On Sunday, October 22, 2023, at 6:00 PM, in the Ghislieri Hall at the Ex-Oratory of Santa Croce in Mondovì (3 Francesco Gallo Street), Fondazione CRC is organizing the concert “Farewell to the ‘900” performed by the industrial music group, Officine Schwartz. This event pays homage to Pablo Picasso and the artist Cesare Peverelli, a connoisseur of experimental music, in conjunction with the exhibition dedicated to them, titled “Cesare Peverelli. Ceramics in Vallauris. Avec Pablo Picasso,” which is open at the Museum of Ceramics in Mondovì (Palazzo Fauzone di Germagnano) until November 5. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public, with recommended registration on Eventbrite.
“To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Picasso (1881-1973) and the artist Cesare Peverelli (1922-2000), we have chosen to invite Officine Schwartz to perform a concert, beyond their well-known historical significance, in order to align with the urban and exhibition context,” explains Enzo Biffi Gentili, the curator of the exhibition at the Museum of Ceramics in Mondovì. “Officine Schwartz is a prominent figure in Industrial music, which often sang in exhausted industries and abandoned areas. With the disappearance of its once-great ceramic industry, Mondovì also underwent a dramatic experience of this kind. Furthermore, the concert is titled ‘Farewell to the 900,’ both for the terminal crisis of ‘heavy’ industry and because the exhibition on Peverelli and Picasso, along with its catalog, concludes by acknowledging the weakening or downfall of some other ideological and cultural myths of the 20th century, from pro-communist commitment to picassism. Officine Schwartz is also known for their self-production of some musical instruments, particularly their leader, Osvaldo Arioldi, has created devices with extraordinary sounds, such as the ‘tubicordo’ and ‘biciarpa.’ They too, therefore, are artist-craftsmen, much like Cesare Peverelli was.”
Officine Schwartz presents some sonorous and visionary compositions as a farewell to the ‘900, encompassing a century of acoustic, electronic, and noisy sounds, as well as cultivated, popular, and experimental musical styles. The concert’s instrumentation includes a grand piano, self-constructed string and percussion instruments, various metals, glass bells, vintage analog drums and synthesizers from the 1970s, and an electric guitar with unconventional effects. These sonorous compositions swiftly traverse the century, spanning across Europe and beyond, touching upon specific moments in history, culture, and everyday life. A significant portion of the performance features previously unreleased material.
The exhibition, “Cesare Peverelli. Ceramics in Vallauris. Avec Pablo Picasso,” is born to showcase a collection of 50 previously unseen ceramic works by Cesare Peverelli, created in Vallauris, a town situated between Cannes and Antibes in the Alpes-Maritimes, and donated to the Fondazione CRC as part of the “Donare. Rilanciare la cultura del dono in provincia di Cuneo” project by the Provencal-Piedmontese entrepreneur Michel Ribero. Seizing the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s passing, curator Enzo Biffi Gentili proposes an exhibition that juxtaposes Peverelli’s ceramics with a series of linoleum prints by the father of cubism, also created in Vallauris. The exhibition is open for free entry at the Museum of Ceramics in Mondovì until Sunday, November 5: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM, Sundays and holidays from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. For more information, you can write to iatmondovi@visitcuneese.it or call 0174/330358.
