Jordan and Italy: an open relationship with art

Giulia Carletti
23 mar 2016
Tempo di lettura: 2 min

The exhibition FRACTURES: The Multi-faceted Side of Unity (March 20 – March 28, 2016), is on show at the Scuderie Aldobrandini museum in Frascati (Rome), an historical 17th century building right in the heart of the city. A perfect example of the city's ability to combine ancient and modern, the show comes after more than 50 years of artistic experience of the Italian artist Gastone Primon (Este, Padua, Italy), where he began his career as a ceramist, for then shaping himself as a polyhedral artist: a painter and a sculptor.

Gastone Primon, Fractures: the Multifaceted Side of Unity. Installation view, Scuderie Aldobrandini, Frascati. Courtesy of the Museum. Photo: Francesco Marcon.

The exhibition in Frascati (an old historical and artistic city, located 20 km south of Rome) shows more than 50 masterpieces by the artist. The event aims at revealing the profound and authentic bond Primon had and has with Jordan, and it will hence explore the pervading theme of his art: the fracture. A fracture is what the artist creates on his soon-to-be-finished clay works. It is a lament towards consumption and pollution by man. It is the wound man infers to his mother earth.

Omaggio a Pistoletto, 2016. Courtesy of the museum. Photo: Francesco Marcon.

A pivotal experience for Primon’s artistic persona was his four-year sojourn in Jordan (from 1987 to 1990), in which he strengthened his aniconic imaginary, finding inspiration in the equally aniconic art of those archaic Mediterranean cultures of Jordan and Syria. Moreover, in Jordan had the chance to teach and further explore – both at a local and at a national level – craftsmanship and manual work, teaching arts and crafts at the Design Handcraft Training Center in Salt, where he came in contact wiht Queen Noor.

Gastone Primon in his studio. Courtesy of the artist.

Primon’s art and artistic experience in Jordan is a powerful symbol of art’s universality, which has never been so fundamental as in this moment. Fractures puts on display humanity’s always-pursued will to creation and to unity. A unity which needs a fracture in order to be revealed, as well as man needs consciousness in order to act in favor of nature and earth. In Primon’s art, fracture itself becomes a paradoxical yet effective symbol of unity.

Primon’s masterpieces are part of important collections such as the Royal National Gallery of Amman (Jordan) but they are also shown in churches, art centers, museums, and public spaces. He is currently living in Rome, Italy. His catalogues are present in the library of Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome.

> More on Gastone Primon.

> News on Jordan Times