Venuzuelan born Maria Gamundi tells how she chose marble for one enormous sculpture, and the emotional journey she took creating a memorial for a young woman who lost her life on the road.
A podcast where artists tell their stories through the materials they choose.
Hi. This is Materially Speaking, where artists tell their stories through the materials they choose. In this series, we're talking about marble in a community in Northern Italy where artists have been carving marble since Michelangelo first came here 500 years ago to source marble for his Pieta. They come not only to benefit from the range of marble available here, but also the exceptionally skilled artisans. Additionally, they can tap into the foundries, which help them realize their works in bronze, silver, brass, or cast iron as an alternative to working in marble from the local quarries.
Speaker 1:So where are we? We're about 30 miles north of Pisa and 15 miles south of the white marble mountains of Carrara, sandwiched between sea and pine forests on one side, and olive groves rising up hillsides into the Apuan Alps on the other. We're near a town called Pietra Santa, nicknamed Little Athens because of its tradition for carving marble. Today, I'm speaking to Venezuelan born, Maria Gamundi, at her studio on the outskirts of Pietra Santa, at the base of the hills that rise up to the Apuan Alps. Her studio is full of small and medium sized sculptures in marble, bronze, and terracotta.
Speaker 1:Many of them female figures, for which she is well known. Nearby is her Piaggio Appe, an old fashioned three wheeled vehicle. A model which she and other sculptors find useful for ferrying their work around. Outside, a lively group of dogs are on duty in her enclave. You'll hear them from time to time.
Speaker 2:My name is Maria Gamundi, and, I was born in Venezuela, but I have been living here in, in this area for many, many years. Actually, I arrived in Pietrasanta in 1973, a long time ago. And, one of the reasons why I am I chose Pietrasanta is because I was studying art in New York in a in a art, a university called Pratt Institute and in Brooklyn, and there was a poster, advertising, a stage that what could do in Pietrasanta, and this would be, added points toward your graduation. I was in love with learning how to carve marble. And, one of the things that brought me to Italy, my first trip is my love for Michelangelo and also Greek art.
Speaker 2:I went also to Greece, but I really when I reached Florence, I I felt that I could live there. It's so beautiful that people fall in love and they stay. That's what happens to most of us artists that we come here for the for the work, but then the the the beauty of the place captures you because, you know, you have everything. You have the mountains, the sea, the the pineda, the lake, and art. And I think there are few places that have so many artists living in one area, and, we we do know each other.
Speaker 2:And, whenever there are openings, we're supportive, and we meet at the different openings. And it makes it into a very, very good place to live if if if you have this passion. And, and then you meet a lot of people that have the same passion as you have, so that makes it also very interesting. I was coming from a university, and, I didn't know how to go. I didn't really have the information, so I went to the art high school.
Speaker 2:There is an art high school, Stagios Stade here in Pietrasanta. And, there I met a man called Lido Bovecki, who was a professor there, and he said, well, you you are coming from a university. You cannot come here to a high school. So come to my studio. He had a actually a marble studio, and he's the one that, gave me my first marble and tools.
Speaker 2:And there were not many people in in that time, certainly not many girls wanting to learn how to carve, marble. So they were very, very hospitable and, kind, and that was my my first experience with, marble. Little by little, there are now many, many, women that that do carve and, women sculptors that have, come in and artisans, too, women artisans, which were practically non existent when when I arrived. It it is a men's world. Being a Venezuelan, we are the product of 3 races.
Speaker 2:The we have the Indian, which is oriental, the black, and the white. And and we're we have different proportions of this mixture because we have been mixed for a long, long time. And so I think I I carry this within me, and I transmit it to my women. I work mainly with the female figure, and, I have always loved the human body. I am a figurative artist.
Speaker 2:I feel closer to the female body because of its, rottenities and, and and being a woman myself. And so but I don't copy, the anatomy as such. I use the anatomy and, and I only put what I think that is essential to the form and to give it, life. I sketch directly in clay. I mean, I do small clay ideas.
Speaker 2:And then from that, if I if there's something that that pleases me, I I move on to a bigger a bigger size, a more medium size. And from that, I go to a life size or maybe 2 meters. But, yes, I I basically think with my fingers.
