A gift of art

When we headed out on this adventure, Father Paul Castley suggested one of the secrets was to appreciate and value each unexpected gift.

We had one of these gifts, in two stages, over the last two days. We arrived quite tired and weary on Tuesday afternoon at the old church of Sant Maria in Chianni where we had arranged to stay at the Ostello Sigerico in the old buildings attached to the church. After a shower, I felt like absorbing more of the atmosphere of the place and enjoyed a quiet reflective wander around the 12th century Romanesque Church which has been restored in a sensitive and thoughtful way. We were also given a tour of the contemporary ceramic art exhibition which is showing in and around the church. One piece caught our attention. It was a group of ceramic pilgrims heading toward a facade of the church itself. It was brilliantly lit by one light shining up from floor to project an image on the ancient stone wall behind.

We didn't realise until this morning in San Gimignano, that this exhibition is part of a multi-location exhibition by five different artists who have works in each of five locations. We saw more of their work this morning in San Gimignano along with the exhibition catalogue and then undertood more of the privilege of what we had seen and where we had actually stayed, sleeping in a 12th century church complex above a contemporary art exhibition.

Check out a couple of the web photos of the work we loved seeing and the website of the exhibition.

http://www.arteconcreta.eu/

Merran also grabbed a shot of me walking past the front of the church on our way out yesterday.