The origins of idea

A research into the past to discover the origins of Carnival and masks, enjoying the culture of several people across the world, and finding in each one some detail that inspire the creation of that contemporary magic vision represented by the floats of Viareggio's Carnival.

The Carnival is the symbol of the triumph of instinct and the loss of rationality in a great feast for the body, that prevails on the mind. This feeling is what the artist wanted to his works, inspired by a famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin entitled "The Thought".

It 's funny how often in life the major inspirations and the strokes of genius come from very small details, from unexpected moments or everyday events. It 's been like that for Fabrizio Galli that, reading a book borrowed from a friend tank crewman, found on a page almost by chance the idea that paved the way for imagination and creativity.

A head, perfectly polished, on a block of marble left in its raw state for the emergence of thoughts from matter, which loses its importance in the presence of mind; a very evocative work that of Rodin, whose basic philosophy was reversed by Fabrizio Galli. As the countdown carnival parties, dressing the rich of a poor and the poor of a rich, so in the works of the master builder is no longer represented the domination of mind over body, but on the contrary, the moment in which the body is dominated by the mind, that leaves itselfl carried by the carnival's euphoria. Born that way, between books and thoughts, the idea of the sculptor who draws in a simple doodle, the whole philosophy imbued in his work.

A classic body that holds its head with one hand, symbolizing the loss of rationality, and with the other hand supports a mask that becomes the new face of the statues themselves. Very different masks, in order to represent the various cultures of the world that always use these artifacts in their religious, spiritual, theatrical and artistic ceremonies. A type of art very well known by master builders who create magnificent works every year, making Viareggio as the homeland of Carnival. For the architect Tomassi there were no doubts, with a "Bravo!" and a date he approved the major project, which began modeling in the artist's head and in his laboratory.

 

The body

Fabrizio Galli followed the advice of the architect Tomassi: "forget to be a manufacturer of wagons, think as you were only a sculptor." And so he did, studying for weeks dimensions and perspectives, going from classic Greek canones to the research of the classical age and Renaissance, from studies on the relationships and proportions of Leonardo Da Vinci - that in many of his discoveries anticipated even scientists - to the scientific canons of Fritsch who, at the end of 1800, published his studies on human anatomy, taking as a starting point for the construction of the figure, not the head, but the spine, the unique invariable segment both for tall and short people, and from which we can deduce the size of each body part.

Very interesting were also the writings of Burn Hogarth, the designer of the famous comic strip "Tarzan", and that was an excellent teacher of figure drawing and artistic anatomy too.
Hard to say which was the artist or the work from which Fabrizio Galli has took inspiration in orderto create the body of his statues. Perhaps, as he himself admits, the grandeur and perfection of the "Riace's Bronze Statues", the couple of bronze statues slightly larger than real human proportions, dating from the fifth century BC, considered among the sculptural masterpieces of the Greek cycle. But also an actor, Miles O 'Keefe, who played Tarzan in the movie "Tarzan, The Ape Man", directed by John Derek in 1981, considered by Fabrizio Galli symbol of the perfection of human body. He took inspiration and suggestions from all ages and from all the artistic means available, to create a work that reflects more than the figure of man.

The masks

It's impressive to know how many people have made use of masks in ancient times and even today. The entire world, from Africa to European peoples, from America to China, has used and uses the mask to symbolize a religion or belief, for folk festivals or plays, for rituals and ceremonies. The mask is often a tool that captures the supernatural power of spirits, used to benefit the community. Fabrizio Galli's research was extremely extensive, between books and manuals, in addiction to the endless amount of information made available by the Internet.

And it is precisely here that the sculptor has found his inspiration for each ethnic group, trying to select the best masks among the hundreds available. Whole days spent at a computer watching the magnificent artistic achievements that every country created over time and remained fascinated by so much originality, creativity and talent. Like any other artist, Fabrizio Galli looked at the many pictures until he was able to find, for every culture, the perfect one for his work. It took time and effort, but the great masterpieces are certainly not built in a day and his was not to be neither trivial nor obvious. View the final realization, we can truly speak of a work of art.