9 artworks by Heribert Wagner (Selection)
Download as PDFONDE = waves (eng.) = Wellen (ger.) = golven (ned.) • 9 artworks
The exhibition "Onde" (waves) was already hosted by several towns of the province of Rieti, including Casaprota, Casperia, Montasola, Toffia, Torrita Tiberina and Poggio Mirteto. Pieces of wood, a shirt, toys, sand and stones are some of the materials I collected in the rubble of the earthquake in Central Italy - and I used them for the works brought together in a travelling exhibition dedicated to the theme of the destruction of the earthquakes. In one of the pictures you will see a page of a calendar, with handwritten notes until 24 August 2016, along with a piece of tar, a toy sword and an envelope of a local rally. Even documents of the commune of Amatrice like a permit to build a small shed on the burial grounds. Those works, made with a mix of photography, painting and collage, are for sale and 75 percent of the revenue will go to charity to associations of the earthquake zone. In Casaprota, a small town in the Sabina mountains, Wagner, musician in addition to painter, was artist in residence at the Palazzo del Gatto of the Association Sabinarti.
"The day after the visit to the places of the earthquake - and after a long sleep - I started working right away. Memory evoked an image of two floors compressed under a roof on top, under the blue sky of Amatrice. I cut the canvas and mounted a piece of a real shirt, ripped and still with the buttons. The sand and stones on paintings add to the experience of reality. I decided to use the collected materials in my artworks and take them as well into the hearts and minds of visitors. The reality of all this destruction -explains the artist- can be felt only by seeing real results, as if one would really be standing there in front of all the buried belongings of all those people - only thus one can relive the feelings related to what happened. I also went to Illica, part of the Commune Accumoli: I had seen a documentary about this tiny village on TV, it had been completely destroyed, except for a farmhouse where the farmer still lived on caring for his cows. That was when I decided to create this project. Alessandra, a resident who lost her house, gave me a piece of wood that belonged to her mother's chair..."