Philía (“Friendship”). From February 6th to March 22nd, 2020

The enhancement of the Calabrian cultural heritage continues at the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria also through the organization of temporary exhibitions.

On Thursday, February 6th, 2020, at 5.30 pm, the exhibition “Philía. Restorations supported by individuals with the Art Bonus” will be inaugurated in the magnificent space of Piazza Paolo Orsi, curated by the director Carmelo Malacrino.

The exhibition will be open to the public until March 22nd, 2020.

Many exhibits from the museum collection will be presented to the public for the first time after their restoration financed by the contribution of liberal donations from businesses, companies, individuals and non-commercial entities for the protection, maintenance and enhancement of the museum’s archaeological heritage, taking advantage of the benefits tax provisions in Legislative Decree no. 83/2014 converted into Law no. 106/2014 (known as Art Bonus).

Will be exhibited: the bust of a marble statue of Hercules (used in detail for visual communication), of imperial age, representing the half-god in his heroic nakedness with a lion skin on him, his arms behind his back and a club resting on the right arm; the beautiful mosaic with black and white tesserae, also of imperial age, with opposing pelta motifs (particular elliptical shape); seven splendid bronze mirrors, of classical age, from the necropolis of Lucifer in Locri; fifteen votive heads from Medma (present Rosarno), depicting female deities: Persephone and Aphrodite; marble fragments and clay artefacts from the necropolis of Canale Ianchina.

The restoration activity for the clay finds from the necropolis of Canale Ianchina was overseen by MArRC restorers: Virgilio Vecchio, Barbara Fazzari and Enzo Fazzari, in collaboration with the trainees Caterina Arena and Alessandra Milea. The other finds were restored by the professionals of the cooperative society C.B.C. – Cultural Heritage Conservation of Rome; in particular: Anna Arcudi, with Giulia Toppan and Ilenia De Leo, by the direction of the works entrusted to the official architect of the MArRC Elena Nicolò. Sole responsible for the procedure: the restorer officer Irene Spuri.

The director of the MArRC and curator of the exhibition, Carmelo Malacrino, comments: “This new exhibition, which will welcome all visitors when they enter the MArRC, takes on a very special meaning. The same title, which from Greek can be translated as ‘friendship’ in the broadest sense of the term, highlights the significance of the relationships between the Museum’s activities and patronage actions by external subjects particularly sensitive to the conservation and enhancement of the heritage. cultural. Since the reopening of the Museum in 2016 – the director continues – it has been intended to promote, alongside the knowledge of the extraordinary archaeological finds exhibited in the rooms, also the various activities that take place in the offices and in its laboratories for the study and conservation of the exhibited collections or placed in warehouses. Already with the exhibition “A new life. Restoration at the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria “, in 2017, it was decided to propose an exhibition built with a” double thread “: on the one hand, to present for the first time to the public many archaeological finds hitherto preserved in the warehouses; on the other, to enhance the activity carried out in the Museum’s restoration laboratory, which in the 2016-2017 biennium alone already had over 250 restored works. With this exhibition – Malacrino continues – to that “double thread” a pearl is added today, which shines with the generosity of the first patrons who, believing in the management project of the Museum, wanted to offer their own contribution, supporting a series of interventions aimed at restoration and the enhancement of the collections. These are entrepreneurial realities, associations and bodies very different from each other, but all united by the sensitivity of investing in culture, participating concretely in the conservation of heritage”.

The National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria is a “young” institute in the field of Art Bonus, established in 2014. It started to work on the development of projects to be proposed to forms of cultural patronage only from 2017, but in a few years it has arrived to count 21 projects, no less of which than 14 already fully funded. All projects are published on the portal www.artbonus.gov.it.

The exhibition, which bears the name of “friendship”, will present the first interventions relating to over 40 small and large works that have just been restored thanks to the donations of the “Giovanni Bovio” Cultural Association of Reggio Calabria, Tenuta Morano di Cittanova farm, COAB – Corigliano Calabro fruit and vegetable cooperative, Confagricoltura Calabria, Confindustria Reggio Calabria – Young Entrepreneurs, Cesare di Reggio Calabria ice cream shop and SITdA – Italian Society of Architecture Technology.

“This exhibition – Malacrino concludes – also assumes the sense of a” restitution “towards our first patrons, made up of the commitment of the many professionals who at the Museum have transformed a liberal donation in the restoration of works to be studied, enhanced and delivered to the next generations“.