Over recent years I have organized and curated an annual exhibition of high quality International art at the Estense Castle in Ferrara. I am pleased to say that this show has become a greatly anticipated autumnal event where artists, critics and the public enjoy meeting and sharing, not only the art, but the historic greatness that is Ferrara.

Ferrara is a City that is very well suited to the highest expressions of culture and art. Not only does it look back to the great statements of the Renaissance through painters like Pisanello, Mantegna and Cosmo Tura, or poets like Boiardo, Ariosto and Tasso, but also, in more recent times, to the great father of the Italian Metaphysical School of Art, Giorgio De Chirico. Ferrara (the city of silence) was the inspiration of one of De Chirico’s enduring masterpieces, ‘The Disturbing Muses’.

Besides viewing the glorious architecture of the towns Renaissance past, our visitors are able to immerse themselves in the silence of the cobbled alleys and experience something of the ordinary everyday past where so many souls walked before. It is this deep sense of history and its highly significant monumental architecture that has won the recognition of Unesco and its designation as a Humanity World Heritage Site.

From these feelings comes the title of the next exhibition, “Traces of Memory”. It is an acknowledgement and homage to the city of Ferrara and, at the same time, an invitation to artists to relate, consciously and unconsciously, their own ‘sense of history’. I am confident that each artist will express, through his or her own heart and mind, a strong and magical interpretation of this theme.

I consider “Traces of Memory” as a strong trait d’ union between my two most recent exhibitions staged in the same rooms at Castle Estense. These shows were titled ‘Magic’ and ‘Spirit – The Spirit in Art’. Both shows were intrinsically connected to the mystery and the magic.

These exhibitions brought together multicultural meetings of great importance. Each artist brought to the show his or her own statement of cultural growth and sensibilities and happily met and engaged with a greater communal spirit that stretches around the globe. Many are now firm friends and I take great personal pride in being the catalyst for such communication.

It is my hope that “Traces Of Memory” will bring together a vibrant interchange of artistic emotions. Each artist will express his or her personal and unique interpretation of intimate memories and trace an exciting path for us to follow through the exhibition.

As a Curator, I have always been fascinated by memory and how it re-emerges through artistic expression. It is a fundamental aspect of all expression and, especially in visual art; deepest thoughts, perceptions, feelings and remembrances often may become vital and exquisite new visions into our past. The highly suggestive environment and scenery of Ferrara and its great castle will be a wonderful artistic meeting point where past will play against present, fact against fiction, myth against truth and fantasy against reality. It is here that the viewer, as a piligrim, will discover the traces of spiritual knowledge.

It is my wish that every artwork at this exhibition will be the result of deepest artistic endeavour to project, from the depths of the artist’s existence, traces of their memory. Equally, it is my hope that many viewers will experience those traces and find great joy in the intensity through which such passions are expressed.

Once again, Ferrara will proudly host a manifestation of fine quality International art that we may all be proud to experience.