. I felt that it expressed very well the impermanence of life.

Sara Zilio's Flowing Matter

Sara Zilio is an artist from Schio. She had only one artwork in the exhibition, an acrylic painting that seemed like different colours flowing on a liquid surface, sometimes blurring and sometimes separate, tending towards each other like the extended fingers of man touching the divine in Michaelangelo's fresco in the Sistine chapel.

A friend who was visiting the exhibition with me, didn't like it, he said that it reminded him of snakes. So as you can see, choosing favourite artworks is very subjective and his choice of favourites would have been very different from mine. 

Flavio Pelligrini's Abstract Art

Pellegrini's work in the exhibition was one of the most unusual one for me in this exhibition. Pelligrini likes to work with wood, but not by creating usual wood sculptures. Instead, he uses his passion for information technology (IT) to create very unusual abstract art with the wood.

For example, you can click on it and enlarge the above image of Pellegrini's work to look at how he has created it by mixing together wood and IT. I felt that looking at it can be a transcendental experience, guiding our minds towards a meditation on infinity. 

To Conclude: Metamorphosis by Coop Libra

Let me conclude this post with another installation, which I liked very much.

It was a group work made by different persons from a cooperative based in Romano d'Ezzelino that works with marginalised and disabled persons. They had created it under the guidance of art-therapist Valentina Grotto.  

The installation had a mannequin in the centre, who represented the Butterfly-Goddess that is transforming from the Pupa to the Butterfly, and was covered by plastic bags. The central figure was surrounded by a spiral made from individual art-works on paper and clothes. 

Apart from the idea underlying this installation, I felt that visually it created a stunning impact.

If you liked looking at my favourite works from this years Mutazioni exhibition, perhaps you would like to check similar posts about previous editions of Mutazioni - 2021-22 edition and the 2024 edition 

*** 

An Artist and His Grand-Daughter

Recently, we had an unusual art exhibition in Schio (click on the pictures for a bigger view).

It presented the works of a hidden artist, someone who had a passion for art, even while he worked in a wool factory and as a house-painter, white-washing the homes. And it was organised by his grand-daughter Alice who had promised her grandfather Romano Benazzi that one day she will organise an art exhibition for him.

The exhibition was called, Nonno Raccontami Un Quadro (Grandpa, tell me a picture).

Romano Benazzi's Life-Story

Romano was born in a village near Ferrara (Italy) in 1941. During the second World War, his father died while fighting in Ukraine. Raised by a single mother, he started working in the fields at a young age. When he was sixteeen, under a Government programme, he came to spend some days with a family in Pieve Belvicino, a few kilometres north of Schio in north-east part of Italy.

A couple of years later, he came back to Pieve in the same programme, but this time a guest of another set of families. Both these experiences created in him strong links of family and friendship, and he fell in love with the beauty of this mountainous area.

He found work with a local firm engaged in painting houses. It was also the period when he started sketching with pencil and charcoal. He fell in love with a local girl, and thus found his wife Gina, who worked in a bar in Pieve. He also took on a second work, at the Lanerossi wool mills of Pieve, while they came to live in Magre area of Schio. They had two children, Guido and Daniela.

Over the years he continued with his passion for art, experimenting with different art mediums including oil paints. After his retirement, he devoted himself completely to his art, in spite of developing Parkinson disease (a disease which causes tremors in hands and difficulties in movements).

Romano lives in a house of elderly persons and even if Parkinson disease limits his manual capabilities, in fact sometimes he doesn't like the results of his efforts, but he still continues to be an artist. The image below has one of his recent sketches with charcoal, where frustrated by his lack of control over his hand movements and unhappy with the result, he covered it with charcoal.

Conclusions

In these pictures you can see some of his works. I was deeply touched by the idea of his grand-daughter Alice, daughter of his son Guido, to honour her grand-father's works and to organise this exhibition in collaboration with the Municipality of Schio.

Though Romano Benazzi remains an unknown painter, his works remain confined to the homes of his family and friends, it is important that they were celebrated by his family and community.

