János Géczi - Artist in Schio

János Géczi, the well-known Hungarian writer, poet and artist was in Schio in the beginning of March 2025. Some of his works created during his stay in the city are expected to be a part of Schio's DiCarta Paper-Art Biennale planned for 2026-27.

During his stay in Schio, János was accompanied by his friend and garden-architect, Zsolt Ambrus, who also acted as his translator.

I had an opportunity to meet János on 12th March, and to talk to him about his work. This post is based on that meeting.

Artists in Schio

Though Schio (VI) is a tiny town in the Alpine foothills in the north-east of Italy, it has a vibrant cultural and artistic life. The city has a rich calendar of artistic events including the DiCarta Papermade Biennale organised by the Commune of Schio. These events often bring to the city important artists and opportunities for interacting with them.

The next Papermade Biennale in Schio is being planned for 2026-27 and will be curated by Valeria Bertesina and Roberto Nassi.

János Géczi and His Creative Evolution

János was born on 5 May 1954 in a small town called Monostorpályi in Northern part of Hungary. His family members were mostly peasants and manual workers. He went to a local primary school, which had big classes with around 45 children.

He started writing poetry in the middle school. There, he had a good teacher who thought that he had potential and encouraged him to go to the grammar school for secondary education.

He was able to win a scholarship for the grammar school in Debrecen, where he studied biology. He understood very early that life-sciences and literature (prose and poetry), are two different ways to look at and understand the world and its reality. Thus, all his life he has followed both, the scientific and the literary-artistic paths. While in the school, he also started to explore the writings of important Hungarian writers like Péter Melius Juhász, Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, Fazekas and Diószegi.

After the grammar school, most of his classmates went on to study medicine while Janos went for 5 years to a biology institute, known for its research work. Today, apart from being a university professor and researcher, he is a well-known writer, poet, editor and artist.

During his university years, he became interested in sociological issues around the marginalisation of different groups of people and started to write about it. This was during 1970s when Hungary was under a communist rule - his writings were not appreciated by the authorities and he was told to stop.

For all his life, János has continued to observe and understand the world through those two different lenses, creativity and science, expressing himself through essays, poems and visual poems, fiction, décollage and has won different awards.

You can read English translations of two of his poems (link opens in a new window).

János & His Reflection Diary in 2025

János explained that for whole of 2025 he is participating in a writing exercise in collaboration with a Hungarian newspaper. Every month, a creative person (a poet or a writer or an artist) poses a question to him and every day of that month, he writes a kind of daily diary, reflecting on that question. His diary is published in the newspaper and its website, and after completing a year, it will come out as a book.

I thought that it was an incredible prompt for stimulating creative juices, but it also requires a very strong discipline. Even while his stay in Schio, he continues to write his reflections every day. 

János Géczi as an Artist in Schio

As an artist, János is known for his Décollage work. "Dècollage" is created by tearing-off or removing a piece or a part of a paper or canvas. In that sense, it is opposite of a "Collage", in which we bring together different pieces to create an art.

He works with old public-posters in cities. Those posters are usually pasted one on the top of another, till they become too many and then someone tears all of them off, cleans the space and puts up new posters.

János goes around to collect different layers of posters and then removes parts of each layer so that bits and pieces of the underneath layers can be seen. This mimics what happens in real-life as sometimes posters can tear off and show older posters below, creating shapes, juxtapositions of words, pictures, colours and shapes, as a kind of memento-mori about passage of time and the role of memories.

During his stay in Schio, János has collected many old posters from the public spaces in the city. He said that he liked the pale pinks and and blues that he finds at the back of these posters and his décollage works created in Schio, focus mainly on the different layers seen from the back of the posters.

The room where he was working, had rolled sheets of old posters he had collected from the city, some of them wet because it had been raining in Schio. It also had big containers of glue, which he used to create additional layers of the posters. Once the layers are placed, then he can tear-off some of them, creating the shapes and colours of his artistic geographies.

Compared to some of his works which showed the more vibrant colours and words from the front of the posters, I personally loved his more abstract creations made from the back of the posters, with their pale colours.

Roberto Nassi has asked Janos to also write a poem linked with his artwork for the Biennale, so that both his artistic and literary dimensions are presented together.

In the End

For me, meeting János and Zsolt was also an opportunity to reconnect with Valeria Bertesina, who has been curating the DiCarta Paper-Art Biennials in Schio.

János is of my age and I was trying to imagine his years of growing up in Hungary when it was a part of Soviet influence and to compare them with my growing up in India.

In a way, I find a reflection of my life in his, as like him, I also have my professional doctor-researcher life and a creative life. I was sorry that I could not speak and understand Hungarian, because it would have been much more interesting and enriching to talk and exchange notes about our similarities and differences.

Staying in a small town like Schio, and meeting and talking to interesting creative persons like János, is a wonderful combination, and I feel very lucky to have such opportunities.

*****

Early Humans in Schio

Last week I went on a small trek to visit the underground caves of Bocca Lorenza near Schio. In early 20th century, objects from late neolithic period were found in those caves.

