If Michelangelo blocks of marble already contained I Prigioni that the sculptor later digged out, the materials protagonists of Tales of stone and more had already inside them the artworks that the man will take out and the tale that will make of him an artist. The young readers of Tales of stones and more find out materials as the artists of our century have already done - Anselmo, Penone, Pistoletto, Merz, Kounellis - who bring to the extreme limit the sensitivity that makes them catch "the artistic "inside the substance and inside the shape, before the human agency. In Quarzo microcosmos, so close to the children's one, stones can think, but their thinking is not as fast as their becoming sand; growing trees destroy the skyscrapers' order; clothes thrown in the room becomes a rainbow; and all the tales connect one thing to the other as in a kind of an illustrated Mille e una notte of art materials. The book is the english edition of Storie di pietra e d'altro by Guido Quarzo, published in the same series in 1997.

Guido Quarzo, born in Torino 1948, winner of the Andersen Baia delle Favole Prize in 1995 as best author, is primary school teacher and wrote nursery rhymes, novels, tales for children among which Seconda storia del Principe Faccia da Maiale, L'ultimo lupo mannaro in città, Comefuché, Il viaggio dell'Orca Zoppa, Sogno disegno matita di legno, Luì and the art of going into the woods (first book of the series hopefulmonster La favola dell'arte), and theatre texts played in schools and theatres of Torino.

“One looked like a dinosaur. Another one looked like a anteater. Another one a big lizard or a crocodile. They are not just figures or signes amomg the stars. They are living creatures that move up in the sky – I said – the Universe is full of dinosaurs, kites, lizards and lions, men with arrows and rhinos”.

Have you ever looked at the sky discovering stars and constellations in courious shapes and wondering maybe someone else is doing the same on the other side?

From the synergy between Marosia Castaldi’s words and Mario Merz’s images, a tender fable telling about a world made of imagination that is inside everyone, told through a swift language that goes with the colours and shapes of Art.

La favola dell’arte, or a fabulous way of entering the world of art. The art of writing and the art of the figure in a close synergy at the service of fun and learning.

Mario Merz (Milan 1925-2003) was one of the leading exponents of Arte Povera. His works have been shown in permanent collections of the most important and prestigious museums all over the world: from Guggenheim in New York to the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Los Angeles, from Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam to Nationalgalerie in Berlin, from Israel Museum in Jerusalem to the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He received the Japanese Imperial Praemium for sculpture on November 2003.

Marosia Castaldi (Naples 1951 - Milan 2019) has studied philosophy and art. She has published narrative works, Abbastanza prossimo (Tam Tam 1986, finalist at Mondello Prize 1986), Casa idiota (Tringale 1990), Piccoli paesaggi (Anterem 1993) and novels, La Montagna (Campanotto 1991), Ritratto di Dora (Loggia dè Lanzi 1994, finalist at Palazzo al Bosco Prize 1992), Fermata km 501 (Tranchida 1997), Per quante vite (Feltrinelli 1999, finalist at Premio Bergamo 2000 and at Premio Chianti 2000).

The catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition held from 12 December 2003 to 1 February 2004, with the contribution of the City of Turin and the Piedmont Region, at the Accademia Albertina delle Belle Arti in Turin.

This volume aims to illustrate some of the most significant moments in Piero Martina’s artistic career, both through images of his works and through the testimony of his autograph writings and critical essays that deepen not only our knowledge of the artist but also his acquaintance with poets, critics and men of letters, which from the early 1930s extended over a period of forty years.

The photographic documentation of Martina’s work is divided into chronological and thematic sections: it opens with an oil on canvas entitled C.so San Maurizio and continues with Interno del Caffè Nazionale, paintings that show the artist’s pictorial exploration of her everyday environment, the Turin of the late 1930s.

The monograph has been published in occasion of the exhibit Piero Fogliati, Poeta della Luca, set up at Tendoni di Ponte Mosca in Turin from November 6th 2003 to January 11th 2004. 

The volume collects the photographic documentation of Piero Fogliati’s work through his artistic career, divided in three main chapters: light, sound and drawings, with the contributions of in-depth critical essays by Piero Bianucci, Josia Reichardt, Marisa Vescovo and Lara-Vinca Masini. 

About one hundred works have been reproduces, with detailed biographical descriptions edited by Alessandro Trabucco. 

Piero Fogliati (Turin 1930-2016), in his artistic research he used unaware perception processes. He works in the invisible with sound and light. Piero Fogliati’s art uses scientific principles in all of his sculptures and installations and studies physiological and psychological phenomenons of perception. 

The volume was published for the Operae exhibition dedicated to Sol LeWitt and Mimmo Paladino by the Associazione Culturale Futuro and held in Bari from 7 June to 24 August 2003.
The catalogue collects the photographic documentation of the exhibition and opens with images of Mimmo Paladino’s artistic project, articulated in a series of works set up in the medieval fortress overlooking the sea. Above the bastions of the fortress, the artist placed nine polychrome aluminium flags watching over the old port like ancient banners, while a large metal helmet presides over the entrance to the fortress, inside which lie the terracotta figures of the Dormienti, accompanied by music composed by Brian Eno.
The second part of the catalogue is dedicated to LeWitt’s work: All bands is a large wall-painting made up of rectangular tiles combining horizontal and circular lines in bright, brilliant, “Mediterranean” colours, in a sort of homage to Bari’s seafaring vocation, a synthesis of the angular geometries of Western architecture and the circular symbolism of the East. The pages of the book also illustrate all the stages in the creation of the work, from the initial preparation to the final installation.

This volume, which constitutes the catalogue of the exhibition of the Norwegian artist held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía from 18 September 2003 to 16 February 2004, presents not only images of the installation at the Palacio de Cristal but a vast excursus on the artist’s work, through photographs of works and texts by various authors. Among them are Giulietta Speranza, Mariano Navarro and Frédéric Bonnet.

Born in 1955, he lives and works between Turin and Oslo.
In 1990 he participated in the Nordic Pavilion at the XLIV Venice Biennale. His works have been exhibited in prestigious national and international museums, including: Henie-Onstad Art Centre in Oslo Museet for Samtidskunst in Oslo, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, CAC Málaga Centro De Arte Contemporáneo in Málaga.
Among his most recent exhibitions, in 2014 he took part in the second edition of 'Icastica', in Arezzo, creating an oil installation in the Church of San Domenico, under the Cimabue crucifix. In the same year, he exhibited in São Paulo, Brazil, in 'Made by Brazilians...Creative Invasion'. In 2015, he was invited to participate in 'L'albero della cuccagna', an event conceived by Achille Bonito Oliva, creating an oil chamber at Ca' Pesaro, Venice. In 2017, he presented one of his large installations at the opening of the Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré in Tours, France. In 2018 he participated in Manifesta 12, Palermo, with an oil room at the Cavallerizza of Palazzo Mazzarino, and in 2019 he created an oil room at the Carpintarias de São Lázaro, Lisbon.