The Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, inaugurated on Dec. 9 and consecrated on Dec. 10 in Awali (Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain), was decorated with Epogea techniques.
For this important work, specific structures and technical means capable of handling 16 large canvases ranging in size from 18 to 22 square meters, with a constant height of 406 cm, were built in Italy, on which the Mystery Crown made by Kiko Argüello in the church of San Bartolomeo in Tuto in Scandicci (FI) in the 1980s was reproduced.
The production, quite unique in technique and results, demonstrated the possibility of working on large surfaces and at considerable height (12 meters), at the base of the dome of the Cathedral.
Awali’s installation identified many new technical and expressive possibilities. Again, although constrained by the Author’s style, the result was achieved through a technical and a pictorial phase.
In particular, we refer to the painting style of Kiko Argüello, which is essentially unrepeatable by a copyist because the original is the result of a nontraditional technique.
In the Scandicci original, the ancient Byzantine iconography is realized through a gestural manner typical of modern art where, traditional pictorial phases and expressions are followed by strokes composed of glazing and scratching, the result of the author’s stroke speed and artistic intuition.
High-definition photographic footage and printing on masonry allowed for an overlay with traditional painting, eliminating the risk of losing the stroke of the original.
In this way, decorators, when intervening in the final stages of production, are ideally guided by the author and are able to reproduce the original work with authentic painting, right colors and consistent movements.