This post is a result of that visit and relates to archaeological objects found in 3 areas close to Schio - Bocca Lorenza underground caves, Monte Magre and the summit of Monte Summano.

After the end of the last ice-age and the beginning of Holocene some 10-12 thousand years ago, slowly humans must have arrived in the northern mountainous areas of Italy. 

Guido Cibin's Archaeological Collection

In early 20th century, an amateur archaeologist from Schio, Guido Cibin (1860-1947) was responsible for finding and safe-guarding most of those archaeological objects in this area. The map below shows the different locations around Schio, from where Cibin collected archaeological materials. 

Guido Cibin  was instrumental in setting up the first archaeological museum in Schio in the newly built Technical school on the Castello hill in 1912. There are around 4 thousand archaeological objects of the the Cibin-Gori collection, including Roman coins and Greek vases. Some of these will hopefully, soon be displayed at the new city museum being created in Palazzo Fogazzaro in Schio.

Let me start with the archaeological finds from Bocca Lorenzo underground caves.

1. Bocca Lorenza Caves in Santorso

In late 1908, Guido Cebin together with Don Rizieri Zanocco from Piovene, they explored these caves located on the southern flank of Summano mountain. Among the objects they found were hundreds of neolithic tools made from flint-stones, and many prehistoric decorative bones. The materials collected cover a 7000 years period, starting from late Neolithic period (around 6000 years ago) till about a 1000 years ago.

The flint-stones found here are not local and this means that persons living here were in contact with other groups and they had some kind of commercial exchange system. Image below shows some objects from neolithic period found in Bocca Lorenza.

Cibin also found many vases from late iron age 4th century BCE, as well as a bronze axe-piece. These vases are hand-modelled and they have different decorations such as fish-spine, triangles, zig-zag lines and lines of dots. The area is full of animal bones, including deer, wild goats and pigs, rabbits, and buffaloes, which means that they had enough wild animals to hunt in this area. Some vases from Bocca Lorenza are shown in the image below.

In late neolithic period the caves were used as shelter by shepherds. During the copper age (3300-2300 BCE), they were also used for some burials. During the bronze age (2300-900 BCE), groups of persons were living here. During the second iron age, around 4-5th centuries BCE, shepherds again started using it, while some feel that it was also used for religious and ritual use. Only a few Roman period objects have been found here.

The structure is composed of a vestibule and a series of deeper underground caves, as shown in the image below from the publication, "Grotte d'Italia" (click on the image for a bigger view).

Monte Magre in Schio

In 1912, a person called Giovanni Piccoli was excavating limestone on Monte Magre near the ruins of an old castle. He found some archaeological objects including pieces of deer-antlers marked with incision-signs. He informed the authorities and thus, Monte Magre also became an area of archaeological interest.

The archaeological objects found in Monte Magre start from the bronze age (2300 - 900 BCE) and go on till medieval period. Most interesting findings are from late iron age, 4th to 2nd century BCE, when there was an important shrine in this area. Parts of a stone building where the shrine was located can still be seen. Here some animal bones, a stone axe, and some bronze and ceramic objects were found.

The most interesting finds from Monte Magre are pieces of deer-antlers with incisions in southern Rhaetic (retico) alphabet. This language was used in alpine and pre-alpine areas in north Italy during the second iron age (around 4th century BCE). It has been given the name of Magrè alphabet.

These bones have a hole at one end and were perhaps used to hang them from trees. It could have been a shrine dedicated to Diana or Artemide, as it was located in a forest and may be, used by hunters. Some say that the incisions refer to a Venetian divinity called Reitia. It is thought that Magrè was the border area between the Veneto speaking persons and Reti speaking persons living to the north, who controlled the Alps and its mineral wealth.

Among the archaeological objects found at Monte Magre, the antler-pieces with Reti incisions are in the museum of Este. Some other objects can be seen in the archaeological museum in Vicenza.

The Shrine at the Summit of Monte Summano

The Summano mountain (around 1300 metres) dominates Schio and the surrounding towns and countryside. People say that its name comes from the antique cult of god Summanus. Its name reminds me of the ancient Indian myth of Manu (som+manus), at the time of universal floods (Noah in Christian mythology).

There are folk-legends about sacrificing black rams on the summit of Summano. Bone-ash deposits and old medals and coins have been found here. In 2007 a silver statue of Mars was found in the area. Thus, during 2008-10, some preliminary archaeological tests were conducted here, during which a second silver statue of a mother-goddess or Salus was also found. Archaeological objects found here can be seen at the Alto Vicentino Museum in Vicenza.

Near the mountain summit there are areas with traces of regular fires dating back to the second iron age (4th century BCE), indicating that there may have been a shrine or a sacred place here (shown in the image below). There are also traces of Roman period buildings near the summit.

Conclusions

Most of the information for this post came from an exhibition on the Cibin-Gori collection held at Fogazzaro Palace in Schio in 2023.

