Soriano nel Cimino Celebrates Gio Montez’s “Sublimation”
Soriano nel Cimino, 22. August 2014 – The roman artist Gio Montez receives today the “Soriano Città” Award from Mayor Fabio Menicacci, in recognition of the celebrated Manifesta Azione No. 6 “Sublimation”, a renowned performance that has marked a turning point for the artistic landscape of the town and of the Tuscia region.
sublimation n. [from Late and Medieval Latin sublimatio -onis].
1.
a. The action or fact of sublimating, of rendering sublime or of being rendered sublime: the sublimation of an emotion, of a feeling; in public misfortunes … one always sees an increase, a sublimation of virtue (Manzoni); to strive for spiritual sublimation through asceticism and contemplation.
b. In psychoanalysis, a term introduced by S. Freud (German Sublimierung) to indicate the transformation of primitive instinctual impulses, especially sexual ones, into higher and socially acceptable levels, typically non-sexual in nature, as a predominantly unconscious process operating in artistic and creative production and in the religious sphere; see also neutralization (sense 8).
2. In physics and chemistry, the phenomenon consisting of a substance’s passage from the solid state directly to the gaseous state, without passing through the liquid phase (the inverse phenomenon is called deposition, although in common usage the term sublimation is often applied to this as well); heat of sublimation, the amount of heat that must be supplied to one gram of a substance to obtain its sublimation; vapor pressure of sublimation, the vapor pressure of a substance in the solid state: generally low at ordinary temperature (except for certain substances such as iodine, camphor, anthracene, etc., which therefore sublime easily), increasing as the temperature rises.
extracted from Enciclopedia Treccani
The Origin of the Monument
Commissioned by Artistic Director Paolo Berti and Mayor Fabio Menicacci, Montez is tasked with creating a monument in gray peperino stone to be placed on the Belvedere Terrace at Piazzale Cavalieri di Vittorio Veneto.
The project is conceived as a dialogue between tradition and innovation in a territory rich in history, spirituality, and symbolic energy.
From Provocation to Art
The action sparks significant reaction: some call it provocative, others recognize its symbolic power.
Montez risks charges of public indecency, but the gesture is soon acknowledged as a genuine artistic act.
As in Freudian sublimation, instinct becomes creativity, the obscene becomes art, and nudity becomes collective awareness.
The Poetics of Action Art in Gio Montez’s Manifeste Azioni
The Tuscia’s dialectics of contrast — sacred and profane, good and evil, ancient and modern — resonate in Montez’s research, which, in an exoteric key, produces an “open” sculpture, a proxemic-kinetic device activated by the public. The work invites spectators to become protagonists themselves, modern heroes resisting oblivion and the cultural drift of the present day.
the research for a living manifesto
After the 2014 installation of the Monumentino, Montez returns frequently to these sacred places of Tuscia such as Soriano and Bomarzo, developing new Manifeste Azioni, which he has classified as acts subsequent to the first act of sublimation, because they effectively are all semantically and geographically connected to each other.
an exoteric modular performance of multiple acts
In 2018, for the exhibition “Monsters and Monstrosities of Today” curated by Paolo Berti at the Orsini Castle in Bomarzo, he presents “Golio”, a peperino sculpture depicting the severed head of Goliath — a symbol of liberation.
Attending the event are Bomarzo’s Mayor Ivo Cialdea and Marquis Paolo Ducci Ferraro Da Castiglione, a patron of the artist.
Further performances follow at the Chigi-Albani Castle and inside the Spelonca del Madruzzo, with the participation of Artistic Director Paolo Berti, Mayor Menicacci, and art critic Giorgio Di Genova, who describes Montez as “one of the most unpredictable interpreters of contemporary action art.”
The Poets’ Voice
On the monument’s pedestal remain the verses of critic Robertomaria Siena, encapsulating Montez’s vision:
“What use,
the day after,
the radiance
of the young and naked hero?
The day after,
thanks to him,
we climb the stair
of imaginal otherness,
sublime soul of the soul.”(Robertomaria Siena)
A Living Legacy
Today, on the initiative of the new Mayor Roberto Camilli and Cultural Councillor Rachele Chiani, the two peperino sculptures made over the years by Gio Montez — the Monumentino and the Head of Golio — are reunited on a new pedestal, forming a single myth carved into the local gray peperino stone; the Municipality of Soriano nel Cimino decides to relocate the work to the restored hanging garden of the Chigi-Albani Castle, where it will be preserved and made accessible to the public. After 10 years being exhibited at the Belvedere in Piazzale Cavalieri di Vittorio Veneto, the Monument “Sublimation” stands today as a symbol of art that transforms provocation into knowledge, memory into future. Soriano nel Cimino thus reaffirms itself as a crossroads of the new humanism, where beauty is born from the courage to look within.
Substance Transaction Gas Purification Sedimentation Solid Limestone Hard State Psychology Chemistry Physical Es Mechanical Drive Sex Aggression De-Sexualization Libido On the Self Energy Action Verb Possibility of Communication Art Valorization Research Competence Linguistic Formal Pedestal Provincial Road Poetic Poetry Power Quotation Belvedere Good Morality Blindness Nude Purity Faith Scandal Lux Separation Alchemy Goliath Self-Portrait Social Celebration Michelangelo Caravaggio Suffering Death Spirit Interaction Fame Challenge Chiasmus Stone Monster Hero Air Tourist Reception Ruin Contemporary Archetype Shadow Dust David Being There Pain Subtraction Myth Architecture Return Gold Function Relationship Proportion Canon Expression Lack Unfinished.
Gio Montez
