Preface

by Gina Lollobrigida

I maintained my acquaintances with contemporary artists and some of them, such as Francesco Messina, Giacomo Manzù, Ilya Glazunov, Giorgio De Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Jacob Epstein and others often asked me to pose. I was delighted to accept, but I observed them with attention while they worked, trying to discover the secrets of their talent and their art.

Cinema, however, sought me with totally unexpected proposals, that were so interesting they had to be explored. I was more curious than interested and, after a while, I was determined to return to my paintbrushes and sculptures when the presence of Vittorio De Sica in that period of my life changed all my plans. Confident of my acting skills he convinced me to undertake the cinematographic career. I learnt acting from the greatest master of that time and I will be forever thankful.

I played many roles: many kinds of women, some important and famous, leads of great stories; others simple and common struggling with the problems of everday life. Cinema, as everybody knows, when performed with commitment and continuity, as by me for many years, does not leave much time for oneself, but I never wanted to become a mere instrument in the hands of the director and I always co-operated with scriptwriters and often in lighting scenes. I then felt the urge to step onto the other side of the camera directing a series of portraits of great personalities and two documentaries. Living in a world of images, it became inevitable that I fell in love with photography. I took an enormous amount of pictures in Italy and throughout the world: flowers, animals, children, common people and important personalities, creating five photographic books, the last one on animals and children, a series of assemblies that took me over 12 years of work in the dark room. However, my passion for sculpture could not sleep forever, and it awakened when my son Milko was born. It was a very special occasion, too special to lose, and, although cinema kept me very busy at the time, I found the time to create a bronze portrait of my seven month old son.

Some years later the great sculptor Giacomo Manzù contacted me to pose as a model for one of his sculptures. We started the first sessions and the Master had already shaped most of the figure, but irritated by my continuous absences due to cinematographic engagements he destroyed the clay model. Several years later, forgetting all resentments, he started a new clay portrait that can now be admired in my garden. This connection with the Master and his works filled me with enthusiasm, and it was then that I decided to once more cultivate my old passion. The occasion came when I was asked to create a big bronze sculpture to be displayed in the Italian pavilion at the Universal Exposition in Seville in 1992. That is how the great eagle that carries on its back a laughing child opening his arms to the sky, Living Together, was born. The same happiness and confidence in the future is expressed in the following sculpture, Joy of Life, that represents a dolphin that jumps out of the water carrying a child who is chasing another fish. Then came the two figures of First Emotions: a master that guides a young dancer. Finally Intimacy, a dialogue full of love between a mother and her child.

The world, however, is not only full of joy and good feelings, so, thinking about youth’s problems, I conceived a group of children standing on the world, with their sad or startled expressions and their torn clothes, telling the story of sorrow and abandonment in which too many children are presently living.

I often captured with my camera, during my many trips around the world, the expressions of these desperate people: old, young, and children, millions of people who are denied the fundamental human right to food. The title of this work is Love the children, it was inspired by a trip in Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador for UNICEF.

Cinema, left behind some years, is also an inspiration for me. Historical characters and everyday people that I played such as Frisky from the film Bread, Love and Dreams; Paolina Borghese from the film Imperial Venus; The Queen of Sheba from the movie Solomon and Sheba; Lina Cavalieri from Beautiful but Dangerous; Ippolita from She Got What She Asked For; Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame; The Blue Fairy, just completed, from Pinocchio are my sources of inspiration.

These were characters from the cinema of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, unforgettable, rich and full of dreams and fantasy.

This is my challenge, to translate some of my cinematographic characters into sculpture a different artistic form and eternal; using only my hands: first in clay, then in chalk, finally in bronze and marble, to live with them a part of this vanished world that made everybody dream so much.

It has been a difficult task, started over ten years ago, with many accidents, interruptions and discouragements, but also one full of passion and satisfaction. Now it has become a necessity for me to use my skills to revive and perfect the characters that live in me. I believe I am very fortunate to have this possibility and a desire and need to express it.