I loved the visit to Bocca Lorenza, even if I didn't try to explore any of the caves as I was alone and did not want to risk it. I am hoping to write specific posts on how to visit Bocca Lorenza and Monte Magre.

I have already written about the visit to the summit of Summano mountain in my post on Sacred Sites to visit in Schio. 

*****

Renaissance Art & Giovanni Bellini

The renaissance period introduced the ideas of three-dimensional depth, realism, perspective, colour-tones and light in paintings, based on new understandings from different sciences such as anatomy, physics, mathematics, geology and natural sciences occurring in that period.

This post focuses on the evolution of a renaissance period artist through 11 paintings on the theme of "Madonna and child Jesus". The artist is Giovanni Bellini and all the paintings are from the Accademia museum in Venice.

The image below is that of a telero (huge painting covering an entire wall) started by Giovanni Bellini in 1515-16, left incomplete due to his death. (Click on the images for a bigger view)

The Bellini Bottega in Venice

In that period, the artists worked in Bottega or workshops, where the master artist had many apprentice and helpers. Jacopo Bellini, Giovanni's father, was a renowned Venetian artist in Venice. One of Jacopo's famous works is a tall mosaic inside St Marks basilica in Venice, known as "Mosaic of Visitation".

Giovanni Bellini, also called Giambellino, was born around 1930-35. He is considered as one of the great masters of early Venetian renaissance art. Giovanni had learned the art from his brother and father, was also influenced by his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, as well as other artists. Giovanni played an important role in developing the ideas of "tonality" in art, ensuring an overall tone for the painting and a smooth passage of tones in different parts of the painting.

Before presenting his art-works, let me briefly introduce the Accademia museum of Venice, where you can admire the originals of all the paintings presented in this post.

Accademia Museum

This museum hosts some of the masterpieces of renaissance period art by maestros like Tiziano (Titan), Tintoretto, Canaletto, Tiepolo, Hans Memling & Hieronymus Bosch. It is situated close to the Accademia bridge (orginally called Ponte della Carità, inaugurated in 1854). If you like renaissance art, do not miss visiting this museum during your visit to Venice.

The building hosting the Accademia museum today, was once a convent and a church (Santa Maria della Carità church).  Under Napoleon's rule in late 18th century, the religious persons from the church and the nearby convent were sent away. In 1807, the old Accademia museum was shifted in those buildings.

Giovanni Bellini's "Madonna and the Child" Series of Paintings

Bellini made a series of paintings of Madonna with the child Jesus. Let me now show you 10 paintings from that series present in the Accademia museum, so that you can appreciate his evolution as a painter.

There is an 11th painting at the end of this post, from his series on the theme of Pietà.

1. From 1448

I am not sure how old was Giovanni when this painting was made and how much did he actually contribute to it. The madonna of this painting does not look very young. Baby Jesus, sitting on a parapet, is holding an apple in his left hand and two fingers raised showing his dual (human and divine) nature. Madonna is expressionless while the child has a knowing expression, much wiser than his age.

2. From 1455

This painting was done when Giovanni was about 20 years old. It is simpler with fewer colours compared to the first one. The baby wearing a black dress, looks younger but still has a knowing expression while he holds his mother's chin with his hand.

3. From 1470

When this painting was done, Giovanni was 35 years old and clearly it is a more mature work, even if it not an oil painting on canvas like the others. Madonna seems to be lit by the light, with a blue sky behind her. Her face has a serenity while looking down at her sleeping son, lying nude, his hand hanging down, almost like a glimpse of the future awaiting them. There is a sense of three-dimensionality, proportions and perspective in this work.

4. From 1475 

Giovanni made this when he was forty. He has light coming in from upper right side, lighting up Madonna's serene and young face, while the light on the baby is more diffused. The baby has a more innocent face, and he makes the sign of his dual nature with this right hand, while his left hand grips his mother's thumb. 

5. From 1480

By now, Giovanni was 45 years old and clearly more skilled as a painter. The whole canvas seems lit by light with bright colours. The background has a light blue sky, fluffy clouds and the Euganei hills near Padua. The baby has a knowing and petulant look, as he holds his right hand in the two-fingers sign while his left hand discreetly seeks his mother's touch.

6. From 1485-90

Now Giovanni has crossed fifty years, he is recognised as a maestro. Perhaps, this means that now he can experiment and try new colours and ideas. The most distinctive change in the painting is the use of bright red colours in Madonna's gown and the heads and wings of the six cherubs on the clouds floating above. The baby seems to be wearing a modern looking night-shirt. The baby also has a more child like expression and seems to be talking to his mother.

7. From 1485-90

This is also from the same period. In this, the two have a green screen behind, the surface of the parapet is painted green, and in the background on the two sides there are two trees. The baby is nude, has a more child like expression and his left hand holds his mother's fingers. Once again the whole canvas seems to be lit by light.

8. From 1488 (With St Catherine and Magdalene)

This is a more complex work. Compared to the two women saints on the two sides, dressed in rich clothes and wearing jewellery, Madonna looks similar to the other paintings above. The baby seems lost in ecstasy. While the background is dark, the 4 figures seem lit by an external light, creating a few shadows. It seems to have clear Flemish or Dutch influences.

