A retrospective on Maestro Staino in Massa Marittima

Sergio Staino – A retrospective 2003-2023 is the homage that Massa Marittima wants to pay to the artist, the intellectual and the designer, in first anniversary of his passing through a series of events promoted by the Art@ltro association which starts on Saturday 5 October, at 4.00 pm, with the inauguration of the main exhibition, “La Retrospettiva” set up at Palazzo del Debbio, in via Ximenes 29.

On display are the works left by Sergio Staino as a legacy to Massa Marittima: not only satirical cartoons but also works owned by the Art@ltro association and private individuals, video interviews and documents. The exhibition will be open to visitors until October 13th, every day, from 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm.

After the inauguration, at 5.00 pm in the Palazzo dell’Abbondanza there will be a reading of an interview with Sergio Staino by the Liber Pater Association and immediately after the “Concert for pencil and orchestra – Strisce by Sergio Staino” by Arms Ensemble, with Michele Staino, Sergio’s son, on double bass. The show is created with original music for swing orchestra inspired by Sergio Staino’s best strips, which will be screened simultaneously.

There are three exhibitions in total: in a dedicated space in Palazzo Del Debbio, “Vietato Guardare” was also set up, a multi-sensory experience that seeks to empathically make the public relive the sensations caused by the state of almost blindness in which Staino lived in the last years of his life and consists of works that can be perceived through the other senses, created by the artists of the Art@ltro association.

At the Gaetano Badii municipal library it will be possible to admire the banners “At the height of the daisies” which reproduce in a reduced format the enormous digital watercolors created by Staino and his son Michele to cover the external wall of the Peccioli waste disposal plant. These are unpublished images, printed for Massa Marittima in 2016, on the occasion of the show Beasts Beasts & Beasts: a procession of ten animals that live… “At the height of the daisies”, between fantasy and poetry.

From 5 to 13 October, workshops for children “The colors of the dark” will also be organized at Palazzo Del Debbio, which can only be attended by reservation (info and reservations 333 9777614). The Art@ltro Association welcomes small groups of children and teenagers who want to experiment with drawing in the dark, amultisensory experience which excludes sight and a way to empathically approach those suffering from visual impairment.

On Friday 11 October, at 5.00 pm, the public meeting will be held at the municipal library conference entitled “Satire in Italy: the years of Linus, Tango and… beyond” edited by the Agapito Gabbrielli Study Center: the speaker Oris Carrucoli presents a documentary research of cartoons that have left traces due to their meaning, linked to the current events of a bygone era. Finally, on Saturday 12 October, an online performance closed for the Twentieth Day of Contemporary Art AMACI is scheduled.

“Through the creativity of one of the greatest designers and cartoonists of our era, it is possible to retrace the events in Italy from the end of the Seventies to today. – states Costanza Soprana, president of the Art@ltro Association – Staino created a very rich series of characters, who became popular icons, using a biting and sincere satirical language that spared no one. Through this exhibition, however, we want to make known not only the cartoonist but also the environmentalist Staino, the artistic and dreamy soul represented by the watercolours, until the definitive transition from ink pen to digital, when his eyesight inexorably worsened. It was possible to organize this retrospective, with testimonies of his work from 2003 to 2023, thanks to the almost ten-year relationship of collaboration and friendship between Staino and our Association which allowed us to collect a large quantity of materials of public interest.”

“Staino has left his mark on Italian culture and in our community – declares the mayor of Massa Marittima, Irene Marconi –. His ability to tell reality through satire and his artistic sensitivity were unique elements that also profoundly enriched our territory. This retrospective represents not only a tribute to his talent, but also an opportunity to reflect on how art can influence the way we see and live in the world.”