Eddie Ferraioli
The exhibition "Who desecrated the Georgetti Mansion?" by Eddie Ferraioli is dedicated to the Georgetti Mansion, designed by Czechoslovakian architect Antonin Nechodoma (1877-1928), and honors its memory. The theme of this exhibition–the rescue and conservation of our heritage, both natural and built–has been a constant in Ferraioli's works and exhibitions.
Four vectors energize Ferraioli’s body of work: the condemnation of the pillaging of a sacred space (desecration), the pressing need for environmental and architectural conservation, the urgency of keeping our memories alive, and the life project inspired by the mosaics and stained glass of this destroyed architectural jewel. And so, in putting forth the question ‘who?’, it becomes a compelling call–almost an inquest– to find those responsible for this devastating loss of our patrimony.
Where do houses go when they die? In what dimension do the human sensations and experiences, the joys and tribulations which accumulated during decades now subsist? Personally, for the artist, the accumulated memories of this house still vibrate because of the immediacy of a lived memory. Each object retrieved and transformed into a mosaic, each door and window redeemed by art, attests, as clearly as a hologram, the sonorous beauty of this mansion lost to us because of indifference and neglect. It is the defiling of a structure which, because of its architectural perfection, appreciated through a cult of beauty, was a sacred space. Let us then imagine that the walls of this museum are the support for the doors, windows and chairs (inspired by Nechodoma’s designs) that were once a part of the Georgetti Mansion, and that the visitors are witnesses of an archaeological montage.
Although Ferraioli has dedicated a large part of his life to stained glass, it has been mosaics which have captured his interest in recent years. Recently, he has ventured into fused glass, and it is this medium which we will most frequently encounter in this collection, whose core consists of twelve pieces in wood from the doors and windows retrieved from the Georgetti Mansion. Walter Benjamin, the German philosopher and essayist, introduces the concept of ‘aura’ in reference to the vibrant presence that the artist (through tactile contamination) imbues in his works. Will we be able to feel the ‘aura’ of the house when we come in contact with its authentic wood? The presence of absence…
Of the twelve works constructed from the original doors and windows, it is the twelfth piece which catches us off guard: a tryptic of shutters and mosaic with the message that erupts in the form of a grievance and serves as the title of the exposition: Who desecrated the Georgetti Mansion? It is not a coincidence that there are twelve pieces in this collection, since Ferraioli, through numerology, portrays the magic, the power and the meaning of the sacred ensembles in different cultures beyond the Biblical.
In addition to the twelve doors and windows, for this exhibition, the artist surprises us with a foretaste: ten women morphed in hyperbolic chairs, drawn out from a hallucination of Nechodoma. Some were constructed by the artist; others had been discarded and were salvaged; and some were recycled from other houses.
The twelve doors and windows retrieved from the Georgetti Mansion, as well as the chairs/sculptures, only make up the nucleus of the totality of works presented in this exhibition. Most of the mosaics are part of the artist’s collection, and many were part of previous exhibits. There is one unifying and distinctive theme par excellence: the celebration of the fruits and flowers which embellish our countryside, some of which have been forgotten.
Let us celebrate, then, this wonderful tribute to the beauty and richness of our flora transformed into art, and which we see displayed before us together with the artist’s commitment to protect and preserve, not only our natural environment but also our architecture and culture. Let us protect those ‘ships of our past’ to which we owe what we are. It is the same message carried forth…whether it be through glass, through poetry or through song.
Sonia Cabanillas
Curator, August 2023
