Arco (Arch), Timpano (Tympanum), Continuita’ (Continuity). Shapes recalled by huge metallic spiral that draw space in three dimensions. These are the names of majestic sculptures of Carlo Ramous, versatile Milanese Artist who passed away in 2003.
For thirty-seven years they have remained abandoned in the city storehouse of Parma, forgotten like constructions scraps. Nowadays, an art lover has recovered, restored, and returned them to the community to expose them in Triennale of Milan.
It’s a story that looks like a fairytale the one of Ramous’ lost sculptures. This story is a bit different from the classic one of the masterpiece found by chance in an attic and gone under the hammer for a fortune. Repubblica Parma got interested in it in 2009, when it showed the presence of weird metallic wrecks in an open area behind Villetta Cemetery.
They were parts of huge sculptures, even if nobody could imagine it. Rusty and piled on the weeds, dirty of soil and concrete. They were there since 1974, year when one of Carlo Ramous show was organized in Parma.
There were problems in transporting such huge sculptures. The Artist had a contrast with the City and they get into a disagreement. The artworks were disassembled and placed in a City storehouse. They were forgotten. After the Artist death, in 2003, not even his artistic endowment administrators could remember where those artworks were. Until the press got interested in it.
And then the passion comes on the scene. Passion for art. Walter Patscheider, architect and engineer from Milan, is a gentleman who inherited a vast collection of Ramous’ sculptures and sketches from his father. He knew very well the artist who was a family friend since long-time. After the sculptor passed away, Mr. Patscheider decides to protect and promote his work. Even by making a bet on aim that seemed impossible. Like the salvage of the huge lost sculptures in Parma. It is the end of 2011. Mr. Patscheider leaves Milan and arrives in Parma. He wants to see with his own eyes the artworks conditions and he wants to take them away. However, when he arrives at the Villetta City Storehouse, he almost gets discouraged: they are in miserable conditions. The metallic pieces are all mixed, rusty, and muck. Mr. Patscheider decides to try anyway.
With help from an acquaintance, owner of a metallic carpentry in the proximity of Milan, he recovers everything possible. The relicts end up in a warehouse. And they undergo a transformation. Cleaned and restored, they go back to their old majesty.
They become Timpano (Tympanum), Arco (Arch), and Continuita’ (Continuity). These are the three artworks rebuild thanks to the sketches owned by the Patscheider family. There is a fourth, Anelito (Longing) that still misses one piece. The fifth, Sviluppo (Development), is still missing.
The destiny of the three revived sculptures is to go back to the Art places. Timpano (Tympanum) will be discovered next May, the 10th in the occasion of the 80 years of the Triennale of Milan. On this occasion, the permanent show will receive also a sculpture in refractory as a gift from Mr. Patscheider’s personal collection. In the garden then, Continuita’ (Continuity) will be displayed. Arco (Arch) will be set there in September, after its display in the center plaza of Cortina d’Ampezzo during the setting of the one man show that Rimoldi Museum dedicates to Ramous in the 10th anniversary of his death.

Maria Chiara Perri
(Parma - Repubblica.it, 9 Maggio 2013)

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