Madonnara Art in Grazie

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Paola Artoni - Director - Madonnari Museum
If we were to contextualize Madonnara art within the world of contemporary art, we would place it within street art—an art form that has direct contact with the public, with no intermediaries, and is therefore immediately perceptible. The emotions exchanged while the artist is at work are part of a performance in which the audience is itself a protagonist, drawn in and captivated by the unfolding painting that is born, grows, and ends. We all know that this moment is destined to be unique and unrepeatable, just as the work itself is destined to be lost. It is not intended for the market; it is something detached, physical, and perfectly understandable across generations.
They are simply chalks—very simple tools we have known since childhood from using them on blackboards—but in reality, these small tools, this colored powder, become a dream.
The connection of the Madonnari with Grazie dates back to 1973, the year in which a few scattered practitioners of this ancient art gathered on the forecourt. From that moment, a love was born that continues to this day, year after year. This is the place where the Madonnari gather. It is as if they recognize Grazie as their home. Initially, they were only Italians; now they come from all over the world. People and nations recognize Grazie as a home for the world, a global square.
The forecourt on which the Madonnari paint is another sanctuary, or rather, a reflection of it. Inside the sanctuary there is an icon—the Madonna with the Child, the tender Mother of God. That image has always been present in the works of the Madonnari, who carry in the root of their name a tribute to the Virgin. In the same way, this sanctuary contains ephemeral works of art that are not meant to last over time and were replicated and remade at least every ten years, according to historical records.
Madonnara art is therefore sacred, like the interior of the sanctuary; it is popular, because the sanctuary is also a place of devotion and gathering for the people; and it is ephemeral, something not meant to endure, but time is relative—what remains is the prayer.
Unfortunately, the Madonnari cannot be physically present on the forecourt of Grazie this year, but they wanted—strongly wanted—to leave a sign. This sign is represented by twelve of them, twelve masters who each worked in their own studio, yet created a collective work—a work that ideally reconnects and, piece by piece, creates a pictorial polyphony. So, the Madonnari have a forecourt, not a physical one, but a forecourt, a square of the virtual world.
In Grazie, that miracle happens again: art, time, and ephemerality come together and are entrusted to the future, with great hope.

Madonnara art is a unique form of street art, capable of establishing direct contact with the public: an art that is immediately perceptible, ephemeral, and unrepeatable, in which every viewer becomes a protagonist of the performance. Using simple colored chalks, the artists transform the forecourt of the Sanctuary of Grazie into a place of emotion, devotion, and creativity, creating works destined to disappear, yet living on in the memory and prayer of those who witness them.

The bond between the Madonnari and Grazie began in 1973, the year of the first gathering on the sanctuary’s forecourt, and since then this village has become their “home.” Artists from all over Italy and the world meet here every year to pay tribute to the Virgin Mary, to whom their very name is dedicated. The forecourt thus becomes a reflection of the sanctuary: the ephemeral works echo the icon of the Madonna with the Child, blending sacredness, popular devotion, and art.

Even when the Madonnari cannot be physically present, their art continues to live: twelve masters created works in their own studios, forming a collective mosaic that ideally reconnects the forecourt of Grazie, transforming it into a square of the virtual world. Thus, in Grazie, the miracle of ephemeral art is renewed, delivering beauty, spirituality, and hope to the future.