They meet at a party in 1969 and since then they will become inseparable
Let’s start from the beginning, from the first meeting, from the first looks, from the words not spoken. The atmosphere and the context are worthy of a film by Pupi Avati, master in telling the love stories of Bologna.
In fact, it was in Bologna that in 1969 Elio Marchegiani and Carola Pandolfo met for the first time. Elio is an artist already known on the Italian scene and not only; he participated as a protagonist in solo exhibitions and trodden important stages such as the Venice Biennale. For the moment, he will only say that Carola is very beautiful and intelligent, cultured, very curious.
HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MAN OF THE WORLD, A VIVEUR. SHE IS VERY BEAUTIFUL, INTELLIGENT AND CULTURED
Elio has always been a man of the world, a viveur. It is at a party given in his atelier that the two meet for the first time. Mind you: when Elio Marchegiani gave a party, to be invited was a coveted thing. That evening, Elio wears leather pants and has a chain around his neck from which hangs a metal glass (a hygienist’s habit if I remember correctly) that certainly does not allow him to go unnoticed.
Among the guests, the budding artists are not counted and Bologna representatives who want to feel, as in Greenwich Village, in the presence of a real artist. This does not mean that he ignores her; on the contrary, he notices her and between the two begins a dialogue made of looks and unspoken words: they begin to woo and intrigue each other although they do not know each other except through their names and their physical features. Certainly, Carola knows that Elio Marchegiani is that famous artist who crowds the classrooms of the Academy when he is called to give lectures on making art, but nothing more.
THAT EVENING, HE WEARS LEATHER TROUSERS AND WEARS A CHAIN AROUND HIS NECK FROM WHICH HANGS A METAL CUP. HE CERTAINLY DOES NOT GO UNNOTICED
Elio can only inquire about her, look for her, be received and really know her. The rest is a story of love and art that still lasts today. I like to think that it is not accidental that the most successful works of Elio Marchegiani were born a few years after the meeting with Carola, his famous color grammages. I know them well, not for a few years, and I can safely say that her role in Elio’s artistic career was fundamental: theirs was not a relationship of clear artistic collaboration like the one that now belongs to the history of Christo and Jeanne Claude, but if Marchegiani’s career has been so prolific and intense, it is certainly due to the security she has been able to give to Elio.
I have always been reluctant to put in the foreground the private life of an artist because you risk losing sight of that universal message that is the true expressive force of an author. The great artist goes beyond the personal, beyond his own story, and his message becomes that of all; even better, it becomes for everyone.
IT IS NO COINCIDENCE THAT THE MOST SUCCESSFUL WORKS WERE BORN A FEW YEARS AFTER THE MEETING
But Elio is now ninety-five years old, so much has been written on his path and by the greatest art thinkers of our time, and I find it right to place emphasis on the human dimension of his creation. And in this dimension, the figure of Carola Pandolfo was very important. Carola for Elio, Elio for Carola, for each other, and both for art.
