Alan Sonfist - COLLEZIONE GORI

Alan Sonfist (New York, 1946 – )

The artist Alan Sonfisthas narrated his encounter with Celle in a text written for the first catalogue of the Environmental Art Collection:”Giuliano Gori, our ‘Medici’ of the 20th century, met me at the gate of his magnificent Villa Celle. Slowly we walked through the park of sweet-scented, exotic trees whose shadows created a cool, mysterious environment. […] When I awoke in the sunlight I walked out through the dew in the to the first hill pointing towards heaven. That hill spoke to me and we agreed to begin the sculpture.”

Following the site selection, there was a period of historical and botanical study. Subsequently, the artist dedicated himself to drawing to plan the work, simultaneously creating a portfolio of eight engravings. Each of the prints represents a phase of his process, from the personal concept to the universal one, to the definition of each of his “Circles of Time.”

“A radical relation to the site is exemplified by the work of Alan Sonfist whose subject matter, materials, and laboratory are to be found in nature itself… In the center, he re-creates a primordial forest, surrounded by bronze-cast twigs and branches; he separates this “laboratory” from the surrounding site by a large circle of stones that serves as sculptural form and protection. In this well-preserved area, the only outlet for Sonfist was to dig back in history to the ancients, to the Hellenic and Roman times. In using nature to work within nature, he never uses the site as a context or a stage for any material alien to the natural world. Casting the branches in bronze gives the feeling of preserving their memory before they totally disappear.” Amnon Barzel in Gori Collection: Site Specific Art at the Fattoria di Celle, ed. Gli Ori, Pistoia, 2009, p15

Works by the artist

Circles of Time

For more info:

alansonfist.com