In preparation for Easter and the meeting with the Pope in the Arena on May 18th, last Monday in the parish church of Moniga del Garda, dedicated to San Martino, there was a meeting of music, poetry, and art, with sacred readings.
Professor Antonio Scattolini, with his mastery and expertise, presented Lao K.’s Stations of the Cross, an artist born in Brescia in ’34 and currently residing in Verona. The artwork is displayed on large panels in the Chapel of the new hospital of San Giovanni in Rome, depicting the body of Christ and the cross flowing along the walls.
The images, rendered with great intensity, evoke the inspiration of Guttuso, of whom Lao K. was a student, in the harsh style and the use of contrasting colors. The graphics are nervous and the gestures are essential and exaggerated.
In the first station, “Jesus meets Pilate,” he stands with dignity and authority. Carrying the cross, he falls for the first time. While a woman participates with emotion, a man mocks him. When he meets his mother, the drama becomes powerful: she covers her face to avoid seeing his suffering, and he reaches out a hand to her. Veronica comes to wipe the sweat with the veil on her head when he falls for the second time. Touching! The Cireneo involved tries to support him with the cross. Jesus is exhausted, and his face disappears at that moment, representing all the poor souls of yesterday and today who suffer and die due to the violence of the wicked.
He encounters the women who turn their backs on him. One offers him a cup of water. At the third fall, the man who was already present at the first fall begins to be disturbed: is he converted in the face of so much pain? Immediately after, a henchman violently strips Jesus of the red cloak that had covered him until that moment, to gamble it with dice.
He hammers the nails onto the hands and the cross, which has become like a carpenter’s table. Jesus is crucified, and Mary Magdalene throws herself at his feet to cover him with her red cloak. She would have been capable of obtaining that red cloak even by gambling with the soldiers, just to protect her Rabbi. This is a proof of love and courage!
Jesus is lowered from the cross, wrapped in a sheet, and placed in the tomb. He has become a hard skeleton, with hands and feet like painful claws. Mary Magdalene cannot find peace, she still wants to protect him, and the Mother weeps.
This series of large panels for the Chapel of the New Hospital of San Giovanni in Rome was executed in 1960, with a commitment of almost two years.
Giorgio Lao K. is also the author of the Crucifix that will be present in the Arena for the Pope’s arrival on May 18th. It is a Crucifix that has already been resurrected, regal and serene. It was created in 1982 for the Church of Christ Resurrected in San Martino Buonalbergo, painted on wooden inlays of various thicknesses. In the following two years, he painted the Madonna of the lilies and the Christ in the tomb for the same church.
In the parish of Moniga, in the second part of the evening, poetic readings by Dante Zamperini dedicated to the main passages of the Passion were held. In the background, images related to various themes, painted by great contemporary artists, including Lao K., Michele Ciry, Safet, Pistoletto, Manzù, Arcabas, Pugliese, Banksy, Castellucci, Janet Brooks Gerloff, and others particularly significant, were projected.
The introduction and conclusion were accompanied by organ music, the Stabat Mater by Bach and Pergolesi, played for the occasion by Maestro Ezio Damiolini, offering extraordinary suggestions.
Giorgio Lao K., born in 1934 in Brescia, moved with his family to Rome in 1940, where he attended the Artistic High School with teachers Gentilini, Greco, and Guttuso. After reaching South America to study Architecture in Uruguay, he interrupted his studies to work as a set designer and costume designer at the State Theater (in 1955) and to dedicate himself to frescoes, mosaics, sculptures, and ceramics to be exhibited in various galleries in the city. He also participated in the IV Biennale of Contemporary Art in the Uruguayan pavilion in Brazil, in São Paulo.
In 1960, upon returning to Italy, he created the aforementioned Stations of the Cross for the Chapel of the New Hospital of San Giovanni in Rome. Until 1968, he worked in the cinema as a set designer and director and opened an artistic ceramics workshop, signing his works as Lao K., in honor of his mother. In 1973, he settled in the city of Verona, exhibited in various galleries in the city, and created sacred works for the Church of Christ Resurrected in San Martino Buonalbergo: the large Crucifix and, in the following two years, the Madonna of the lilies and the Christ in the tomb.
He then created secular works, such as “La Dionisiaca,” a large cycle of paintings in the almost 30-meter hall of the Visitor’s Center of Cantine Bolla in Pedemonte. From 2005 to 2007, he created the “Dittico dell’Annunciazione” and the “Ultima Cena” at the Pieve di Santa Giustina in Sona.