9. From 1490 (With St Paul and St George)

Like one above, this one also has two figures standing on both sides of the mother and child. However, this painting has much more in common with his other works - light blue sky with clouds, a red screen behind them, all the persons lit by a light coming from the left with a hint of shadows in the right side of the canvas.

10. From 1503 (With St John Baptist and a Woman)

This painting was done when Giovanni was 68 years old and it is even more complex, with a detailed urban background with the Vicentino mountains behind them - the houses have a distinct look, may be it shows the city of Bassano. Sheep are grazing on the grassy hills (click on the picture to see a bigger version for the sheep). It is bathed in light with shades of liliacs, pinks, green and light blues. Madonna has a soft and innocent expression. The skin tones of Madonna and the woman on the right seem to have the red tones associated with Titan.

11. From 1505 - Pietà with Madonna and the Dying Jesus

The last painting is from the Pietà series, and is from 1505, when Giovanni was 70 years old. The white-haired Madonna's face is etched with lines of sorrow. A dramatic touch is given by the broken tree on the left of the canvas. The background is in the shade of orange-yellow seems to show Padua with Euganei hills and Vicentino mountains behind. Once again, the whole canvas seems to be lit all over with a diffused light and few shadows. (You can click on all the images for a bigger view.)

Things I Noticed in the Paintings

I think that as Giovanni grew older and more skilled, his works assumed more renaissance characteristics - they seem more three-dimensional, more realistic, while the proportions and perspectives improve.

In most of his paintings, the Madonna has an innocent or an aloof look, she does not seem to be looking at you. I also noticed that in many paintings, her little finger seems to be bent or crooked in the middle - it does not seem very natural. Try bending your finger like that and you will see what I mean.

On the other hand, the baby Jesus has a more knowing look, creating a kind of dissonance because his facial expressions are more adult-like. At the same time, the child's proportions do not always look right. For example in painting number 10 above, the child seems to be too long. Child's ecstasy, with his eyes turning up, in image 8 also made me feel a little anxious.

I love the light and vivid colours that seem to illuminate many of his works. They lack the light and shadow effects (chiaroscuro), which would become a dominant part of later renaissance art.

I also love the tender affection between the mother and the baby, expressed in the way the boy holds his mother's thumb or touches her hand. 

To Conclude

To look at the different paintings of Giovanni Bellini in a chronological manner gives us an idea of his evolution as an artist. At the same time, it gives us an idea of how the renaissance ideas of art were evolving.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 and his Monalisa was painted in early 1500s. Michelangelo was born in 1475 and his frescoes of Universal Judgement in Vatican were painted around 1540. Thus, the art of Giovanni Bellini needs to be seen in the context of all the other artists, as they exchanged ideas, knowledge and techniques. 

All the paintings presented in this post are from Accademia museum in Venice. To feel their full impact, you need to look at them in the museum. For example, the sensation of light when you look at painting number 10 above is absolutely incredible. When I saw it, I was transfixed.

BTW, the Telero shown in the first image above was commissioned to Giovanni Bellini in 1515, when he had turned eighty. He was unable to finish it, as he died in 1516. It was completed many years later by another artist, Vittore Belliniano. 

I have been to the Accademia museum a few times, and every time I go there I discover new works which I had not noticed earlier!

*****  

Day of Remembering: Annamaria's Story

Our history books are full of stories of massacres and of persons forced to leave their homes and become refugees. Such stories have a special resonance for me because my mother's family was forced to leave their homes and lands in 1947, when that part of India became a new country called Pakistan.

Recently, I met Annamaria Marussi who told me her story of massacres and becoming a refugee from Istria, a peninsula at the north-eastern border of Italy, which is now a part of Slovenia & Croatia. Annamaria was born in a tiny town called Isola (Izola) in Istria.

This post tells her story. The image below has Annamaria with her son and grand-daughter.

Let me start by briefly explaining the location and history of Istria.

Istria - The Land and Its History

Istria (Istra in Slovenia and Croatia) is a peninsula, a thumb like stub of land jutting out into Adriatic sea close to the border between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. This land is part of Karst region, a geographical area characterised by a plateau with steep cliffs overlooking the sea, extending from north-eastern Italy to Croatia. The area is full of caves and deep sink-holes (foibe).

This part of Europe, today marks the meeting place of 4 countries - Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy and this explains its chequered history. 

By 5th century AD, it was part of the Roman empire, which gave it the name Histria. Then for around 400 years, it passed under different rulers, from Byzantines, to Longobards and Slavs. Around 900 AD, for about 800 years, till around the end of 18th century, Isria/Istra was under the Venetian republic and therefore, the winged lion symbol of Venice became a common sight in this area.

Around 1820 AD, this area came under the Austrian-Hungarian empire till the first world war, and then it became part of Italy. After the second world war, the area was occupied by the partisans of Tito and became a part of Yugoslavia. Finally, after the end of Soviet Union, Yugoslavia broke in different parts and now it is divided between Slovenia and Croatia.

