Il mitico Garibaldi--The Mythic Garibaldi

Marisol Cavia, "Memento"

Who was Giuseppe Garibaldi--the legendary Italian hero, wearing his trademark red shirt? What did I ever know about Garibaldi? I'd heard the name before... but I couldn't recall where or when. Wasn't he a composer?

Nino Barone, "Garibaldi Rosso"

We had talked with a woman staying in our B&B over breakfast that morning. She was to perform that evening at a museum in Bergamo Alta, and she gave us a postcard announcing the event. We weren't sure what our plans were for the day, but we said we might be able to come and see it. Her performance had something to do with Garibaldi and the key of G. It sounded quite unique...


The postcard read: "This art action... throws a thread in the intangibility of Time... This metaphorical journey in the Oceans of HEart, uses as main instruments: the physicality of the body, in the connotations as Siren/dolphin, flowing in the audio waves of a piano playing in G... Everbody can join with his/her feeling so as to live again and together, at least for a moment, the myth of Garibaldi in the key of G."

We were in for a surprise when we arrived at the Museo Storico at ten minutes to six. There was an entire gallery full of art themed on Garibaldi:

G i u s e p p e G a r i b a l d i

…Uomo della libertà, uomo dell'umanità...
...Hombre de la Libertad, Hombre de la Humanidad...

I whispered to Andy, "Who was Garibaldi?" as we walked in, in an attempt to try to alleviate my utter stupidity. Italian hero of some sort, apparently; he didn't know much more than I. We spent several minutes ranging around the gallery examining the paintings and sculptures, some highly abstract and others recognizably representational, by a diverse collection of international artists.

Laura Bruno, "I Mille Colori dell'Obbedienza--Ritratto di un Uomo"


Martha Ortez Sotres, "Las Batallas de Garibaldi"


Forest Yee, "G. Garibaldi"

The art didn't help us much in our ignorance of who Garibaldi was. He seemed to have been involved in some wars, liberation of some kind, and something to do with peace and human rights. He always wore a red shirt, apparently, and had a robust beard.

Suddenly, we realized--in our bubble of foreignness--that we had accidentally invaded the press-only pre-exhibition. All the black-clad journalists with expensive cameras snapping away clued us in. The general public (or the invited guests, we weren't sure) were milling around in the foyer. Only we were clueless enough to come in the back door and traipse around like we owned the place! Oops!

We hid ourselves amongst the crowd near the front door and looked embarrassed but tried to blend in while looking at the exhibition booklet. It turned out we had to wait about an hour before the big-wig arrived to begin the opening ceremony.

When the show finally got underway, it began with a series of endless speeches from guys in large coats.


Not understanding a single word, we got a teensy bit restless. After all, we were here to see our performing artist friend Laura from the B&B do her thing, not to hear an hour's lecture on Garibaldi all in Italian. I'm sure it was very enlightening...


Finally the guys ceased speaking and let us through. With a tape playing in the background, Laura began her interpretive piece on Garibaldi.


It involved some gauzy wraps, stickers, and an inflatable blue dolphin.




I can't claim to have understood Laura's piece, but I certainly enjoyed the mood of experimentation and exploration that was created throughout the exhibition. I'm still figuring out what the myth of Garibaldi is all about!