Starting on Sunday, 13th August 2023, Cantacuzino Castle’s art gallery inaugurates its new exhibition. The artistic project, called “Giorgio Butini.Il mito”, is a premiere for the Florentine artist in Romania and explores the lines between reality and myth through sculptures, as well as sketches and other graphic works. The entire exhibition is built around an over two metres high marble monumental sculpture, depicting the myth of Icarus’ flight, created especially for Cantacuzino Castle. The exhibition will be open for the public every day, until 29th October 2023.
Giorgio Butini is an Italian artist, born in Florence, with extensive experience in visual arts, sculpture, drawing, painting and goldsmith’s art, as well as in the field of ceramics and decorative arts, while specialising in the restoration of paintings, frescoes and stone materials. Giorgio has followed, also, in-depth studies of the human body anatomy. He has won seven significant awards, such as the Second Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1997, the Prize for the work “Dreams”, exhibited at the 6th Beijing International Art Biennale, China, in 2015 and, in 2022, the International Prize City of Troina, as part of the sculpture section, where he classified as best contemporary sculptor.
“Art is way of life for me and I lend the expression of my deepest feelings into it. That is how many of my works that represent moods and thoughts have found a voice and been brought to life. The constraints that we suffer, the loss of values in our surroundings, the difficulty in understanding and voicing our deepest needs, often mean we are dissatisfied with our lives, imprisoned in moulds that force us along pre-set paths that others have decided for us”, said Giorgio Butini.
Master Butini has created numerous public works, among which “Supremacy”, a bronze and silver sculpture at the Museum of the Quirinal Palace in Rome, created as a gift to the President of the Italian Republic in 2010, “Death, Resurrection and Holy Spirit”, a bronze crucifix gifted to Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 and present in the Vatican Museum, Rome, as well as “Arco della pace”, inaugurated at Chiesa Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, Florence, in May, 2023. The latter represents Giorgio Butini’s vision of peace and will be permanently exhibited at the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels.
For Cantacuzino Castle, master Butini has created two sculptures inspired by the Greek mythology, thus citing the exhibition’s theme. The first one is a monumental sculpture in Carrara marble, depicting the flight of Icarus, located in the castle’s sculpture park and facing the Bucegi mountains. It measures 2.55 metres in height and the wings offer a 390 centimetres aperture, thus making it the only marble statue of Icarus in the world of such scale. The second one, made out of bronze and located inside the castle, is showing Artemis, the goddess of wild animals, hunt and vegetation.
In the exhibition, visitors will be able to admire other 25 sculptures made from white marble, bronze, bronzelight, slate or acrylic, representing deities, but also some works dedicated to abstract values or concepts, such as spiritual rebirth, authority, freedom, supremacy etc.
The exhibition “Giorgio Buitni.Il mito” is organised by Cantacuzino Castle and Original Media, under the auspices of the Italian Embassy in Bucharest and the Italian Culture Institute in Romania.