GIORGIO MILANI (Piacenza, 1946)
The Poetari, which define his current work, result from a journey that began in the mid-1960s and developed through the study of the relationship between images and writing.
The Poetari produced in the late 1980s were first exhibited in 1997 in Milan, at the show “Poetari Di Fine Gutenberg” organized by the Fondazione Stelline, with the patronage of the City of Milan and curated by Tommaso Trini.
Dating the same year is “Poetario Blu”, a large-scale piece placed in the Catholic University of Piacenza; from the following year is “Libro Poetario Di Gutenberg”, which embellishes the entrance of the Biblioteca Passerini Landi in Piacenza.
Meanwhile, exhibitions continued with two significant milestones at Art Miami, Miami (US), in 1998 and 1999. Also from 1999, and in view of the year of jubilee, is the creation of the very evocative “Jesus-Poetario, Crocifisso Di Fine Millennio”, exhibited at the Fondazione Stelline in Milan and now displayed at the Catholic University of Piacenza.
In 2000 he exhibited in Reggio Emilia’s Galleria d’Arte 2000&Novecento, in the show “Poetari di Cielo” curated by Luciano Caramel.
Since then, the notoriety of his Poetari has extended throughout Italy and abroad.
In 2002 the Druckunst Museum in Leipzig held a notable solo exhibition of his work.
In 2005 he was invited to the 14th Rome Quadriennale where he exhibited “Opera Aperta”, a large Poetario comprising about 1800 friezes and typefaces.
In 2007 he exhibited in Milan at the Agorarte headquarters, in a show curated by Philippe Daverio. The exhibition space was then near Via Brera, where another piece by the artist, created that same year, is located: A large fountain in white Carrara marble “Dove Mormori Eterna L’Acqua Di Giovinezza”, the name of which is inspired by Eugenio Montale’s poem “Ossi Di Seppia”. He was at the Mart in Rovereto, in the exhibition “La Parola Nell’Arte, Ricerche Ed Avanguardia Nel ‘900. Dal Futurismo A Oggi”.
The same year, the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) organized the largest exhibition of Poetari in Bonn, one-hundred pieces comprising paintings and sculptures from different European countries.
In 2009 he was among sixteen international artists invited to Berlin, to create a number of pieces in the State Library Unter den Linden.
In 2010, in Salsomaggiore, he created “Opera Aperta Fra Oriente E Occidente”, a scenic sculpture-fountain in bronze and steel as part of the urban redevelopment plan in Piazza Lorenzo Berzieri. In Fiorenzuola d’Arda, next to the train station, he created “ROSAe” an eight-meter sculpture of concrete blocks and steel.
In 2011 he inaugurated his greatest work-poetario “Eco Di Passi Nella Memoria”, as part of the Campiello di Vigonovo (VE) redevelopment and restoration plan, installing the entire facade of the historic building with 190 weathering steel screens with laser-cut verses selected with Philippe Daverio.
In 2013, in Berlin, he exhibited a video and five sculptures in the solo exhibition “Dalla Babele Al Rogo”, inside the rooms of the Italian Embassy and, simultaneously at the Italian Cultural Institute, 10 Poetari and frottage in an exhibition entitled “Dalla Babele Al Dialogo”.
The same year, on the occasion of The Year of Italian Culture in the United States, he presented two solo exhibitions in New York: “Poetari e Frottage” curated by Philippe Daverio, at the General Consulate of Italy, and “White Words” at Boffi Soho.
In 2014 he planned and executed the Portal entitled “La Porta Di Luce” for the Church of Saint Franca, and the laser-cut facade in weathering steel for Our Lady of Lourdes in Piacenza.
In 2016 he launched a new series of white pieces entitled “Nuovi Poetari. Sublimazioni, Sindoni, Intagli” at Villa Rospigliosi, Spicchio di Lamporecchio (Pistoia), with text by Marco Senaldi, Luciano Caramel, Tommaso Trini and Philippe Daverio.
In 2018 the Whitelight Art Gallery organized three solo exhibitions entitled “Di Parole Faccio Arte” in Milan, Rome and Turin.
In 2020 the Volumnia Art Gallery organized in St Agostino church in Piacenza an anthologic exhibition entitled “Giorgio Milani. La scrittura come enigma” curated by Elena Pontiggia.