CUBO – Contemporary Textile Art Gallery

We are glad to present the “Cubo” exhibition space that will host the selected works of the second call for artists for the “XS Project”, announced by ArteMorbida. This is what Annamaria Poggioli, the president of Le Arti Tessili Association, said at the opening of the Gallery of Contemporary Textile Art dedicated to Gina Morandini, which will host the artist’s works until March 25, 2023:

I’m proud to announce the opening to the public, on Saturday, Nov. 12, of the Gallery of Contemporary Textile Art dedicated to Gina Morandini, set up in the “Cubo” of our headquarters at Via Carso, 4: a permanent museum structure, the only reality in Friuli Venezia Giulia, which until March 25 will host Gina’s works and later will also be enriched with artifacts by artists of international scope.

For the past two years we members of the Le Arti Tessili Association have been working on this project that we devised with Gina herself before she left us in 2021 at the age of 89.

Born in San Giorgio di Nogaro, Gina Morandini was an innovative teacher (she helped to establish the current “Giovanni Sello” High School of Art in Udine), project manager, passionate researcher and, above all, fiber artist of the highest caliber, known in Italy and Europe: a woman of talent and vision, founder of our Association in 1987, educated and far-sighted enough to conceive the Valcellina Award, the flagship of our association; this is an International Competition of Contemporary Textile Art aimed at young artists from all over the world, of which we have promoted no less than eleven editions in Maniago, setting up exhibitions at Palazzo d’Attimis and the Museum of Arte fabbrile e delle coltellerie with works by artists from East to West, from China and Japan to Eastern Europe, from Mexico to Canada.

At present, the rooms of the Cubo contain only Gina’s works, collected in an exhibition that narrates her artistic experience since the 1960s, including majestic doors made of webbing and metal mesh almost three meters high, tapestries, artist’s books made on lead sheet with engravings, acetates and hand embroidery… one of these books, moreover, was chosen as the image for the volume we published entitled “Gina Morandini, lo sguardo attento del tessile“.

The opening day was a success: more than a hundred people, including artists and journalists from different Italian regions, were eager to participate in this long-awaited event. Satisfied was the Mayor of Maniago Umberto Scarabello because “such a prestigious reality constitutes a cultural and tourist wealth for our City,” he said. Also at the ribbon-cutting ceremony were regional councilor Emanuele Zanon and the area manager of Friulovest Banca Claudio Sandri, who were enthusiastic about the initiative, together with Paolo Fenu, Gina’s son who was present with his family members.

The exhibition, in fact, is made possible thanks to the lending of the works by the artist’s sons, Pietro and Paolo, as well as the contribution of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, the Municipality of Maniago, Fondazione Friuli, BCC Friulovest Banca, the collaboration of the Lis Aganis Ecomuseum, many associations in the area and the many people who have been part of Gina’s professional, artistic and personal life.

I have been leading this association for ten years, seizing a legacy that Gina herself entrusted to me in 2012 with an unforgettable “endowment” for me, thanks to trust and esteem that united us deeply.

With my partners, Barbara Girardi, Lucia Vedovi, Teresa Bruni and Ilaria Bomben, along with Carmen Romeo, a historian and lecturer from Udine who is an active part of the project, we will continue to knot together ever new weaves and relationships in the name of Gina and of an art, that of textiles, which we hope will bring together a wide but especially young audience, because the visionary artist that Morandini was has always invested in the new generations.

The exhibition will be open to the public until March 25, 2023, on Saturday afternoons from 3 to 6 pm. Guided tours can be arranged by appointment by writing to segreteria@leartitessili.it.

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