The Ministry of Culture, through the Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Naples Metropolitan Area Mariano Nuzzo, asked Cherubino Gambardella to create a space in the historic and beautiful Royal Palace in Naples that would refer to Neapolitan architecture in a contemporary way.
The Neapolitan architect and lecturer took up the challenge, creating a unique space, transformed for the occasion into a true Neapolitan living room overlooking the enchanting panorama of the Gulf.
It is a real room without a ceiling that is wedged, through a narrow, luminescent gilded corridor, into the historic loggia, leading the visitor’s gaze towards the panorama and allowing him or her to sit in a rudimentary sitting room composed of two chairs and a table.
De Filippo, Viviani, the hushed talk of Joseph Beuys seem to be summoned to this metaphysical, timeless scene, where the wallpaper, the cobalt blue, the balcony with the clothes hanging out, the commercial flea-market paintings all gathered together, are not afraid of clichés, nor of set design.
This work is one of the most significant outcomes, from a concrete and architectural point of view, of a long process of experimentation born out of Cherubino Gambardella’s collages.
Over the last twenty years, the author has developed a long series of works on paper, made with mixed techniques, taking in imaginary panoramas where manual and virtual generate a multitude of fantastic cities, in which architecture is a cosmic accumulator of signs.
Mariano Nuzzo wanted a synthesis of this collection, contained in 44 significant works from various moments of architectural and artistic research, to be hosted in the new spaces of the Superintendency of Naples, in order to inaugurate a new exhibition course at the Palazzo Reale.
Thus between architecture and design, the circle of a new architectural utopia is closed. Exhibited on elegant wooden trestles – also designed by Gambardella – who curated the layout of the rooms together with Luigi Arcopinto.
The exhibition will be open free of charge from the end of February to May.
The catalogue with texts by Nuzzo, Molinari and Gambardella recounts the entire journey from the drawings to the room with graphic photographs that convey the courage and power of another Naples contained in one of the most beautiful recesses of its history.
