The exhibition promoted by Fondazione Ragghianti, Il passo sospeso. Esplorazioni del limite (The suspended step. Exploration of the limit), saw in the town walls its main physical inspiration.
A dividing line that – in its many arrangements – has for centuries sheltered Lucca while allowing a network of international relationships to develop, thus decisively contributing to a well-defined town identity.
The exhibition is part of the events scheduled for the 30th anniversary of Ludovico Ragghiantis death and was organized by the foundation named after him.
Starting from the San Micheletto zone, house of the foundation, the exhibition spreads on the town walls and in the urban areas, as a symbol of crossing tangible borders and limits and as a focus on Carlo Ludovico Ragghiantis bond with Lucca.
The walls establish what is familiar to us and what is extraneous (extra, outside of something), what to include and what to exclude (excludere, to close out) in regards to a delimited space.
The process of establishing a limit-border requires a series of phases, from the occupation of an area to its measurement – nomos –, to ultimately conclude with the creation of a threshold (boundary stones, horoi, walls, landscape elements).
The walls express the continuity, the community, the identity and the bonds with both past and future: in the Roman world in primis theres the urbs, the confined territory, the town walls, the civitas and the citizenry, with its rights and duties.
The works displayed on the town walls have been created by international artists, representatives of various geographies, races, cultures and styles, all united by the intention of exceeding borders and limits in the name of artistic expressions, and determined to join together tradition and the innovation of contemporary languages.
They also share the same origin, having been produced in artisanal ateliers and foundries in the Pietrasanta territory.
In Pietrasanta the local artisans skills and know-how act as a magnet; they also made a fertile humus for some artistic development, founded on cultural exchange, tolerance and most of all on unlimited experimentation.
Another overstepping of limits and borders, like between the local creative dimension and the international one, tradition and innovation, artisanal expertise handed down from teacher to pupil through the centuries and formal experimentation and technique resulted from the synergy of artist and craft.