ENGLISH TEXTS

A COURTYARD BUILDING WITH BALCONY ACCESS IN MILAN WELCOMES A COLLECTION OF AFRICAN ART.

Near Carrobbio, in the Roman center of Milan, a courtyard building from the early 1900s with balcony access has been chosen as the winter residence of Marcello Griccioli and his wife Emanuela Visconti: an apartment of 125 square meters, containing some of the works from the boundless collection of African art assembled by this former diplomat. The interiors have been repainted in white, to set off the objects: paintings, statues, totems from the finest Somali and Tanzanian artists, along with Italian works and iconic design. «In Siena, where we live, I have a cellar full of African works. I’ve been able to bring some of them out of storage, to display them in the house in Milan. The focus is on works that reflect the thrill of the moment of my “discovery” of Africa», says Griccioli. The flat in Milan thus becomes a sort of exhibition. African art, contemporary and perleggera interact this Emanuela antique, is a return with Visconti chairs establishes the to by zebra my Griccioli. Gio roots, Ponti, rug a dialogue in after From which front a with a lifetime in of Milanese the the iconic black dining spent family, design, and traveling», table. white all like of «For the version whom says Su- me reside having in lived the in vicinity, many luxurious she thinks dwellings. of this house «The as courtyard an experience, building after is not bourgeois, and we have enjoyed organizing the apartment», she says. «The place is surprisingly luminous. The angled rays of the sun enter through the windows, which is wonderful since we are usually here in the winter». The white resin floors and walls fill the rooms with light, welcoming the throng of colors of the art collection and the furnishings, a sort of decorative and emotional inventory. «In the kitchen, where I have left the original blue tiles, there is a lovely trolley by the architect Guglielmo Mozzoni, a wedding present that hasn’t been used for years», she adds. A large trompe-l’oeil work commissioned to Alfonso Orombelli occupies an entire wall of the living area, framing the fireplace, with colors that match those of the wooden sculpture composed of 15 figures by the Tanzanian artist George Lilanga, a close friend of Griccioli who has also created a gigantic, colorful painting that fills one wall of the bedroom. Zones of color become a leitmotif, also in the work of Orombelli, who has also painted the frame of an 18th-century mirror in an electric “Klein blue”, hanging over a Piedmont chest of drawers, a family heirloom from the same period. On the inlaid top, there is a work by the Italian artist Francesco De Molfetta: «I was amused by these two china doves with the inscription Ryanair and Easyjet», Griccioli remarks. «They underline the difference of the way we travel today with respect to the past». Today the Gricciolis have put down roots in Siena. «I don’t miss Africa, because thanks to art it is all around me», the diplomatic concludes.