Livio Benedetti, sculptor, was born in Verona in 1946 and died near Chambery in 2013.During the summer of 2017, the City of Chambéry exhibited seven statues of the artist in the City Center and there is one that has naturally found its place on the fountain of the Place St Léger, facing the rue Basse du Château.
Help us to permanently install LORELEI and make it accessible to the public!
The City of Chambéry is the project leader.
Community located in Savoie and labeled City of Art and History, it has a historic center alive and safeguarded, inherited from its past as the capital of the States of Savoy
LIVIO BENEDETTI (1946-2013)
Livio Benedetti, Franco-Italian sculptor. It was in 1949 that his family moved to Savoy, where his father, a mason, found work that was lacking on the other side of the Alps.
Livio - who will always consider himself a builder - is destined to walk in his father's footsteps and is studying as a senior building technician.
From 1967 to 1969, it was during his military service, which took place near Charleville-Mézières, that he became a sculptor builder: he made his first works there, the series of wooden heads "the guardians of the forests of Ardennes ".
Therefore, despite doubts, setbacks and difficulties, he devotes himself to his art with a passion and a self-sacrifice without flaw or compromise. In 1975, after a few years in Burgundy, he found Savoy and set up his studio in Chambéry, rue Basse du Château and in 1989 in his house in Apremont, at the foot of Mont Granier.
Key meetings - such as those of sculptors Robert Darnas, Pino Castagna or his great friend Hugo Pratt - accompany him in the ascent of his own path. He refuses all ease and is constantly trying to get closer to the Beau who he never abandons the quest and in honor of which he launched the project of "the Embassy of Beau" in the late 80s.
For more than forty years, this fire which animates it is born from his hands of mason, rugby player and sculptor a multitude of sculptures of all sizes, mainly in bronze, but also in marble, steel and wood.
Playing with curves, angles; rough as softness, Livio produces a strong, subtle and poetic work. This unique creation, imbued with classicism as much as freedom offers to our eyes and our soul a wonder constantly renewed.
Livio explores multiple themes. If mythologies are a permanent source of inspiration, women, bulls and Christ also come back on a regular basis. Form and detail have a primary place in the work of Livio, who can turn a sculpture of the months on his stele before estimating it finished. However, the ultimate goal is to always be at the service of symbols, stories or passions that he strives to express more accurately
His sculptures find buyers around the world. Many of them, monumental, are visible in private or public places. These include "Servitude Volontaire" belonging to the Bernard Magrez Collection at the Château la Tour Carnet in Gironde; the "Dame à la musique", Place du Revard in Aix les Bains; or the "Sarrazine" at the edge of Lake Tignes.
During his career, Livio Benedetti has been rewarded many times. In 1988, he won the third prize of the French Grand Prix of Fine Arts. In 2007, he won the Pierre Dumas Prize.
He exhibited in France, Italy, Switzerland, England or China. In spring 2013, a large retrospective exhibition pays tribute to the castle of the Dukes of Savoy in Chambéry.
A few months later, he leaves us. Overcome by an illness that he fought with the same ardor and ardor that allowed him to realize this work he leaves us and through which he will remain forever.
LIVIO BENEDETTI, International Sculptor
In addition to France where he exhibited in prestigious places: Great retrospective at Chambéry Castle, Sculpture Garden at Château Bois Guilbert in Seine Maritime, Meyrieu Foundation in Lyon and several galleries in Courchevel, Val d'Isère, Saint Tropez, Megève , Honfleur and Paris, Livio Benedetti also exhibited during "mostra" in Italy, in Switzerland at the Cimaise Gallery of Geneva, in Belgium at the Château de Bousval.
He forged strong friendships during meetings with other sculptors on the background of mutual admiration. Thus he maintained close relations with the great sculptor Pino Castagna in Verona.
His fame has thus crossed many borders and great collectors and amateurs Swiss, Italian, English, Russian, Chinese, Emirati, Americans have thus acquired many works.
Throughout the summer the city of Chambéry has been under the charm of this beautiful artist that was Livio Benedetti, and if his work enriches the Savoyard heritage in many places, Lake Tignes, Savoie Technolac, Aix-les-Bains and many common neighborhoods and if some works of course can be discovered in the outsides of the City Center, there is no monumental sculpture intramural that is obviously offered to the view of the daily passerby or walker.
