Introduction to the exhibition

Did you see the image on the exhibition invitation?
It shows Pescara’s seafront, seen from above. A man stands among the passers-by. He is the artist Matteo Fato, his arms are raised and he is holding up a rag used to clean paintbrushes.
This photograph encapsulates the essence of Matteo Fato’s solo exhibition: Il difficile è dimenticare ciò che si è visto per casa (Ritratto di Pescara per caso) - What’s difficult is to forget what one has seen around the house [Portrait of Pescara by chance], curated by Simone Ciglia and produced and promoted by the Fondazione La Rocca.
First and foremost, it shows Pescara, the artist’s place of birth, where he still lives and works, bearing witness to his deep bond with the area, both culturally and emotionally.
The rag speaks to us of painting and of the reflection on its meaning, which is the crux for Fato.
Fifty years ago, a similar image of Pescara featured on an invitation for another exhibition: Gino De Dominicis’ show at the Lucrezia De Domizio Durini Gallery in 1975. The Pescara seafront was also the centrepiece of that shot.This photograph seems to recall Pescara in the nineteen seventies, a decade in which the city experienced a real flourishing of contemporary art. These were the years of the urban art of Franco Summa, of the art high school shaped by Giuseppe Misticoni’s innovative ideas and of the visionary galleries of Mario Pieroni, Cesare Manzo, and of course, Lucrezia De Domizio Durini.
This exhibition shows that that particular moment in history has not been forgotten. Indeed, perhaps we’re reliving it, without quite realizing it.
This is a wide-ranging exhibition that involves cultural institutions, public spaces, and temporary installations at various points in the city. The outcome is an original narrative of Pescara that draws on the nuances of the artist’s encounter with the identity of a place, and with its recent and more distant past.