Fondazione Summa [ENG]

Audioguide by eArs9. ATELIER- PART 3This is the last room of the atelier, where there are two canvases on easels. The one on the left represents a large structure made up of four arches inspired by the trilithic system, that is, obtained by arranging a beam horizontally on two columns. It recalls a work of public art created by Franco Summa in the summer of 1993 that was erected in front of the Pescara seafront at the end of Corso Umberto. Entitled Porta del Mare, Gateway to the Sea, the monument acted as a portal linking the sea to the city, in other words, nature and culture.Its imposing size was designed to rival the buildings in the town centre, mainly featuring functional structures and commercial buildings, suggesting a different approach to town planning. It was a relational space, a catalysing place where people could meet, mingle and chat. Try to imagine yourself in the centre of this work and look up. Above are bright colours spread over wide areas typical of Summa's aesthetic, complemented by the iridescent blue of the sky that can be seen through the monument's open ceiling. The other easel in the room bears a painting from the Canto dell'Accoglienza series, which we encountered in the Bedroom. This was the last production Summa ever worked on. Indeed, the colours are laid out in front of it ready for painting, as if Franco had put down his brush and stood up for a moment, before resuming painting.

Audioguide by eArs9. ATELIER- PART 2 The cultural rainbow spread from T-shirts given to fellow artists to another type of garment, the cassock worn by clergymen. This rainbow robe was displayed in a shop window in Rome in 2008. It bears the title of the work, Pastor Angelicus, and a verse taken from Virgil 'màgnus ab ìntegrò saeclòrum nàscitur òrdo', a sort of prophecy of rebirth that can be translated as 'the great order of the centuries is born again’. For Summa, the artist was, in a sense, a kind of lay priest, whose rites serve to awaken humankind’s social, political and creative consciousness. In Summa's case, his contribution to society extended beyond artistic production to teaching.He taught painting at the Liceo Artistico in Pescara in the years when the school was considered to be one the best in Italy. Its teaching staff, brought together by Giuseppe Misticoni, consisted of some of the most important artists on the contemporary scene in Abruzzo, including Summa, who was apparently quite a strict teacher! Fascinated by his method, it was not uncommon for his students to offer to help with his work. Evidence of this can be seen on moving beyond the Pastor Angelicus and proceeding towards the end of the room. There we find a large canvas depicting a railway with coloured sleepers. This is Railway Rainbow in which Franco and his students painted the artist's colourful motif on an old railway line in Pescara, where the Strada Parco now stands.

Audioguide by eArs8. ATELIER- PART 1 Moving past the Fanciulle D'Abruzzo towards the terrace, we find some coloured bricks and a diptych where the blocks are depicted stacked like a mountain. The work is Architettura, Architecture, dating from 1981 and was one of the artist’s most impressive social art projects.Initially, Summa gathered together about 15,000 bricks in the Pescara pine forest and invited citizens to paint them with his characteristic colours, producing this gigantic mountain in just thirty days. Over the following months, the bricks were used by people, especially children, to freely create their own constructions.Summa's intention was to liberate people’s ability to be creators of their own context, to redefine their own spaces through beauty. Next to the bricks on the right, there is a coloured T-shirt with the Cultural Rainbow we have already encountered, as you will remember. It was depicted in the pastels in the Dining Room downstairs.The work is entitled Sentirsi un Arcobaleno Addosso, Feeling a Rainbow on Your Skin, and was given by Summa to many of his friends, such as Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini and Michelangelo Pistoletto. The only 'request' he made in return was to wear it as they worked. It was intended both to spread art and beauty in their surroundings and acknowledge their importance as artists.The T-shirts are once again being produced and made available by the Summa Foundation. Your companions can tell you more!Turn your back on the T-shirt and, with the terrace to your right, proceed along the small corridor before you. On the left is a tin can painted bright red. If it were shaken, it would produce a sound like this *sound*. It is entitled the Poema Segreto, Secret Poem. Inside are ping pong balls bearing the artist's written thoughts and feelings. Yet the content remains tantalisingly out of reach. In Summa's own words: 'There is only one way to discover it: with a can opener, effectively destroying the work. It is a possible, but problematic choice. Alternatively, one can shake the Secret Poem and deduce meanings and prophecies from the sound'. 

