Saturday 16 April 2022 at 11.00 Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia inaugurates the Via Crucis created by Luigi Stoisa in the layout by architect Mario Botta.
The event is part of a cooperation agreement between the Directorate General for Education, Research and Cultural Institutes, theHard stone factory, the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Turin and theArchdiocese of Turin. The agreement concerns collaboration on a technical-scientific level for the conservation and enhancement of the Archdiocese's ancient and modern cultural assets. Among these activities, the collaboration in the realization of thepermanent installation of the Via Crucis by Maestro Luigi Stoisa, in order to ensure the correct conservation and the best valorisation, also in relation to its religious significance, within the Church of the Holy Face. The set-up was curated byarchitect Mario Botta, who also designed the same Church built in the years 2004-2006.
This is how the artist describes his Way of the cross, made in 2016:
“The work consists of 15 tiles made in Castellamonte terracotta partly glazed in white and partly painted with black bitumen to accentuate the shadows and some details of the scenes represented. The panels tell the passion of Christ through the expressiveness of the characters and the relationship between "Man and the Earth", a relationship that Christ relives in his long and painful ordeal. In this representation, Jesus is always accompanied by the presence of a lizard, a symbolic animal also mentioned in the book of Proverbs "Four beings are among the smallest things on earth, yet they are the wisest of the wise: [...] the lizard, which can take with the hands, but penetrates even into the palaces of kings" (Proverbs 30:28)."
They intervene:
Doctor Mario Turetta – Director General of Education, Research and Cultural Institutes
Dr. Luisa Papotti – Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan City of Turin
Doctor Marco Ciatti – Superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure
Arch. Mario Botta – designer of the exhibition and of the Church of the Holy Face in Turin
Doctor Diego Giachello and Arch. Adriano Sozza – Project coordination
Article Arch. Adriano Sozza, Director of the Cultural Heritage Office of the Diocese of Turin