 

*** 

Sareo 2025 Street Art Festival

Schio's annual street art festival "Sareo" was held in the last week of June 2025. During this festival, the artists living in and around Schio are invited to put up their recent works for display in Via Pasubio in the city centre.

The old name of Via Pasubio was Via Sareo, which explains the name of this festival, which goes back to almost fifty years - it was suspended during the Covid years. The image below shows a view of the street with the art works. (You can click on any of the images below for a bigger view)

I want to share some of the art-works from this year's festival, that I liked. Our response to creative works including art, poetry, books, is very subjective. Thus, I am sure that some of the works that I liked, may not seem special to you and you would have chosen completely different works.

I am very fond of water-colour landscapes but this year, I didn't find any such landscape which I found outstanding. However, I also like abstract compositions and there were a few this year, which I liked.

These artists-artworks are not in any particular order.

Winner of Sareo 2024 - Giannino Scorzato: A jury of artists chooses the best artist, winner of Sareo festivals. Last year's winner was Giannino Scorzato from Valdagno. This year,  a solo exhibition of his works was held at the Toaldi-Capra palazzo as a part of Sareo festival.

A self-taught artist, Scorzato is also a mountaineer. He had started with oil paintings, but now he expresses himself mainly in beautiful and amazingly detailed pencil sketches. You can see one of his works from this exhibition in the image below, a portrait of a young girl.

I thought that this landscape by Teresa Vallese captured very well the special light, the landscape and the sea of Mykonos island, with its white houses, with its predominent blue and white colours in a simple way.

I liked the next painting because of its palette of pale colours, the diaphanous-delicate look and the way the flowers and abstract designs foreground the female figure. It is by Antonia Bortoloso from Schio, who is known for her feminine portraits and figures. There were two of her works in this edition of Sareo and I liked both of them. 

The next work has Australian aboriginal masks in pointillism style by Raffaella Rigadello - it reminded me of Andy Warhol's pop-art posters because of their colours and graphics. A handwritten note fixed near the artwork, probably written by the artist, pointed about the subjugation of Aboriginal people in Australia by the European settlers.

Mari Baldisserotto's water-colour of a beautiful girl with blue eyes made me think of the photograph of the Afghan girl by Steve McCurry which was used as cover-pic for National Geographic in 1985. I liked its colour composition and the girl's expression.

I like the way Giuseppe (Beppe) Fochesato uses shafts of light in his interiors. He had a few works in the festival and the one I have chosen has an old portico, probably from an old church with a door at the end. I love its colours and atmosphere.

The next is a water-colour by Egidio Carotta and it has a flower-pot fixed to the wall next to a gate. The painting gets its charm from the contrast in the colours of the bricks of the house, where red bricks are used to create a visual impact and give a shape to the painting.

I also liked the delicate flowers in the water-colour painting by Emanuela Minà from Schio. It had beautiful colours and composition. She also had another water-colour painting in the exhibition, but I liked this one more. 

The painting of a black galleon ship against an abstract background dominated by green colour, made me think of the film Pirates of the Caribbean and captain Jack Sparrow. I liked its dream like abstract effect. It is by Fabiola Carmelini.

Let me conclude by 3 works which I liked most in this year's Sareo. The first is an abstract composition by Luigi Bernardi. I would have preferred its lower part to be less definite and with paler colours, but still I found it intriguing.

The second is titled "Boy with a neckless" and is by Lorenzo Zanello. I liked its colours and the guy's expression. Every time I looked at it, it made me smile. It also reminds me of a guy I knew.

My favourite piece of art this year was this abstract work by Claudio dal Prà from Chiuppano. I am not able to explain why I liked it but I loved its complex colours, hidden figures and its composition. I like art which pulls me in and I can spend a long time trying to understand why I like it.

Conclusions

I think that it is very difficult for an artist to create a completely distinctive style, so that as soon as you see it you can say that it is by that artist. This also means that when you see works that use that style, you can say that this artist is inspired by that one.

