I haven’t known the silence of the stars and of the sea
From explorers of every era – from Odysseus to Ambrogio Fogar – to those who departed from the port of Genoa to begin new stories, and to artists who chose the sea as their privileged subject – from Caspar David Friedrich to David Horvitz and Bas Jan Ader – all have engaged with the experience of the maritime sublime, an experience which, condensed into a suspended time, embodies the two poles of journey and navigation: the inner one, intimate and transformative, and the outer one, physical and spatial.
Thus, the sea and its sublime become a metaphor for the journey as a rite of passage, a threshold experience where the individual traverses both real and symbolic territories.
In I haven’t known the silence of the stars and of the sea, artists Giorgio Cellini, Daniele Coppola, Andrea Croce and Marco Strappato explore the topos of navigation, the sea and its iconography, undertaking an exercise in disorientation and discovery.
The results of research carried out at Genoa’s maritime museums – Galata Museo del Mare, Istituzione Musei del Mare e delle Migrazioni, and the Leoni Photographic Archive – will be exhibited, interweaving with the space of our Historic Bottega.
Also on display will be drawings from the series La vecchia Genova by Maestro Emanuele Luzzati, depicting the city in the post-war period.
The title I haven’t known the silence of the stars and of the sea originates from the first verse of Edgar Lee Masters’ poem Silence, with the addition of the negation not.
I have NOT known the silence of the stars and of the sea” is part of MY MUSEUMS ARE SHOPS, a traveling exhibition project by Giorgio Cellini in which visual artists are invited to intervene in places not traditionally dedicated to art, bringing their artistic practice into dialogue with—and contaminating—the context that hosts them.
Opening: Friday, September 26, 6:00 PM
Exhibition: September 27, 2024 – January 31, 2026
Venue: Bottega Storica Lucarda, via di Sottoripa 61R, Genoa
Curated by: Giorgio Cellini and Elena Scovazzi Lucarda
I have known the silence of the stars and of the sea,
And the silence of the city when it pauses,
And the silence of a man and a maid,
And the silence of the sick
When their eyes roam about the room.
And I ask: For the depths,
Of what use is language?
Edgar Lee Masters