How many times have we seen walkers sitting against Lorelei for a moment of happy melancholy at his side?
How many hands caressed his knee, marking the bronze of their connivance.
Livio Benedetti has made her pensive, beautiful siren with pure lines, she invites to the inner conversation to meditation.
We invite you to participate in the purchase of this statue, muse passers and passers muffled in the cold winter or seeking the coolness of the water when the summer bombs the chest.
A woman sits on a rock above the water, hands under her chin, she seems to be watching, enigmatic .... It's Lorelei.
This sculpture by Livio Benedetti brings out two themes that are privileged in his creation. The theme of the women he never stopped representing, and the Mythology that inspired him throughout his life.
Nymph of Germanic mythology, by the magic beauty of its songs, the Lorelei attracts the boatmen of the Rhine until their shipwreck. She inspired many poets and painters including among others Heinrich Heine in 1824, Guillaume Apollinaire in 1904 and will often symbolize in literature or painting passionate love.
Through this rich and ambivalent character, Livio realized this sculpture in 1995, reaching with it a certain maturity in his work. Indeed, to illustrate this complex figure, it brings together formal approaches, previously discussed distinctly: curves and angles, softness and hardness, strength and fragility, so many opposites that find themselves merged into a subtle balance.
Interpretation more benevolent than malevolent, this bronze sculpture, black, held a large place in the heart of its creator. As proof, he placed the first edition at the entrance of his Apremont workshop. Even today, she receives visitors.
The collection will be used to acquire 35,000 euros the Lorelei statue at the Atelier St Livio Benedetti, created by the family of the sculptor and install on the fountain Place St Léger Chambéry.
Your donation is deductible from your taxes
Your donation is encouraged by tax deductions as it fulfills the general conditions set out in Articles 200 and 238 bis of the French Tax Code.
At the end of the collection, you will receive a tax receipt allowing you to reduce the amount of your tax:
- Individuals: you can deduct 66% of your donation up to a limit of 20% of your taxable income.
- Companies: all payments to the project allow to benefit from a corporate tax reduction of 60% of the amount of these payments, taken within the limit of 0.5% of the company's C.A.H.
It is possible to support this project:
- by an online donation on this page, after registration and connection on www.dartagnans.fr
- by bank transfer on this page, after registration and connection on www.dartagnans.fr
- by sending a check (payable to the Treasury), specifying your postal address, to the following address:
Dartagnans
Lorelei Statue by Livio Benedetti
1 Rue de Châteaudun
75009 Paris
The Association The Friends of Livio Benedetti, created in May 2014, with 170 members, has the primary goal of perpetuating the memory of Livio Benedetti on the basis of the friendly ties he has established between all those who had the privilege to share this friendship with him.
For this purpose the association aims to:
- To bring together those who are willing to work in this direction apart from any personal financial or honorary benefit and in the constant concern of the interests of the heirs of the Work of Livio Benedetti
-to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of the work of the sculptor Livio Benedetti, in all forms worthy of the man and his work, such as the creation of the "Livio Benedetti" prize, publications, exhibitions, conferences, various animations, acquisitions, rentals, available.
You can consult his site:
http://www.net1901.org/associa...
Société Les Amis du Vieux Chambery: Association founded on April 15, 1933 by the sculptor Mars-Vallett with the aim of "Protecting, preserving, restoring and acquiring all that in the city of Chambéry and the Department of Savoy constitutes a historical interest, artistic and curiosity "as well as the pursuit of the preservation and enhancement of ancient neighborhoods.
The Association has more than 600 members.
Trade and craft union "Chambéry en Ville": the association brings together nearly 230 traders
During the Livio Benedetti Summer in Chambéry, tradesmen exhibited statues in their windows.
The Pillars of Racing, association of 110 members, which gathers former rugby players who played with Livio Benedetti
and have accompanied him throughout his life as an artist.
Come follow all the news of our event on:
Our website :https://www.chambery.frOur
social networks:
Facebook: @ChamberyOfficial
Twitter: @CityChambery
Let's mobilize to acquire this statue
Thank you for your contributions !
