Gallo Nero is also an art district: “A (rt) message in a (Chianti Classico) bottle”

Chianti Classico has inspired artists since Vasari and Leonardo da Vinci, who immortalized it and made it famous in the sixteenth century. Then, Vasari, the renowned biographer of the greatest painters and sculptors, sealed the duo art-Black Rooster, with his famous “Allegory” in the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, in which Chianti is portrayed as an admirable old man carrying a shield on which a Black Rooster stands out. Today, instead, contemporary art is offering a new interpretation of one of the most beautiful wine territories in the world (aiming at UNESCO recognition). A true “Open-air Museum”, hosting the works of the most well-known names in the art world among the vineyards and wineries, which is more and more becoming not only a wine but also an art district. The confirmation comes from “A (rt) message in a (Chianti Classico) bottle”, a multi location exhibition (free, until September). The typical Bordeaux bottle of Chianti Classico, in its artistic format of four meters in height, becomes the “canvas” for 7 International artists, and therefore, 7 different interpretations of the noblest product in the land of the Black Rooster and its 7 Municipalities. The new artistic project has been promoted by the Chianti Classico Consortium, in collaboration with TerraMedia APS and the curators, Davide Sarchioni , Fiammetta Poggi and Isaco Praxolu. The artists Francesco Bruni, Corn 79, Camilla Falsini, Thomas Lange and Eliseo Sonnino that come from different generations, origins, techniques and language, have performed the respective pictorial and material interventions on the three-dimensional wooden reproduction of a giant Bordeaux bottle - the typical shape that Gallo Nero wines are known all over the world for-using the surface as if it were a white canvas and transforming it into a work of urban art. The artists were freely inspired by the wines and landscapes of the Chianti Classico area corroborated with their specific artistic studies. Clet, instead, created a new sculpture, transforming the bottle into a fantasy home, while Numero Cromatico reshaped the bottle into a large banner.
Each work of art has been placed on temporary display in each of the seven municipalities in the Chianti Classico area, creating a wine-art itinerant exhibition that blends contemporary art and wine tastings. Visitors therefore, will discover the works of Bruni in Gaiole in Chianti, Clet in San Donato in Poggio - Municipality of Barberino Tavarnelle, Corn79 in Castelnuovo Berardenga, Falsini in Radda in Chianti, Lange in Greve in Chianti, Numero Cromatico in Castellina in Chianti and Sonnino in San Casciano Val di Pesa.
The “Meet Chianti Classico Art” project is part of the broader artistic context in the area. The project also hosts “Chiantissimo”, an exhibition of installations in the Municipalities of San Casciano in Val di Pesa, Greve in Chianti and Barberino Tavarnelle, in addition to the numerous works of art on display in the permanent collections at the wineries. “The Consortium has offered the territory an extensive promotional project that works together with all the other initiatives regarding art, music, theater and wine, focusing on tourists and citizens, aiming to enhance the cultural heritage of Chianti and its excellent products. This land has been the source of inspiration offering various artistic forms for centuries”, Carlotta Gori, director of the Consortium, explained, “and like wine that draws its identifying characteristics from its origins, these works of art are deeply characterized by their link with their muse — the Chianti Classico bottle. This is the reason they are communicating with the places where they have been installed, our beautiful villages, to tell a centuries-old story in new forms”.