Osteria Francescana has no view of the sea or the mountains.
You can see neither a bell tower nor a town square.
Our horizon is shaped by imagination.
NEVER STOP PLANTING is a landscape of ideas.
Every month: art, stories, inspirations.
NOT Pollock. NOT Stella. NOT Warhol.
Art IS NOT the Artist.
Art IS NOT the Object.
WHAT IS (NOT) ART?
Credits: Andrea Di Lorenzo
Mike Bidlo is an American conceptual artist who meticulously recreates iconic masterpieces from the history of modern art. His ‘Not (Artist)’ paintings function as entire ‘inventories’ of other artists’ work: he has produced around 80 copies of Picasso’s women, over 1,000 drawings based on Duchamp’s Fountain, and 100 Brillo Boxes after Warhol, among many other series.
Through his art and practice, Bidlo challenges the concepts and the mechanisms of the art world, while simultaneously honoring the masters through obsessive fidelity and devotion. He invites to reflect on the boundaries between copy and original, authorship and authenticity, idea and value.
WHAT IS ART?
From autumn 2022 to summer 2023, we were immersed in designing the restaurant Al Gatto Verde on the property of Casa Maria Luigia. The former balsamic bottling room was transformed into a dining room with dark stone floors, woven natural-fibre wallpaper, bright green wood panelling, and windows overlooking the Acetaia.
What was still missing?
ART, OUR LANDSCAPE OF IDEAS.
Credits: Andrea Di Lorenzo
At that time, Mazzoli Gallery in Modena was hosting an exhibition of Mike Bidlo. When Massimo walked into the gallery, he immediately knew:
“We will put Bidlo’s Not (Artist) paintings in our Not (BBQ) restaurant.”
Chef Jessica Rosval had been cooking with fire since she arrived at Casa Maria Luigia in 2018. She mastered the wood-fired oven, the grill and the smoker, constantly exploring unconventional ways to work with flame, transforming smoke into flavour and fire into a gesture of magic.
In August 2023 the restaurant was ready to open with three stunning examples of Bidlo’s work: Not (Pollock), Not (Stella), Not (Warhol).
Alongside them: a Jack Pierson word-piece spelling FATE, and one of Franco Vaccari’s rare Photomat prints from the 1972 Biennale of Venezia.
Credits: Andrea Di Lorenzo
In that room the dance is both real and imaginary.
The restaurant is called the Green Cat; and yet we have yet to see one.
The artworks pose questions, not answers.
The kitchen becomes a playground for exploration and experimentation.
ART IS NOT (ALWAYS) what we think it is, or should be.
Often it is a mirror of society; hard to look at with clear eyes.
Always worth taking the time to try.
NEVER STOP PLANTING