However, developing a distinct style can also become a prison - then people expect you to keep on repeating that style forever. In that sense, creating a style of abstract art is much better because it can give you more freedom as an artist.

Regarding the artists whose works I have presented in this post, I was surprised that only a few of them have a social media presence. I feel that many of them, especially those who have not sacrificed years of life in the pursuit of art and have done other works while keeping art as a passion for the weekends or retirement, feel shy of calling themselves as artists and talking about their art.

***** 

Kimchi - Outsider's Gaze

Kimchi is a photo-exhibition on South Korea by Nadia Bagattin, which was held recently at Palazzo Toaldi Capra in Schio (Italy). The wide success of K-Pop, as well as, that of their TV serials, has created an international image and interest in South Korea. Nadia Bagattin's pictures in the Kimchi exhibition go behind that international image to look at the society, focusing especially on the contrasts between traditions and modernity.

I always find it interesting to understand how the outsiders look at countries and cultures, compared to the insiders. However, I have never been to S. Korea and I am not much informed about it, so to complete this exercise I should also look at works of some Korean photographers.

You can click on all the images in this write-up for a bigger view.

A Brief Talk with Nadia Bagattin About Kimchi Photo-Exhibition

While visiting the exhibition, I had a brief talk with Nadia Bagattin about her pictures in this exhibition, which is presented here.

Q:  You are a photographer for passion or professionally?

Nadia: For passion. I have studied multi-medial art at the Art Academy. I have been passionate about photography ever since I was a child and was gifted a camera.

Q: These days everyone clicks pictures everywhere, what is the meaning of being a photographer for you?

Nadia: My professor used to say that photographers are like painters, they paint with the light, to capture a moment, or an emotion. Everyone approaches it with their own ideas, so every photograph has a right to exist. Thus it does not matter, how many other pictures exist, for me it is a way to share my emotions from that moment.

Q: When you click pictures, what interests you more?

Nadia: I like to photograph persons, sometimes I am a very slow photographer. For example, if I arrive in a park, I would just sit there and look around for a long time, till there is something which strikes me emotionally and only then I click its picture.

Q: This was your third journey to South Korea. When you look back, was there anything different this time in terms of your photography, compared to your earlier visits?

Nadia: It was a very different experience The first time, I had gone very casually as a tourist, to meet some friends who had invited me. I didn't have any specific expectations. I used to listen to South Korean music and watch films and I had a vague idea of what I was going to find there. Later, I became passionate about it, I studied its history, now I have a better idea of its people and culture.

The first exhibition I had about S. Korea was last year, it had a more of a tourist kind of pictures - beautiful places that looked like picture postcards so that persons could feel attracted to visit the country. 

This exhibition is more visceral, I wanted to discover both sides, good and ugly of Korea. Like every country, it also has both, and I love them both.

Q: There are some pictures in the exhibition that look at the traditions, at dresses, at religious iconography and rituals. There are others that look at city life, such as the images of plastic toys in different colours.

Nadia: Yes, that is the aim of this exhibition, it is about contrasts, the two sides of the coin. Thus there is "pali-pali" (Korean way of saying "hurry up") side of Korean culture, as well as, the more traditional meditative side linked to zen, respectful of the nature and culture. So if you have noted these two sides, this is exactly what I wanted to achieve.

Q: If you could choose three pictures from this exhibition, which represent a significant moment for you, which pictures would you select?

Nadia: Let me think.

The first picture that I would choose would be one of these children. It is from a city where they had few tourists. They were very surprised to see me in their city. They said "Hello" to me to show that they knew English.

The second can be the two elderly persons and their boat (left). They were retired persons and were doing volunteer work to clean the algae from this lake. When I was clicking this picture, the man became aware and he told me that both of them were very old but were still strong and active. I like these interactions with people.

The third would be that of the man making an offering to the turtle statue. The elderly man is making this offering underneath the turtle which represents the eternal life, it was his prayer for a long life.

