TAMARO. Stones and angels. Mario Botta Enzo Cucchi

In the nineties, the architect Mario Botta and the painter Enzo Cucchi realized a common dream: to build and fresco a small mountain church on Monte Tamaro, in Lugano, 1600 meters above sea level. To document this special meeting was the Ticino director and photographer Villi Hermann, with his film Tamaro. Stones and angels. Mario Botta Enzo Cucchi (1998). The film was presented this year in a restored version at the Locarno Film Festival. On the occasion of this restoration, the Fondazione Epper in Ascona is hosting an exhibition dedicated to this artistic enterprise and to the making of Hermann's film, an exhibition inaugurated on 29 July in the presence of the President of the Locarno Film Festival Marco Solari, its Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro, the architect Mario Botta, the filmmaker Villi Hermann and the President of the Fondazione Epper Maurizio Checchi. Exhibited are the unpublished photographs that Hermann himself took on the set between 1992 and 1995 and the drawings and sketches of the star architect Mario Botta, from the Archivio del Moderno in Mendrisio. In addition to this, the paintings by Enzo Cucchi, which for the occasion have been made available by the Museo d'Arte della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, and the documents and letters of Father Giovanni Pozzi, a personality involved in the project, and made available by the Salita dei Frati Library in Lugano, are exhibited. The exhibition entitled "Tamaro. 1992–1995 Photos of the making of Villi Hermann's film with drawings by Mario Botta and paintings by Enzo Cucchi" will be open at the Fondazione Epper in Ascona until 29 October 2023.

Mattia Lento