The map below (from Wikipedia) shows how Istria is divided between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia today. The purple arrow near the top left part of the image shows the location of Isola (Izola) where Annamaria lived as a child.

The Foibe Massacres & The Ideologies

In 1945, as the German forces retreated, the partisans of Marshal Tito occupied Istria. As a lot of its inhabitants were Italians, the Slav origin partisans wanted to send them away and the fastest and least costly way to kill them to push them down the foibes, or the sink-holes, some of which were as deep as 300 metres. These killings were justified by the partisans as a just reprisal of the Slav deaths caused by the fascist German-Italian regimes. Many persons deny that civilians were killed and justify it as political vendetta.

Apart from the persons killed in the foibe, between 1947 and 1954, around 350,000 persons of Italian origin left their homes as Istrian refugees to escape the communist regime of Tito.

How many persons were killed in the foibe-massacres? There are contested claims from the two sides, varying from a few thousands to 10-20 thousand. Istrian refugees say that a lot of innocent persons were killed and present names and stories of some of them to prove their point. Yugoslavians downplayed the killings, saying that only the fascists and their collaborators were killed. 

Every year, 10 February is the Day of Remembrance In Italy for the Istrian refugees and the persons killed in the foibe-massacres. 

Personally, I believe that extreme left (radical communists) are the mirror images of extreme right groups like fascists. Examples from Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and Cambodia, show that communist violence was no less brutal then the fascists', though communists sometimes ignore those while fighting the different fascisms.

Story of Annamaria Marussi

Annamaria was six years old when her family was forced to leave their home in the tiny seaside town of Isola on the Istrian coast. According to her, out of the 32,000 persons living in that town, 28,000 had left as refugees. She talked about that experience with the following words:

"I come from the town of Isola in Istria but my father was from Fiume (Rijeka in Croatia). He had come to work in Isola. My mother's family, all her relatives, were from Isola.

I was born in the house of Domenico Lovisato (NdR: a well-known geologist and palaeontologist, born in 1842 in Isola in Istria) and then our family had shifted to another house. In those days, Isola had only 2 main roads and our house was on one of those. We lived on the first floor and as you came down the stairs, there was a atrium and the main door. At the top of the door was a crescent-shaped window with glass in different colours. After many years, when finally we had our house, I asked to have the crescent-shaped window over the door, with glass in different colours, to remember that house in Isola.

I remember the times when we would go for vendemiare (grape-collection for making wine). The family of my maternal grandmother had vineyards. They had some containers which were hung on the mules and donkeys and they would put small children in those containers. So I would go to the countryside sitting inside a container hanging on the side of a mule.

I also remember when it was time to collect almonds, or when I went with my father in a small boat because he loved the sea and fishing. Sometimes in the evening he took me with him for fishing. Later, after the exodus, when we were living in that rundown house in Trieste, some evenings I went with him to the Audace wharf for fishing, and I was supposed to not make noise because otherwise the fish didn't come near.

Our family, I, my parents and my brother, we all had to leave our home. My father had left earlier, while the remaining three, we left in 1947, when the Paris Peace plan offered us the possibility of leaving. We were allowed to take only our furniture, we put them in trucks which took them to store-houses as the refugees didn't have homes or spaces in refugee camps to keep them. We took the boat which was going too and fro to take the refugees to Trieste in Italy.

We were more fortunate than other refugees because my father had already found a place for us in the old town of Trieste. It was bare, small and poor but at least we had a home and we could all stay together. Trieste had an enormous refugee camp, created in the silos, an old store-house building near the railway station. It was divided into small boxes, each hosting a family. There were around 2000 persons living that building.

Over the years, the Istrian refugees have created some associations, which promote the organisation of the Day of Remembrance, so that we don't forget the Istrians. Out of the 350,000 refugees, around 70,000 left Italy to emigrate to north and south Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. They can be found in every part of Italy.

I remember when we had put our stuff in the truck and said goodbye to our relatives. My grandparents were still there when we left in 1947. One of my traumatic memory is from 1945, when the German soldiers, while retreating had blown up a dam and we heard this terrible sound of the bomb.

I went back to see my old house in Isola and it was such an alienating sensation. It has changed a lot. To see that house which was my house and to see other persons living there, to think of the memories of that place of how it was, it was traumatic.

After so many years, the impact of that exodus, of leaving that home is still strong, I have nostalgia for those days. It is a wound, because it was not just leaving our old home, but it was that life in a small town where everyone knew everyone else, all that lost. For example, the sister of my father, they emigrated to USA. My paternal grandmother used to live with their family, she could not go with them to USA because they said that she was too old, and she suffered from this separation. Other relatives were sent to Sanremo. My husband's family some were sent to Perugia, we were all thrown apart in different directions, so many lacerations in our hearts."

Conclusions

Talking to Annamaria brought back my childhood memories of talking to my maternal grandmother and her lingering sorrow about the land and persons, as well as the trauma of partition of India and Pakistan. In those days we were living in the house of a Muslim trader who had gone as a refugee to Pakistan and I remember wondering if he knew that we were living in his house.