Audioguide by eArs7. FANCIULLE D’ABRUZZO As we ascend the steps leading to Summa's studio, eleven long, linear and richly coloured figures, one metre and twenty centimetres tall, offer themselves to our gaze. These are the sculptures from the series: Fanciulle D'Abruzzo, Young Women of Abruzzo.While, at first glance, we can make out the synthetic features of a female figure, those familiar with Abruzzi folklore will be able to identify, in the alternation of colour, the same tones that adorned the traditional regional costume. The extreme formal synthesis, the lack of identifiable somatic features, the absence of a specific point of view – meaning they can be viewed from any perspective – mark out the Woimens of Abruzzo as eternal images, bearers of values that transcend time. It is an aspect that becomes even clearer when we see, nearby, smaller versions, entitled Korai. Korai was the name the Greeks gave to sculptures depicting young women: not portraits, but rather idealised representations.Summa's dialogue with the past moves in two directions: classical antiquity and popular tradition.The change in scale of the work also results in a change in meaning. After the small Korai, Summa went on to design monumental versions of the Fanciulle D’Abruzzo, more than four metres tall, designed specifically for the urban space. In this context, each Fanciulla captures the essence of a places, embodying the imprint of the past and our culture in the spaces we live in today. The first of these, created in 2019 - when Summa was still alive - is located in Borgotufi. With the help of public and private actors in the area, the artist's project is being continued with the creation of new Fanciulle in public places. The Summa Foundation oversees the commissioning of the designs for the various installations. Here in Pescara, two Fanciulle D’Abruzzo can be found in Piazza del Sacro Cuore that were installed and financed by the Fondazione Pescarabruzzo.

Audioguide by eArs6. BEDROOM The most intimate part of any dwelling - the bedroom - is the location of one of Summa's most exemplary works of urban art, Segnaletica Spirituale, Spiritual Urban Signs, where the city enters the work and the work in turn invades the city. These are the four canvases placed above the bedhead . Summa created them using a device he called an image generator: a reflective cylinder that he positioned in certain places in the city. Reflected on the circular surface of the cylinder, these locations generated the peculiar shapes you see now, which were then photographed and painted. Summa used them as the basis of silkscreens, which he then placed in various parts of the city, as if they were alternatives to road signs or advertisements that, rather than imposing a command or conveying a commercial message, stimulated the imagination.The bright colours, while recalling typical urban signs, are also a distinctive feature of Summa’s work. The colours establish an immediate dialogue with the viewer by acting on an instinctive level before the intervention of logic. The artist chooses strong colours as if he wants his works to shout joyfully. But shout what? That the city itself can be experienced as a work of art, that mankind can build its own space guided by beauty.So, if colour can shout, why can’t it also sing? Next to the bed, you will find Canto la Vita, I sing of Life: a washboard the artist decorated with a poem and his cultural rainbow. For Summa, the object evoked the songs of women at work at the font. Opposite the bed are two canvases entitled Canto dell'Accoglienza, The Chant of Welcome, Summa's latest pictorial series. Here, the colour is directly associated with a musical score, specifically an 11th-century Gregorian chant, characterised by the square-shaped notes that appear in the canvas.

Audioguide by eArs5. LIBRARYThis is the library. Looking back at the entrance, a vertical red line running across a canvas can be seen on the wall on the left, with Summa depicted from behind as he traces it. This line was actually traced on the wall of a house in Penne town square in 1971 and, on the wall of the building opposite, Summa wrote in black the same words that are on the canvas that you now see, meaning: 'I traced a red mark on the wall of a house facing the square as a starting point for the restructuring of the space according to a non-alienated way of life'. The artist wanted to highlight the need for an art capable of moving out of its designated places, such as museums and galleries, and emerge directly in the city. These were years when artists like Summa tried to give substance to the theme of 'Environment as Social'. That is, they began to question how art could contribute to a socially-aware urban development of the places in which we live, fostering processes of creativity and relationality in contrast with public spaces that alienate or degrade. On the right side of the same wall, beneath an aeroplane, there are some coloured squares. These are fragments cut out of an immense painting, 240 square metres in size, which Summa painted in just 24 hours in Via delle Caserme.An idealised depiction of Pescara, the painting was cut into small squares, which were then scattered over the city from an aeroplane, while citizens were invited to retrieve them and attempt to reconstruct the work. This was all closely linked to the history of his city. It recalls the flight over Vienna by Pescara poet Gabriele D'Annunzio in 1918. The date is significant – Summa’s own flight was in 1981, with the last two digits of 1918 inverted. The parallel does not end there. Pescara was one of the cities hardest hit by bombing during World War II: some 80 per cent of its buildings were damaged or destroyed. By asking citizens to reconstruct his painting, it is as if Summa were evoking the reconstruction of the city metaphorically, from a participatory and relational point of view.

Audioguide by eArs4. DINING ROOM - PART 2 A series of coloured bands in the form of a rainbow is a recurring image in Summa's universe. Its origin?Look back at the front door of the dining room and, on the left, you will see a large canvas with a staircase painted in these bright colours. Summa's rainbow first appeared in Città Sant'Angelo in 1975 in Un Arcobaleno in fondo alla via, A Rainbow at the Bottom of the Street. The artist coloured the steps of the parvis of the town's eighteenth-century church in the hues of a rainbow that - as he himself explains - is not natural, but cultural. He used to describe it with these words:  "It is made up of 12 colours in a double series, placed in a set order. So it is a an intellectual work, therefore an artistic elaboration'.  It signifies the spiritual elevation made possible by art. It is a work of social art, that is, arising in an urban context, with the aim of engaging and involving the entire community. Sometimes, there were setbacks. To create this work, for example, Franco even risked criminal prosecution for defacement and also encountered a lot of resistance from the municipality. After all, these too are forms of participation! Another artistic creation in the social sphere that involved a more direct participation of people was the work No. Here, there is a reproduction of this work that will not be difficult for you to spot: it is the canvas covered in the highly colorful word 'No'. It dates from the 12th and 13th of May, 1974, when a referendum was held on repealing the divorce law. The artist invited Pescara’s citizens to express their dissent in a very physical way, using a spray canister on a white canvas measuring 4 by 4 metres, placed on the ground. The role of the artist as a political catalyst is abundantly clear here and was a common factor in practically all Summa's works, albeit less explicit.

