Castelbuono, Brufa and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Apparently Umbria and Yorkshire seem to have nothing in common, but in reality these places, characterized by magnificent landscapes, art, nature and spirituality, offer the opportunity to visit art treasures through the incredible sculpture parks.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Founded in 1977, Yorkshire Sculpture Park is Europe’s largest open-air gallery and was awarded the prestigious Art Fund Museum Award in 2014 for its bold artistic vision, vibrant exhibition programme and dynamic activities. It is set in picturesque countryside near Wakefield and with 500 acres (about 200 hectares) of historic parkland, woodland and lakes, it is home to over 100 outdoor sculptures and four indoor galleries. It really does feel like the perfect place to interact with art and nature, whilst experiencing something new. There is work from incredible international artists and support for new and emerging artists.
I like to remember The Family of Man by Barbara Hepworth, a work composed of nine sculptures each of which represents a phase of life, La Roi and Le Reine by Sophia Vari, works with evident reference to the game of chess where among other things black and white come together harmoniously and The Bag of Aspirations by Kalliopi Lemos, basically a gigantic steel bag representing the desire and ambition of consumerism. Despite this splendor of a Park we can easily say that even in Umbria and precisely in Castelbuono and Brufa we have sculpture parks that have (perhaps) nothing to envy to that of Yorkshire.

La Borsa delle Aspirazioni di Kalliopi Lemos

Castelbuono

Umbria of art is not only Perugino and Pinturicchio, just to mention the greatest exponents of the Umbrian Renaissance, but also the contemporary one that we can find in the Sculpture Parks. Since 2010, in fact, a sculpture park has stood on the hills of Bevagna, in the countryside of Castelbuono, which is nothing more than a Path between art, nature and spirituality. The place is a continuous becoming and its dynamism is expressed in the different forms of abstraction, figuration and monumental sculpture. The Sculpture Park of Castelbuono has a unifying character with the territory, oriented to rediscover the roots of the place with the peculiarity of hospitality and dialogue.

The works present in the Park are made of marble, stone, bronze, steel, wood and resin and observing them invite you to reflection, contemplation, meditation and introspection. An experience to absolutely do! The Castelbuono Sculpture Park is a container of art, memory, respect for the environment and ideas. The Park helps to enhance the general context by highlighting its artistic, landscape and spiritual values.
The sculptor Paolo Massei from Bevana, whose works are also present in distant Australia, was the creator and is still the curator of the Park and I like to quote what he wrote about him on the website of the Proloco Cantalupo Castelbuono: “Sculpture is not improvisation, but is, through a real torment, a continuous vibration with which the artist coexists…”, and again “And so, immersed in the complexity of the creative process, the sculptor is no longer alone with himself: he is like a prophet who speaks to others, a messenger returning from a journey into the idea-form, who will give us what we, accustomed to art within the frame, often do not see”.
Along the route of the works we also find the Carapace, a supreme example of architecture-sculpture designed by Arnaldo Pomodoro, one of the greatest contemporary sculptors, who left us just a few days ago.

Perhaps the most important work, or rather the one that gives the most emotions in the park, is Zaura by the artist Agapito Miniucchi who died in 2023 at the venerable age of 100. It is described by the curator Paolo Massei as follows: “Sacred rite, reason for the Heraclidian panta rei of the universal frenzy that gives life to the fertilizing kiss that the sky and the earth exchange since the birth of the first light. Miniucchi, an Umbrian artist, with a strong international scope presents a project in which the raw material is stone, rough and speaking, through a minimal intervention as it could be in the peasant civilization of the place, while the corten steel shape that is positioned in a rhombus above the stone, in its vigorous and yet simple presence, is like a conceptual metaphor in the disappearance of the peasant civilization of the past and of its tools. The presence of this shape is testimony to the use of metal in the development of human civilization”.

Brufa

Then there is the Brufa Sculpture Park in the Municipality of Torgiano. Born in 1987 from an initiative of the Proloco and the Municipality, the project Sculptors in Brufa. The road of Wine and Art, winds along the crest of the hill merging nature, urban landscape and sculptural art. The Park is enriched every year thanks to the participation of the greatest national and international sculptors who, after studying the territory, are able to create works that will establish a constant dialogue with the visitor.

Over the years the results have been surprising and have created an original and modern artistic experience. Yes, we can certainly say that it is, like the one in Castelbuono, an open-air Museum. The sculptures therefore result in a real enrichment of the surrounding environment by creating a new cultural itinerary.

Among the various sculptural works, the following stand out: The Man of Brufa by the sculptor Massimo Pierucci, The Great Sign by Loreno Sguanci, Broken Circle by Beverly Pepper and Against All Terrorisms by Ettore Consolazione.

Contro tutti i Terrorismi di Ettore Consolazione

I conclude by suggesting to all Umbrians, who have not yet done so, and to foreign visitors to plan a tourist itinerary outside the box among suggestive hills, vineyards and olive groves starting from Brufa and arriving in Castelbuono. What is better than discovering or rediscovering places with their artistic, architectural, environmental and in this case specifically sculptural heritage. Even the search for anecdotes and curiosities can enrich the day and then return home and feel enormously richer because culture is the bread of the soul. Let us never forget that culture nourishes the spirit and the mind and that it is essential to better understand the world around us that I would never have imagined so dystopian. Finally, I would like to thank Sergio di Brufa for the hospitality he reserved for me and my wife and for the directions and suggestions he offered me in visiting the Park.