Ravenna, MAR visitor turns around with backpack and destroys work by Francesco Cavaliere

A visitor to the MAR - Museum of Art of the City of Ravenna destroyed a glass work by Francesco Cavaliere (Piombino, 1980), on which the artist had been working for a good 10 years. The visitor devastated the artist’s multi-year work by hitting it with his backpack during an awkward movement, resulting in the work’s ruinous fall. And besides the damage, there was also the mockery: it all happened only fifteen minutes before the final performance of the Prodigy Kid exhibition began, a double solo show where Cavaliere exhibited together with Leonardo Pivi, an artist with whom he has been collaborating in a shared work since 2018.

It happened on Sunday, the closing day of the exhibition. The work in question, Xilema, was composed of blown glass trumpets and , according to witnesses, the visitor, intrigued by the strange instrument, allegedly approached with the idea of better listening to the sound of the installation, not realizing, however, that with his backpack he was dangerously approaching the stand holding the instrument, causing it to fall to the ground. The museum was immediately closed to the public.

Cavaliere had begun working on Xilema in 2012, often rethinking forms and composition and working on the sound of the instrument, and giving the final arrangement to the work in the summer of 2022: it was an installation consisting of three blown-glass trumpets, supported by stands, emitting high-pitched frequencies brought to the public by several amplifiers. “It is not just a sculpture or an installation,” Cavaliere explained to Corriere di Romagna, "but a real musical instrument that I have brought to several concerts and sound performances, such as at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. Xilema is special to me, I cherish it and what happened gave me infinite sorrow. But, when we are in front of such fragile works, certain things can happen."

The artist also wanted to avoid placing blame on the security guards, partly because they did a great job during the exhibition. “As much as one may be displeased, it can happen,” Cavaliere concluded. “And that’s exactly why insurance exists.” The work, with a total value of ten thousand euros (each trumpet, on the other hand, is worth about three thousand euros), is in fact insured and the museum has already made it known that it will not retaliate against the visitor. However, bitterness remains for a damage that could have been avoided simply by paying attention.

Pictured is a detail of the work.

Ravenna, MAR visitor turns around with backpack and destroys work by Francesco Cavaliere

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