Ozi di Ercole appointment October 21st with Sirano and Vanoli at Villa Campolieto in Ercolano
This year's edition of Gli Ozi di Ercole – from an idea by director Francesco Sirano with Gennaro Carillo, artistic director – is entitled Il materiale della vita/ la vita materiale, because it focuses attention on some of the objects of the site of ancient Herculaneum, such as wood, the sea, the natural environment of plants and vegetation and fits in perfectly with the exhibition Materia. Il legno che non bruciato ad Ercolano, which will open soon at the Reggia di Portici.
Friday 21 October at 20 pm, at Villa Campolieto, in Ercolano, the fourth appointment of the series will be held: The story of objects with Francesco Sirano and Alessandro Vanoli.
Vanoli, a long-time writer, has always had a predilection for sea stories and therefore will focus his attention on the wooden objects typical of the civilizations that overlook, grow and prosper on the sea: “The story of these objects will be an opportunity to investigate the Mediterranean as a world of exchanges and cultures. Through the history of wood it is possible to understand how and to what extent these civilizations have mixed. Herculaneum with its wooden objects is also unique in the ancient world. The lava there worked like the sand in Pisa or certain peat bogs in the North, working a true miracle for us men of the future”.
And if Vanoli will delve into the wooden object linked to the sea, for Francesco Sirano, director of the Archaeological Park of Ercolano, it will be a matter of telling not only some symbolic objects of the Park but more generally the relationship that is established with things, today as yesterday: “Even for the ancients, the status of an object depended largely on the material from which it was made, which for luxury objects implied research, importation and great craftsmanship and therefore also a complex history. Objects are not all in themselves, but are connected to human experience, and so their meaning changes depending not on the use we make of them but on what they represent. For us, those things are – they do not limit themselves to documenting – our history, its most complete and eloquent synthesis. For an archaeologist, finding objects not only has the flavour of discovery but opens the doors to suggestion because one wonders who used it and when and what it meant to the person who owned it. A bit like the crater that Menelaus gives to Telemachus in the Odyssey which is obviously not just a precious cup but an object with an important history and in fact he tells him: “I want to give you a crater of beautiful workmanship. Of silver/it is all; but the lips are tempered in gold:/work of Hephaestus. Phaedimus, the hero/king of the Sidonians, gave it to me, when, returning from Troy, I reached them,/and he gave me his house as a hospice: to you I now want to give it”. In this way, the story of this object will also have an additional piece, like a sea voyage that is enriched with new experiences”.
Satisfaction expressed by the Director of the Park Francesco Sirano on the participation in the event that welcomes a passionate and interested public: “In Friday's appointment of Gli Ozi di Ercole we talk about wooden objects and things but then it is the objects themselves that speak, they tell us the story, the stories of those who lived them and of those who made them and lived in the magic of this place of the past and present”.
Considering the cooler temperatures of the evening, the meeting will be held at Villa Campolieto; Director Sirano expresses his appreciation to the Fondazione Ville Vesuviane for their availability and active collaboration.
Admission to the meetings is free until all seats are taken, with mandatory reservation.
Info: www.gliozidiercole.it and gliozidiercole@gmail.com; cell. 3472931317
Article published on 19 October 2022 - 10:39
