Artwork briccole by Enrico Marcato
The journey from Venice to Croatia of the artwork briccole by Enrico Marcato
In Munich, in the elegant surroundings of the Lodenfrey Park, the BiHoliday group presented the summer season 2023 to the foreign press.
To do so, they chose an original art project, entitled “I Say Art“: narrating a journey. The project involves the two villages managed by the group: BiVillage in Croatia and San Francesco Village in Caorle.
Once such wooden poles come to the end of their lives, Marcato initiates them for reuse, turning them into artworks.
I tried and experimented until I found something specific to Enrico: the Venetian briccole, depicted from 1500 onwards by any artist in their paintings: from Tintoretto to Canaletto, just to name a couple. They are the silent guardians of Venice.
Therefore, 15 years ago I started to retrieve them and apply strokes of colour to make them look alive again. If we talk about this BiHoliday-related project, the one thing that gratifies me, from the human point of view, is knowing that my artwork has travelled from Venice – the mother city – all the way to Croatia.
And the BiVillage in Fažana, where they are installed, is a mirror image of Venice.
Where else is it possible to see artwork briccole other than in Croatia?
Many of them are held in private collections. However, in Miami you can see them, standing outside the Cipriani Restaurant.
In Montreal, Canada, they are located at the Aldo Bensadoun Foundation. Then some are in Paris, in Ibiza. And now also in Croatia.
BiHoliday embraces Art as a language of values, as well as expressing that Art-Activism which today allows us to talk about socially significant issues.
These include BiHoliday emphasising the value of an area and its respect for everything that surrounds it, such as the reuse of materials (and the revival of the briccole is an actual example of this).
But the project does not end here
There is also a second part that will be revealed shortly, and that will complete the Italy-Croatia journey, in the opposite direction.
The artist
Enrico Marcato
Enrico Marcato, 47, lives between Padua and Venice, where he has his atelier. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.
He worked as an artisan and pursued his passion for painting.
Subsequently, he had an inspiration that led him to work on briccole. Among the first to believe in his artwork was Arrigo Ciprian, owner of Harry’s Bar.