The Legacy looks at events in Czechoslovakia, created and demolished in the course of the 90’s, through a very special lens, that of a love story between Milan Stefanik (1880-1919), national hero who died tragically in a plane crash, and Giuliana Benzoni (1895-1982) , an important figure in the Italian political and cultural scene in the first half of the last century.
The project takes its title from one of the four works created between Italy and Slovakia at the beginning of 2008, after having been invited as an artist-in-residence by Stanica / Truc Spherique, a cultural organization in Žilina.
 
The Legacy is a short video in which Alberto Benzoni, Giuliana’s nephew, describes, in a fragmented way, the figure of Milan Sefanik. Born in 1935, Alberto Benzoni did not know Stefanik personally. He talk about him by repeating what he heard from his aunt, entwining historical facts with anecdotes and more intimate details.

The image of Stefanik is at the centre of the work Monument. The public is invited to observe a portrait of Stefanik, actually a tiny stamp, through an optical cone composed of a series of old gilded frames, which decrease in size.

Monument (Love) is a sculpture consisting of two large hearts carved in fibreboard and propped one against the other. The hearts are a perfect replica of the decorated biscuits commonly used in Slovakia. It was carved for the artist by a craftsman from the Rajec Valley, where woodwork is an ancient craft and is still widely practised.

The fourth work presented in this exhibition is the video The look of love: a cloud disappears from the sky in just over two minutes, to the notes of a love song.