The municipalities of Albissola Marina, Albisola Superiore and Savona are part of the ‘Italian Association of Ceramic Cities’ circuit.
The tour begins at Casa Museo Asger Jorn in Albissola Marina. It is part of MuDA, the Museo Diffuso Albisola, and is a museum whose rooms are an important example of how nature and architecture coexist, and whose creator, Asger Jorn, is one of the most important painters and sculptors of the last century.
The museum can be visited with or without a guide, it holds temporary and permanent exhibitions and is also an educational centre for interactive discovery of the world of art and culture.
Once out of the museum, walk down the streets of Albissola Marina, and you’ll end up on the Lungomare degli Artisti, another important example of ceramic art, but you won’t need a ticket!
The Lungomare forms part of MuDA, and is a unique example of a collective artwork and an open-air museum. Metre after metre, you can see more than twenty works by different artists under your feet!
On foot, by bike, by car or by bus (Tourist Card-holders go free!). When you arrive in Savona, you must visit the Savona Ceramics Museum with its workshops for adults and children!
The route we propose starts from the old historical centre where a small art gallery with ceramics by Marcello Mannuzza, Leony Mordeglia and Carlo Sipsz has been set up in the underpass leading to the sea.
Continuing along via Boagno you will find the “Nostra Signora della Misericordia” retirement home, which guards a precious collection of majolica from the ancient Ligurian pharmacy of the 18th century, 35 blue and white ceramic vases. Alongside tradition, the chapel houses ceramic works (altar and Via Crucis) by Eliseo Salino, sculptor and ceramist from Albisola.
The Lungomare in Arte project was born on the splendid promenade by the sea of Celle Ligure: in 2012 the works of Valeria Bruno, Giacomo Lusso, Marcello Mannuzza, Leony Mordeglia, Caterina Ricci and Carlo Sipsz were inserted around Piazzetta Arecco and in 2014, on the Crocetta seafront, the works of Angelo Baghino, Renato Bonardi, Nivio Covelli, Roberto Gaiezza, Guido Garbarino, Rosanna La Spesa, Manuz, Aldo Pagliaro, Ylli Plaka, Carlo Pizzichini, Davide Secci.
In the Crocetta waterfront gardens you can see the Artists’ Well: built in 1992, it collects valuable works by Bernazzoli, Covelli, Luzzati, Mannuzza, Piombino, Servettaz.
After this pleasant walk you reach the locality of Piani di Celle where the Church of Santa Maria Assunta stands out which its façade embellished with a high-relief by Lucio Fontana “The Assumption with St. Michael and the Dragon”, in “terracotta”, therefore able to incorporate with immediacy the strength of the artist’s gesture. In the sober interior, designed in light tones, a note of color, fable and poetry comes from the work of Emanuele Luzzati, author of the holy water fonts, the pulpit and the balustrade.
Leaving Piazza dei Piani, towards the east, you will find the Pertini seafront, with the artistic-educational path “Artists for mathematics”, inaugurated on 17 September 2011 within the “Celle city of mathematics” project, promoted by the municipal administration of Celle Ligure, on the proposal of the CelleLab Cultural Scientific Association.
The collection contains 32 mathematical-themed pottery works, created by the artists involved in the project, accompanied by a technical sheet that reports, in addition to the construction characteristics, also information about the mathematical subjects depicted.
The itinerary includes works by: Alberti, Bernasconi, Bertorelli, Bonardi, Bruzzone, Canepa, Covelli, Crescini, Gaiezza, Gaja, Garbarino, Giannoni, La Spesa, Lusso, Mannuzza, Marchetti, Minuto, Moiso, Mordeglia, Noceto, Pagliaro, Peluffo, Pizzichini, Plaka, Pobiati, Quattrini, Sellerio, Sipsz, Spelta, Tinti, Pumpkin, Zucchi.