Speaker 1:I asked Maria what reasons she might have for choosing to work in marble rather than in bronze.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, there are some, pieces that are meant to be only in in bronze, in metal. And, because of, you know, maybe the stability is such, like, for example, if you have a figure that is standing on one foot and you want it completely free, marble, it cannot stand on on on just one foot without some kind of support and depending on where you're going to put it. And, and marble has this beauty and this translucency so that gives you a different emotion. So if in the case of this piece that I'm going to be installing soon, it's a commission. And the lady that commissioned this piece wanted it in marble.
Speaker 2:And, and she did want this very airy figure. So I, in order to to be able to do this figure that seems like she's about to float in the air, I I I invented all these clouds that are all around which actually support and protect the figure. So I could have done this in bronze, and I would have done just the figure, just by itself without any any other attachments. So there's the difference. And and then the marble, you have marbles that are meant for indoors, like statuario is very beautiful, very translucent, but it's not meant to to be put outside.
Speaker 2:So when you're working for a piece that's going to be outside and with the weather and then you need a a Carrara, a nice Carrara white, and you need a a marble that is strong that that can stand the time and the weather.
Speaker 1:When I first came to the area, I remember Cellini being shown in the piazza before it was shipped to its new home in Virginia. Cellini is a sculpture of an enormous woman sitting, sort of cross legged with her chin resting on her knee. When I asked Maria to tell me about a favorite piece of work, she mentioned Cellini. And remember, there are photographs on our website and Instagram of all the pieces we discuss.
Speaker 2:But there there is another one I call Selene, and she has been quite, it's a piece that I love because she's very serene and she's contemplative, and I it's one of my biggest, sculptures that I have done. She's actually, 2 meters, 10, and she's sitting, so she would be, like, 4 meters if she stood up. And she was, commissioned by this, foundation, Newport News, Art Foundation, and it's it's placed on a on a lake. So she looks like she's really sitting on the water, and it's and they light her up at night. So it's very pretty.
Speaker 2:It's, it's called Kettle Pond in Newport News, in Virginia in the United States.
Speaker 1:Maria had told me she bought 6 tons of Carrara white marble, which can live outside, for Cellini. So with such an investment, I wondered how she found it.
Speaker 2:Well, the the their the stat is very high up, and, they're the the in the same quarry, you might find the section of statuario, which is very pure and, others that have the the carrada. I mean, but, of course, each each, quarry has their own types, and carrara can have the different qualities too. And it it depends on how many veins that that are in the marble. But usually when I go, I go with an expert to to search for the right marble and, because they can tell you if there's a defect or they can tell you what to look out for. And so I'll if I'm searching a marble, I I always go with the people that know
Speaker 1:more than me. I asked Maria to explain her process for making a big piece such as Cellini and what, if any, technology she used.
Speaker 2:In the case of the big one, I am I've worked with a new technology, actually. I you know, now now we have, the scan. So I I actually did prepare from the small one, the 1 meter model, and that was, by points with a pantograph, manually, and then I reworked the whole figure. And then when I had my model, 1 meter size, perfect and it was scanned and and then the it was actually roughed out by the new technology with the row robot and, these diamond tips that, that do it, and then, of course, finished by hand. It takes a lot of patience, and and you have to be very precise.
Speaker 2:And and, of course, now with this, technology, they the the robot, they put million points, so they're more but they they don't they cannot put points in in in places that are, again, maybe behind the leg or or in certain, crevices. And so there, you have to know what to do because the the you don't you don't even have the points that guide you. The the putting the points means that you know when the surface of the the the sculpture is there because you reach the point and then you cannot take any more marble because that's the skin. And, instead with the other system, you have not this reference, so you have to know when when, there there is nothing nothing there. You have to create it.
Speaker 2:But, of course, it's a big help in in roughing out. And, and as I say, it's not even the future. It's the present. Now a lot of shops that before never had the the the robot are are acquiring them or they send out pieces to have them rough out, and then they finish them in their in their shop. You still need the artisans and you need even better art well, you need good ones because they they have to be able to to work without the reference of those points in in many cases.
Speaker 2:So so you of course, the people that roughed out, have lost their jobs because, the the machine is doing that. And so in a way in a way, there are fewer and fewer artisans, and there are fewer young people that are learning how to rough out. And so it comes in a time that there there was less possibility because of all kinds of reasons, the the artisans, it takes a long time to to create a good artisan, especially marble. And before, they used to start at when they were very, very young and they would go into these workplaces. But now we have different rules, you know, the the syndicate, this and that, and and only people that have sons or nephews that are willing to invest in teaching.