The real issue about becoming a refugee, as in Annamaria's story, is that of facing forced eviction and violence, as well as, loss of property, dignity and family relationships. That is the pain we carry in our hearts for ever.

The image below has Annamaria Marussi and Gianni Bevilacqua, two persons who were forced to leave their homes in Istria and become refugees, at the Day of Remembering exhibition on 10th February 2025 in Schio (VI), Italy.

I also remembered an encounter with a Pakistani girl in Washington DC, after watching a play, "A Tryst with Destiny" written and directed by my sister, which was about the India-Pakistan partition. She had said, "I understand the trauma of my elders about leaving their homes and becoming refugees and having nostalgia for the past. But I was born in Pakistan and that is my homeland."

I can imagine the lives of the persons now living in the house in Isola where Annamaria lived as a child. For them also that house, the community of Isola and the Istria region, is now their homeland. If and when, they will leave that house to go and live somewhere else, they would also miss it.

I think that is the story of all refugees. The first generations miss what they have lost and carry that hurt all their lives. But the second and third generations, hopefully, they can stop being a refugee, they can make new memories about their new homelands, and the old stories lose their power of hurting us and keeping us as a prisoner of the pain. 

*****

Sonali SenRoy's Book

I had first heard about the Sonali - Rossellini story in 2008, when Dilip Padgaonkar's book, "Under Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini in India" had come out. 

Over the past 17 years, I have spent numerous days in libraries and archives, collecting information in English, Italian and French about their story. For example, you can read my article about this story written in 2008. You can say that I am obsessed with it.

Today I received a book written by Sonali in 1961, that I had ordered. There was a surprise hidden in it. This post is about her book and the surprise. The image below shows Sonali from the back-cover of her book.

Let me start with a brief background about the Sonali-Rossellini story.

Brief Background About Sonali-Rossellini Story

The 1945 film, "Rome, Open City" created the legend of Italian film director Roberto Rossellini. At the end of 1956, Rossellini arrived in India to shoot a film. At that time, he was married to the Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman.

In India, he fell in love with Sonali Dasgupta, wife of film director Hari Dasgupta. There was a huge scandal. In October 1957, Rossellini and Sonali escaped to Paris with her younger son.

4 years later, in June 1961, Sonali wrote a book in French & Italian titled, Altro Mondo (the Other World).

Sonali's Book

I had heard about this book, but had not managed to lay hands on it. After so many years, a few days ago, while re-reading my old notes, I was reminded of this book and thought that now it might be possible to find it on internet. I found it straight away, and ordered a used-copy for a little more than three Euro.

Today morning that book arrived. It says that it was originally published in French and translated into Italian by Sonali herself, with the help of Mr. Dominique Aubier. It was published by Longanesi & C., Rome in June 1961. The cover has the picture of a woman from the Ajanta caves.

On the book, the author's name is Sonali Dasgupta. The first question in my mind was - why did she use this name for her book?

Sonali's maiden name was Senroy, and after her marriage to H. Dasgupta, she had become Sonali Dasgupta. When she had reached Paris in the beginning of October 1957, Roberto was still married to his second wife, Ingrid Bergman, and their legal separation was ratified in Rome in early November 1957. At the end of November 1957, their daughter Raffaella was born.

Thus, her choice of publishing her book as "Sonali Dasgupta" in 1961, probably meant that she and Roberto were not yet formally married. May be, at that time, her divorce with Hari Dasgupta was not formalised and thus she was forced to use that name, because it was on her official documents?

Surprise in the Book

I was surprised that the used copy of the book I have received, has a hand-written note in Italian by Sonali (click on the picture for a larger view): 

 "Questo libro non è l'opera di uno scrittore ma l'esperienza di una donna. La sincerità in esso racchiusa è la prova della simpatia e amicizia per tutto e tutti. Maggio 1961, Roma, Sonali Dasgupta."

(Trans.: This book is not the work of a writer but the experience of a woman. The sincerity in it, is the proof of sympathy and friendship for everything and everyone. May 1961, Rome, Sonali Dasgupta)

Sonali and her elder son Raja

The book is dedicated to Ragia (Raja), her elder son. In the book, the spellings of Raja are "Ragia", because Italian does not have J and it uses "gi" for the J sound. It is possible that she had given verbal instructions about the dedication and the person transcribing it had used the Italian spellings of the word. I feel that she must have been disappointed that her son's name was not spelled properly.

When I had first read about the Sonali and Roberto story, I had been greatly struck by her leaving of her elder son, Raja, in India, who was around 5 years old at that time. It had seemed to me like a "Sophie's Choice" kind of situation because a mother had been forced to take one child and to leave behind her other child.

I think that by dedicating this book to Raja Dasgupta, she was expressing her regret and pain at that separation.

