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SAN DOMENICO St. DOMINIC
We are in Camerana Villa in the province of Cuneo (north-west of Italy) and precisely in the township Castagnetti where, along a small country road , suddenly appears to our eyes a little chapel that inspiration and , let us say, a little ' crazy provocation , has turned into a play of light and hidden meanings . Everything was born from the encounter between the people of the village and Carlo Massobrio, an architect and art teacher, who loves to step into the shoes of an artist or decorator; this is a tribute to a local craftsman , Luigi Gallo who died in 2005, and who showed great passion and love for his country: he made the chapel dedicated to Saint Dominic on his own. The chapel, in exposed concrete , stands on a small clearing along the road , overlooking the valley below and has become over the years a point of reference for people in the area. For the decoration of the exterior walls , the architect Massobrio following the footsteps of the great American artist Sol LeWitt , let the colors come to life in freeing curvilinear and floral motifs without a specific theme but guided only by his eyes and his boyish enthusiasm . The color, always aggressive and joyful gives to the whole the aspect of a fairy tale, it wants to amaze entering into symbiosis with the calm of the surrounding landscape. Massobrio wanted to counter the stillness and the coldness of the structure material invading the colored space and painted with non- overlapping dynamics , so that vitalism , intended as “a joie de vivre” , with a playful spirit asserts itself in the eyes of the observer. While changing dress to St. Dominic he wanted to contrast the grey iconographic image convention of churches accompanying the rural walks because, as Kandinsky said... The color lets you speak directly to the soul . |