Italy opens cultural center to the public

Italy opens cultural center to the public

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): The American author Mark Twain once wrote that
the Creator made Italy from designs by Michael Angelo. It is also
said that people who do not know much about Italy are those who
are always conscious of an inferiority.

To prevent that from happening to people here, the new Italian
Cultural Institute opened its doors in Jakarta last month, with
the goal of increasing and intensifying exchanges between people
of both countries.

Speaking at his plush, new offices in a recently renovated
building in Menteng where the institute has found a permanent
home, the institute's director, Alberto Di Maura, said that for
him this is a dream come true.

Having worked for a year to make that dream a reality, he
continues to brim with colorful ideas for the institute, which
offers language courses and workshops on different aspects of
Italian culture and lifestyle.

There is a library that will eventually provide both reading
and video materials to members, while a multipurpose hall with
glistening marble floors is the center for exhibitions, including
screenings of the best from Italian cinema.

In the cards are courses in drawing and painting and fashion
design. Giving a tour of the institute, which is spread over two
levels, Alberto led The Jakarta Post to a large kitchen which
will soon have regular demonstrations in not just traditional
Tuscan cooking, but will also cover the gastronomic history of
the specialities of various Italian regions, encouraging
participants to experiment with recipes.

The hope is to give people here a better understanding of the
different corners of a proud country, whose fashions and manners
Shakespeare noted back in the 15th century were those that his
own "tardy-apish nation limps after in base imitation".

At its inauguration on Oct. 19, an exhibition of 11 painters
formerly opened the institute to the public while giving them a
glimpse of contemporary art in Italy.

The display is an interesting journey into the use of paint
and form by modern Italian artists. In collaboration with
Jakarta's National Museum, another exhibition will open on Nov.
7, this one on the ancient and almost dying art of leather masks.

Amleto and Donato Sartori, heirs of this traditional craft,
struggle to keep the art alive through their work. The exhibition
will display 120 leather masks, six bronze sculptures, 70
etchings and 120 photos illustrating their work.

Now wanting to restrict the institute's activities to Jakarta
alone, but to share Italian culture with more of the country, the
exhibition will travel next month to the ARMA Museum in Ubud,
Bali, where a seminar on commedia dell'arte will be followed by a
theater performance.

Masks have been part of human civilization for centuries.
While the design and materials used to make masks may have
changed with time and context, the initial purpose of social
communication with the help of masks remains.

Amleto's work began in post-World War II Italy as the country
found itself devastated, beginning its desperate search for a
more noble meaning to life than fascism, a concept that took
birth in Italy and was responsible for the country playing a
major part in the war.

It was at this time that sculptor Amleto began researching his
cultural roots and experimenting with masks that were used in the
commedia dell'arte. However, the characters and techniques of
this art form lay buried and forgotten for almost two hundred
years.

Amleto died at the peak of his experiments with leather masks,
but left his son Donato to continue the art. Together with the
architect Paola Piizi and set designer Paolo Trombetta, Donato
founded the Centro Maschere e Strutture Gestuali at Abano Terme,
continuing the study of sculpture and graphic art and ethnology,
both classical theater and contemporary.

This study has continued for nearly half a century and was
recently rewarded by the municipal authorities of Abano Terme
with the donation of a 17th century villa that is now the
permanent home of the Amleto and Donato Sartori museum of masks.

Alberto, who is a great traveler, following in the footsteps
of Marco Polo, perhaps the first Italian to visit Asia, said that
it was not the love for sea that brought him to Indonesia.

Mountains are what attract him most. Fifteen years ago, as he
wondered where he should travel next, he came across information
about all the volcanoes here. Promptly he packed his bags and
came to Indonesia, trekking, island-hopping and conquering as
many volcanoes as possible.

A year ago when he was told he was being sent to Jakarta to
work his joy knew no bounds. The blueprint for setting up the
cultural institute was already on his table when he arrived, and
he plunged into the activity of looking for the premises,
negotiating its purchase, its renovation and its eventual
inauguration. Pointing out to the terrace overlooking the busy
street outside, he promises a coffee corner will soon be
installed under umbrellas, where like-minded people can quench
their thirst as well as their curiosity about one of the most
marvelous people, lands and cultures of the world.

The painting exhibition will run until Nov. 17 at the
institute on Jl. Cokroaminoto 117, and the Sartori mask
exhibition runs until Nov. 27 at the National Museum. For more
information please call 392-7531.