Contents of the Book

The book is composed of 13 chapters. The first chapter starts with her days in Bombay immediately preceding her departure from India for Paris, with her young son Arjun (later he changed name and became Gil Rossellini). A couple of chapters have brief glimpses of her life in India such as about her birth in Banaras/Varanasi and her father's work as a doctor and about her journey to Europe.

Rest of the book is about her encounters with Europe, first with Paris and Saint Remy in France and then about her life in Italy. These encounters include linguistic difficulties, challenges of adapting to the western clothes, and the curiosity of people about the sari-wearing woman. In the parts about Italy, there are also different episodes of dealing with journalists and other curious persons.

The book does not touch on her love-story with Roberto and her life with her first husband. It reads like a series of vignettes, as if she was talking to someone about what it means for her to be an exotic Indian in Europe and to explain the peculiarities of India to the Europeans. The first draft of the book was probably written by that interviewer (Dominique Aubier), at a time when she didn't have a good command over French or Italian.

The book also shows her desire for dignity and privacy, for not giving in to journalists looking for melodramatic stories and scandals.

Conclusions

To find this book with her handwritten words in my hands was an incredible sensation. Suddenly, I could touch the words she had written and imagine her sitting at a table in a bookshop, writing dedications.

It seemed to me, as if across time and space, she has decided to extend her finger towards me, daring me to touch her.

I had written to her once to ask for an interview, but it was a time of bereavement and she had withdrawn from all public contacts at that time. She died in 2013.

I have been obsessed with this story for almost 2 decades. I have already written about it a few times and have been in contact with Raja Dasgupta, her elder son, as well as with a few other persons who knew her.

With all the material that I have collected about this story, I know that one day I will write a book about it. When I saw her handwriting today, I felt as if she is herself asking me to do it.

***

"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.

*****

Mutations Art Exhibition Schio 2024

Our tiny town of Schio in the north-east of Italy has an active art & culture scene. One of the annual events is the Mutations (Mutazioni) exhibition, held usually around the end of the year, held recently from 30 Nov. to 29 Dec. 2024 at Spazio Shed in the city centre.

I want to present 12 artists whose works I liked. I start with 4 sculptures and installations, and follow them by 8 paintings. Click on the pictures for a bigger view.

1. Sculpture by Paolo Ceola: It had a white jacket standing up in the air and asking "Where is the man?" Made of ceramic and oxide combination, it had a shining smooth finish.

With this sculpture, Paolo expresses his fear that we humans are losing our identity.

He defines himself as a experimenter and researcher, looking for innovation, and working with different art-languages including photography, painting, sculpture, videos and films. You can check Paolo Ceola's other works on his Instagram page.

2. The Playful Installations of Roberto Marconato: There were two installations by Roberto in the exhibition. Both had the bust of a young woman, both with headphones listening to music, one in a pink t-shirt placed over a tower of balls and books, and the other with a pink knitted cap, connected to her computer-monitor by a cord.

The installations seem to be talking about a future world, which is partially already there in our lives, where our work and free-time lives, both revolve around technology and even our human relations are mediated by it.

Roberto is a self-taught artist and he defines his art as "surrealistic", with a preference of using recycled materials in his works. You check his other works at his Instagram page.

3. The Colourful & Playful Animal Sculptures of Giorgio Nalon:  Giorgio's animals seem straight out of mythologies and fairy-tales with bright colours. There was a cut head of a zebra resting over a Rubik's cube, vaguely similar to the bronze horse-head sculpture by Nic Fiddian-Green at Mable Arch in London, also reminds me of Mario Puzo's Godfather where the horse-breeder wakes up with the bloody head of his favourite horse in his bed.

Then there was a colourful chameleon, again clutching a Rubik's cube in his front legs. Finally there was a blue frog with a crown on his head, the frog-prince, waiting for someone to kiss him. You can check his Facebook page to see his works of art.

4. The Ceramic Dress by Daria Tasca & Vania Sartori: I was intrigued by this installation created jointly by 2 women artists - a fashion designer and a ceramic-maker.

It had a cream-coloured dress in silk-twill with a front-armour similar to a bullet-vest made of ceramic, out of which shining golden plates come out to surround the neck, while the hands-gloves have blue Sardinian wool gathering in 2 ceramic cups near the feet.

Daria started as a fashion designer and has been experimenting with painting on clothe, mixed techniques with photography and painting, and frescoes on wood. 

While, Vania studied to be an architect and then started to work in her family's ceramic workshop. To see their other works, you can check the facebook page of Daria and Vania.

After the sculptures and installations, lets now move to the works of painters.

5. The Pentatych by Luciano Gasparin: Luciano had put together five canvasses to create a combined rectangle, dominated by shades of reds.

His work was titled La Vita, the life, and had a quote by Seneca, saying, "No one would give you back years, no one would give you back to you; the time of your life will pass on the path you have undertaken and would never come back or to stop passing ..."

The painting combined a few figures - a head, a photograph and a church, while the remaining spaces were filled by abstract colours. It touched me deeply and I spent a long time standing there to look at it. You check his Instagram page to look at his other works.