Conclusions

So what does the choice of her three favourite images from the exhibition tells us about her as a photographer? I think that it denotes her attention and preference towards human-interaction. 

I love talking to artists and photographers to understand what motivates them to create. My exchange with Nadia Bagattin was short and yet interesting. You can also see some of her other pictures on her Instagram page.

I was struck by her description of photography as a painting with light. I had a somewhat similar idea when I had called my old photo-blog as "Chaya-Chitrakar" - the painter of shadows.

Kimchi exhibition can be visited at Palazzo Toaldi Capra in Schio till Sunday 27 July 2025.

   

*** 

Martini Art School Exhibition in Schio

Students of Schio's art school A. Martini, organise an annual art exhibition to present their works. This exhibition has hundreds of exhibits. This year I was able to visit it. It was wonderful to see Schio's familiar streets, buildings and monuments in their works.

This first image below is about some of the city streets and has art works by Fatima Sadkaoui, Eva dal Maistro and Giacomo Scarpati. (You can click on all the images in this post for a bigger view)

It is not possible to talk about all the works that I liked in this exhibition, I can only present a small selection of them. Who knows, one day one of these students will be a famous artist! This post is dedicated to all of them.

A. Martini Art School in Schio

The Martini art institute is part of the Tron-Zanella-Martini high schools. It has a 5 years course for art students including 2 years of general study which is common to all the students, followed by 3 years of specialised studies in 2 areas - figurative arts and architecture.

Many years ago, this art school had an evening course and I know some local artists who had done that. I wish they would again conduct an evening school or may be have an art course for elderly people - I would also like to join it.

Let me now show you some of the art works from the 2025 exhibition. They are no particular order. All the students in the art school learn about and work with all the different figurative art forms including designing, sketching, painting, graphics, sculpture etc. 

Some Sculptures

Some years ago, I had seen some computer made sculptures from 3D printers. Since they were made of resins, I had mixed feelings about them. I am sure that in future, a mix of CNC and 3D printing will make more human-made kind of sculptures but I am sure that good sculptor will always have a value.

The two sculptures on the sides in the image below are by Tommaso Guadagnin & Anita Peruzzo.

Perspectives

I liked the works using a kind of binocular effect in the drawings to show a different perspective of their subjects. The three works presented below are by Sofia Damoc, Andrea Busato & Angelica Guido.

Ex-Lanificio Conte

This art exhibition was held in SHED hall of the old Conte wool mill (ex-lanificio Conte). There were different art works of this building. The image below presents three of them - all the three have the building as seen from the Conte Square, through the artists' locations and colours are different. It has the art-works of  Alessandra Peron, Elisabeth Salin & Sofia Rapagnani.

City Landmarks

There were many art-works about the city landmarks. The two images below present some of them.

The first one has the Rossi monument and St Anthony church by Benedetta Valente, the civic theatre building by Agnese Gasparella & the Salesian sports' complex by Aurora dal Pezzo.

The second one has the works of different students including the Duomo church in the centre by Mariem Fatou.

Sketches and Graphic Designs

The image below has sketches and graphic designs by different students.

Self Portraits

To conclude this highlights-view of the exhibition here are some of the self-portraits based specific themes like water, air, etc. I liked this idea of the students imagining themselves as mythological or cosplay figures. (You can click on each image for a bigger view).

In Conclusion

It is not easy to be an independent artist and earn a decent living from it. Thus, I think that many of the students will probably end up doing some other day-time work and continue being an artist in their free times and week-ends, till some of them will find success and recognition.

Apart from the challenges of finding work related to art in today's world, I think that in future, in the kind of world that is coming, having a connection with art will be very important for the human experience. Whatever they will do in their lives, hopefully making and appreciating art will continue to enrich them.

So, best of luck to all the art students of Schio graduating this year.

*** 

 

"Still Life" Art Exhibition Schio 2024

During Nov.-Dec. 2024, the Schio artists' group organised its annual exhibition. The theme for this year was "Still Life". The Italian word for "still life" is "Natura Morta" (dead nature), which I think that describes the subject better than the English version. Somehow, the words "still life" make me think of the game "statue", in which you are supposed to stand still like a statue.