Audioguide by eArs3. DINING ROOM - PART 1 Dining rooms are places both for meetings and private moments. Summa used to invite only a few close friends to this room.Here, we come face to face with Franco, or rather, his portrait. Look back at the entrance you just passed through and you will see a large gilded canvas: the Genealogical Self-Portrait. Summa depicts himself in front of the Parthenon, his face changed into that of an Ephebe - an ideal depiction of a young man in Greek statuary. In the background are Leonardo da Vinci's polyhedrons, a gabled roof and a multicoloured sun. This is transfiguration through art, the origins of which are rooted in past centuries. A space for conviviality, the dining room also hosts works by other artists: in the lower part of the wall opposite the self-portrait, we see some small frames. These are a selection of the 28 Homages sent in 2016 to Summa by friends, including Ugo La Pietra and Ettore Spalletti. These can be viewed later, in the corridor leading to the bedroom. For those with whom he felt an affinity, Summa created rainbow T-shirts, depicted in the pastel paintings above the Homages. You will have to look up to see them, as did the public the first time they were displayed in 1978 at the Taide gallery in Salerno for the installation-performance Pensierazione, a play on the Italian words for “thinking” and “action”. The work is now in the collection of the Fondazione Maxxi Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo. In the Salerno gallery, the artist had intentionally left the remnants of the crayons used for the works on the floor below. Visitors – obliged to look upwards - stepped on them and, walking around the space, spread their colours on the floor, which became more and more colourful as time went on. The artist had wanted to make it clear that the work of art was not a fait accompli, but an element in the making, completed only by the people who interact with it - consciously or not. 

Audioguide by eArs2. ENTRANCEWho was Franco Summa? We could give you a biographical definition and tell you that he was an Italian artist, known for his work in social, urban and participatory art, who was active from 1964 to 2020.We would have said everything... and nothing.He can be better understood through these rooms, still furnished in the manner Summa intended, long before the doors of his home and studio were opened to the community.Even at the threshold, we are greeted by a multifaceted personality who expressed himself in many media. He once said: 'I don't know if I am a designer, an architect, an artist... certainly a poet and a philosopher. That is, someone who tries to understand what life is, what life means to him, what life means to others. And, above all, what each of us, each human, does on earth'.His vision bestrode painting, literature, architecture, town planning, design and more. This is evident in the five large canvases on the front and right walls: the Sui Domina, Mistress of Herself.series. In this work, he dresses his wife - the architect Adina Riga – in garments that transform her into Vittoria Colonna, the renowned poetess who lived five hundred years ago, depicted against the backdrop of her Abruzzi village, Pescocostanzo.His wife Adina was a constant companion. With him, she designed the jewellery displayed in the shrine immediately below the canvases of Sui Domina on the side wall. The words Amare, Progettare, Essere – To Love, To Project, To Be – can be seen in the canvas on the left wall, between two display cabinets that were also designed by Summa. The words date from 1994, when the artist was working on an industrial warehouse in Pescara where, under the paint on a wall, a phrase had emerged that dates back to the twenty-year fascist period: 'Believe, Obey, Fight'. Summa’s phrase was an attempt to exorcise the negativity of the place.Much of our story remains to be told and Natalia and Mauro will be on hand to answer any of your questions!We now move on to the next room.

Audioguide by eArs1. INTRODUCTIONWelcome to the home of Franco Summa. Today, we will visit the house where the artist lived and, upstairs, his atelier, to get to know his works and, above all, his artistic philosophy and thought.The house is managed by the Summa Foundation, founded by the artist to open up his rooms and his works to the the community. The Foundation's statute states: "Established as an act arising from the love the artist Franco Summa felt towards the community, the Summa Foundation aims to affirm, through art, shared values and  o improve the quality of urban spaces."As well as opening the house to the public, the Foundation also works to make known and bring to fruition the artist's public art projects. You can see an example of this here in Pescara, in Piazza del Sacro Cuore, where there are two statues from the Fanciulle D'Abruzzo series, which we will be discussing today.The rooms you are about to pass through retain unchanged the furnishings the artist himself chose. Indeed, they are listed by the Superintendency of Archaeology, Landscape and Fine Arts of the Provinces of Chieti and Pescara, which has acknowledged the Summa House Museum as a place of national cultural interest.Let’s now begin our visit at the entrance to the Summa House. Once again, welcome and enjoy your visit!