Speaker 2:So it's, in a way, the the fact that there is the robots are filling the gap that there are lack of artisans, I think.
Speaker 1:Earlier, Maria had mentioned a very special commission that her client had wanted in marble. I asked her to tell us more.
Speaker 2:Yes. This piece, actually, it has a a sad connotation because this this lady that commissioned it is the mother of a girl who was killed by an out an automobile accident, actually, by a drunken driver. And she was only 27. And, this woman has dedicated her her energy and her sorrow in fighting to pass, a helping to pass this law that is a crime here in Italy to kill somebody if you're drunk or on drugs. And she's donating this, this monument to Pietra Santa, and it's, I think, the only one that has been also dedicated to all the victims of the road and the the organ donors.
Speaker 2:So the name of this monument is, Espiritolivero which means free spirit and light, bearer. In Italian, you would say a, kind of like a warning or that how fragile we are and how important life is. And and here, this, girl, had all her life in front of her, and because of somebody's selfish and carelessness, she she's gone, but she's a free spirit. And we hope that her light helps other people be more careful with other people's lives and with their own. So she is, in a way very airy and she has a star in in in her hand.
Speaker 2:And the only thing that that you that the sad note that might give you the idea that there is something that went that happened is that she has one shoe on and one shoe off because, one shoe was never found, and her mother insisted that this would be something that needed to be fixed in the sculpture. So when you are working on a commission, you're also working with other people's sensibilities, but you put your own heart and your own talent, to the service of something different. So I hope that is she's well received and loved by the community. She she is, not not really a portrait, of course. I I did take, work with photographs from her.
Speaker 2:She was a very positive and very, one one of my difficulty was that all the photographs that I had of this girl are smiling. And, and I didn't want the, the mouth in that expression. I wanted to give her a serene expression, but with her lips closed and the face relaxed. And, it's a very I think I tried to give her serenity and peacefulness, and she's very airy. She barely touches the ground, and she's surrounded by clouds which, envelop her, but they are the ones that permit the the sculpture to to be so free because she's practically completely free and airy.
Speaker 2:And, and I wanted to yes. This she's almost like flying is what I wanted to. And she's dressed, and, the dress also gives the sensation of air. And her hair has long hair also is flying, And, I I like the the fact of the wind, that the wind is part of the, part of the sculpture, you know, the that the dress and the hair and and just the way she is, kind of, going to the sky. I did it with with lots of love.
Speaker 1:I caught up with Maria a few weeks after the inauguration, this time in her kitchen, and asked her how it had gone.
Speaker 2:It it it was a very emotional inauguration, and we have been waiting for a year. And it it was exactly the day, the anniversary of her her 6th anniversary of her death and exactly on the same spot where the the sculpture is is placed very close to where it happened. So for for the mother, Maria Luisa Secchi, of course, yeah, she she's a very strong woman. And, of course, we were both very, very close and and and we gave each other strength. There are some pictures of us holding hands, and and it went.
Speaker 2:The the sculpture the syndaco was there. The syndaco is the mayor of Pietrasanta, and there were also authorities, from Viareggio and the the the police, the street police. It was, and the priest was there. We had an African priest, which is who is the priest of Vocete, the locality, and he blessed the the sculpture. The the national anthem of Italy was sung.
Speaker 2:And and, anyway, when when it was uncovered and and I saw the piece, the sculpture surrounded by nature and sky and and the height, it seemed like it was always meant to be there. It's, you you when you're working, you have to imagine you have to imagine how the piece is going to finally look in its location. And somehow, it happens that sometimes things fall right into place and and then they're perfect because the the sculpture has a lot of empty empty spaces, you know, negative spaces. And these negative spaces are filled with sky and trees and green. So she is very much, part of the landscape.
Speaker 2:The landscape is part of the sculpture, so that makes it, very, very good.
Speaker 1:So thanks to Maria Gamundi. You can see her work on her website, mariagamundi.it, or Instagram at mlgamundi. Thanks to Coro Vasilia for letting us use their music. Production thanks go to Duncan Thornley at MAP Studios. For photographs of all the work we discussed, go to our Instagram or website, materially speaking dot com.