Here are a few works from this exhibition that I liked. Click on the images for a bigger view.

Giuseppe Fochesato

I really liked this more contemporary interpretation of the theme by Giuseppe Fochesato, two paintings with a limited palette of colours, giving impression of the early morning on an autumn day and the coffee cups waiting for the persons to wake up and to begin the day.

His Facebook page has some other examples of his work in the same style - washed out colours and light beams illuminating the spaces. You can also check some of his works on his blog.

Daniela Baroni

Daniela had only one work in the exhibition, a painting with two dried sunflowers and a dead robin. The sombre theme of the painting clashes with the bright red feathers on robin's breast and, the purples, greens and the pale yellows of the background.

Gianbattista Clementi

Clementi had two artworks in the exhibition. While one was the classical still-life painting with a flower vase and autumn berries, the other was more abstract and I spent some time looking at it. With winter trees, a small cup and some drying leaves which look like dying fish, I found it more unsettling. 

Antonio Capovilla

I am a great fan of Antonio's long-limbed clay statues. I was surprised to see his two artworks in the exhibition, because I had no idea that he made that kind of work. However, he informed that he makes all kinds of art, from sculptures to mixed material collages and oil paintings.

I know that Antonio's wife is a poet and I told him that I would like to interview both of them together to learn about their reciprocal influences.

His two works in this exhibition included a collage of dried leaves from his garden against a white resin background and a composition made from different kinds of leathers in which he made swirling-holes to create geometric patterns.

You can check Antonio's Instagram page and Facebook page to see his other works, including his beautiful sculptures.

Livio Comparin

Livio had only one work in the exhibition but it is beautiful, though I am not sure if it can be called "still life" because it includes a sparrow and a dragonfly, which are attracted by the ripe fruits - black and white grapes, plumpy peaches, a few fat plums and some autumn-tinted vine-leaves. Just looking at the painting, makes me feel hungry. I think that it will be a good painting to have in the kitchen or next to our dining table.

Livio is a well-known artist of Schio, he has been active over the past 6 decades with water colours, graphics and even comics.

Lanfranco Dalle Carbonare

Lanfranco had 2 classical compositions of still life in the exhibition, one with flowers and the second with a mix fruits, dominated by a green-striped melon. I like his straight forward compositions, almost minimalist with plain backgrounds. You can check his Facebook page for some more examples of his works.

Moreno Dalla Vecchia

Moreno is the president of the Schio's association of artists. I have already written about Moreno's artistic journey in this blog.

In this exhibition, he had two watercolours, one predominant in blue and the other in yellow-orange. He has experimented with his compositions as well, one has an old lamp and a colourful flower-vase, while the other is focused around a piece of pumpkin, both are beautiful.

Lucio Mantese

Lucio is a wonderful artist. In this exhibition he had 2 works - one a beautiful copy of a famous still-life painting of a fruit-basket by Caravaggio. The second work was a wonderful composition of corn-cobs, old drying apples, a pulley and a bucket. I love the way he is able to bring alive the corn-cobs and the metallic texture of the bucket and the ladle (click on the image for a bigger view to appreciate this).

Apart from being a wonderful painter, able to copy famous painters, Lucio also teaches ballroom dancing (Liscio). You can check some of his other works on his Facebook page.

Mauro Marzari

The last artist that I have chosen is another person, Mauro Marzari, about which I have already written on this blog. Mauro makes wonderful abstract works. His two works in this exhibition have a yellow-metallic finish with rectangles presenting a still-life object - an apple in one and a skeleton in another. Both the paintings give an idea of brooding sadness, as if commenting on the short lives of their subjects.

Conclusions

It is wonderful that our tiny little town of Schio in the foothills of Alps in the north-east of Italy, has so many opportunities related to art and culture. This has given me the possibility of talking to some of them and to learn about their artistic journeys, which is a great privilege.

*****