The Museum of Works and Days

Ettore Guatelli was a collector, like me; but he was shrewder than I was and collected objects that cost nothing, things people threw away… One thing that astonished me was that sickles, spades, hoes, hammers, pastry wheels, shoes that had been resoled countless times, and so many other things were still in common use when he acquired them. Even so, Guatelli talked about them as relics of the past. This discrepancy can be accounted for by the sense of decline of the agrarian world, the inevitable sunset of certain ways of life. Guatelli wasn’t satisfied with preserving their memory: he wanted to ensure that those humble objects would be glorified and transfigured… In Greek theology, the word katasterism describes the metamorphosis of animals, humans, and even parts of bodies into constellations (just think of Coma Berenices, “Berenice’s Hair,” the only modern constellation named for a historical person). In his way, Guatelli performed katasterisms of his own: arranged on the walls in graphic patterns or hanging from the ceilings, objects taken from the ordinary life of the fields crowd his house much like stars crowded the night skies of our childhood, before the advent of light pollution.

Franco Maria Ricci, 2017