6. The Immense Blue Ocean of Salvatore D'Oria: Salvatore is originally from Reggio Calabria in south Italy. His initial work was with oil paintings. In the recent years, he has starting doing more work with acrylic colours, which he uses to express motion and movement.

His painting in this exhibition was titled L'Immenso, the Immensity. The blue and whites of this work expressed communications and how the modernity with rushing time takes away our individuality and identity.

7. Suspended Horizons by Paolo Pallara: Paolo had 2 canvasses in the exhibition, both titled "Suspended Horizons", one of which is presented here.

He uses acrylics, tar, oil-pastels and ash to create the dirty yellow backgrounds with a tiny black sun and dark splotches of the horizon, from which black threads reach downwards. He describes these as, "In these suspended horizons, the becoming of days becomes the space where you find refuge ..."

The two paintings make me think of our polluted towns, as the evening falls and the skies turn yellow, both ugly and beautiful, at the same time.

You can check Paolo's Instagram page to look at his other works.

8. Urban Landscape of Claudio dal Pra: Claudio's landscape was located in Chiuppano, a tiny mountain town, not very far from Schio. It was an urban landscape, located clearly at the fringes of the rural-natural and is made ethereal by shades of yellow, old medieval buildings, and a complete contrast to Paolo Pallara's canvas-world above.

In fact, Claudio's colours were lighter and brighter, his buildings seemed wrapped in the mountain mist, almost a dreamland.

You can check Claudio's Facebook page for his other works.

These two artists, Paolo Pallara & Claudio dal Pra, made me think about the aesthetic pleasures of the two completely contrasting styles, and how we can appreciate beauty in so many diverse forms.

9. The Masked Animal by Sergio Polli: Sergio had a gothic looking canvas in the exhibition, with dark colours and a portrait of someone with a hybrid animal face - the face looks like that of a horse, but it also has two big horns - perhaps it is a male deer?

Animal masks have been used by the shamans of ancient people, they represent the capacity to visit the spirit worlds and to talk to the spirits. At first glance, Sergio's work looks like that. However, he has titled it the "masked animal", thus, it is an animal with a mask, probably referring to the animal instincts of certain persons who wear masks to seem civilised?

Sergio had recycled the wood from that used for making boxes, to make his canvas for this painting. His Instagram page defines his work as "recycling for painting, painting for recycling" and likes to use his art to express things for which there are no words.

You also check Sergio's Facebook page to see his other works.

10. AI Art of Annabella Dugo: Annabella had the prints of two very striking works, one titled "Meditation" and the other, "Sin of lust". These have been made with the help of AI.

At one level, it was impossible, not to be fascinated by the two works, for their surrealistic hyperrealism and their choice of subjects & colours. At another, it raised the question about manual artistic skills.

I think that in the past, artists needed to have both, imagination and manual skills to create art. But with AI, it combines imagination with software skills, while the manual skills become unimportant. How is that going to influence our ideas about art? Annabella is a renowned and award-winning artist from Naples, so she has manual artistic skills, yet here she chose to use AI to create these works. How does that affect our views about her art?

You can check Annabella's Instagram page to look at her other works.

11. Painted Glass Works of Loria Orsato: Loria, based in Vicenza, uses glass in her works. In the two works presented in Mutations 2024, she had hand-painted glass on canvas to represent the "Family of long-necked queens".

North-east of Italy, including the famous Murano island in Venice, are known for their glass related works and workshops. Perhaps Loria is a part of this tradition. She defines herself as an art designer and colour-researcher, and she hand-paints on glass.

At the same time, over the past decade, she has been active in dance-therapy, the Dancing Hands, inspired by the works of Argentine dancer Maria Fux. I had heard of Maria Fux from my friend Pio Campo and once gone with him to see him use dance-therapy for persons with mental health problems in Goias, Brazil. I feel that this combination of artist and dance-therapy, makes for an interesting person.

You can check Loria's Facebook page and her Instagram page to see more examplesof her works.

12. The Contrasts in Paintings of Daniela Toniolo: The 12th and last artists for this post is Daniela with 2 acrylic on canvas paintings titled "Rebirth" and "Opposites".

Against a background of grey and purple, the two artworks had geometric spaces, like floating windows and glasses, which seemed to be reflecting into each other, making me feel as if I was getting lost inside a mirror room, which reminded me of the final scenes of Bruce Lee's film "Enter the Dragon".

Daniela is from Schio. About her works, she says, "It can be defined as fluid-ordered, with inexistent brush-strokes, highlighting the diluted and transparent colours, with counterpoints of bright white ..." You can check her work on Instagram.

Conclusions

I felt that this year, Mutations exhibition had fewer sculptures and installations, and fewer works with a strong visual-aesthetic impact.

Let me conclude this post with a close-up image of cubes titled "Eva's Garden" by my friend Eva Trentin from the Mutations exhibition. Eva makes beautiful works by bringing together nature and its organic imprints on different surfaces. Her works are like labyrinths, the more minutely you look at them, the more facets you can discover. You can check more of her works on her Instagram page.

*****