Marco Balderi

My story

A Goldsmith Artisan based in Versilia.

I am born in Seravezza, Tuscany, on May 6th 1958. After middle school, I attend the Professional Institute in Viareggio and in 1976 I starts working in the shipyards of the city. Later, I leave that world in order to attend some training courses in Arezzo and Valenza, which will introduce me in the goldsmith's art.

My professional training is rather bizarre. My experiences include the years in Viareggio shipyards, the creative work of clay in the laboratories of Valenza and the extemporary work bench. What joined each experience together? The search for "beauty", whether it was the finishing of a yacht or a terracotta bowl. That beauty I gladly look for in the nature: "It is she who has already done all the most beautiful things. The perfect nature even in imperfections, where the scratch is not a defect, but a desired underlined part".

This is how a craftsman faces up to art, hanging between being and seeming, without deciding to choose his own destiny, but living in curiosity and in the desire to explore new emotions, in an art as ancient as men.

Unique moments

A particular event marks the turning point in my artistic and creative path. The meeting with Igor Mitoraj.

As the time passed, that meeting turned into a deep and sincere Friendship with the Master, together with a collaboration: I turned Mitoraj sculptures into jewels. Marco Balderi the "Arm" of Igor Mitoraj.

Then, one day, that gentle man and very good manners artist, Igor, spoke to me, almost violently. "Marco, you do have talent, exploit it. Stop the shit you're doing!". I hesitated a while, then: "I don't know what to do Igor, I don't have original ideas". His curt answer "It is enough to put yourself in the condition of desiring ideas, and they will come".

This is how the first ring of my first collection was born, "Ombre Tribali", “Tribal Shadows”, the jewels sewn by me... Thank you Igor.

The steps of my journey:

In 1985 I quit my job in order to attend some training courses in Arezzo and Valenza thanks to which I approached the goldsmith's art;

In 1986 I open "Il Gioiello Creazioni" in Forte dei Marmi, where I start experimenting with the artistic side of jewellery;

In 1994 I move the shop to Pietrasanta. Art production becomes more and more important in my whole work and I begin to collaborate with some artists including: Igor Mitoraj, Ivan Theimer, Do König Vassilakis, Sofia Vari;

In 1999 I take part in "Auri Fabri '99", a collective exhibition of jewels in Milan;

In 2000 I receive the Artisan of the Year award from the Rotary Club Viareggio - Versilia;

In 2001 I take part in the Craft Fair (Fiera dell'Artigianato) in Florence;

In 2002 I collaborate with Cantine Basile and create the bronze jewel-label for a bottle used to reward the enologist Franco Ziliani; in the same year, I take part in the Craft Fair in Florence;

In 2004 I organize a collective exhibition in my shop entitled "Soul, madness, everyday life" with the sculptor Giovanni Balderi and the painter Roberto Barberi; in the same year, I exhibit in Libreria Cardano of Pavia with the sculptress Erica Gregorini and I participate at the Florence Craft Fair for the third year;

In 2005 I exhibit in Switzerland, at the Hotel Palazzo Mysanus in Samedan-Engadin, S. Moritz; in the same year, I exhibit in Tartaglia Gallery in Rome, I take part in the "Jewels of Tuscany" initiative with an exhibition at Palazzo Covoni-Capponi in Florence and in summer I take part in the traveling exhibition wanted by Haidea Gallery Milan, "Riverberi"; the project started in early June in Milan then, passing through Alghero, Capoliveri, Pietrasanta and Panarea, it ended in Padua in October;

In 2006 I exhibit at Interart Gallery, in Heeswijk Dinther, Netherlands;

In 2007 I exhibit at Interart Gallery, in Heeswijk Dinther, Netherlands;

In 2008 I exhibit at Interart Gallery, in Heeswijk Dinther, Netherlands; in the same year, I was commissioned a bronze vase by the Puccini Festival Foundation on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Puccini;

In 2009 I take part at "One day exhibithion", New Jersey, New York;

In 2010 I exhibit at Interart Gallery, in Heeswijk Dinther, Netherlands.

Collections

My creation, my doing art.

Tribal Shadows, 1995 - "Sewn, they live together"
Forest Buds, 1996 - "Twigs joined together in bundles that create nests for gems with warm and soft colours"
Children Gold, 1997 - "Small bodies chasing each other in the big game of life, where all the serious can become a smile, if seen with the eyes of a child"
Draconis, 1998 - "Immortality of mythological creatures"
Prisons, 1999 - "Prisoners of our time"
Anemos, 2000 - "Nothing remains the same as the wind passes. Even the kidnapped metal loses weight and rises into whirlwind"
Royal Wheats, 2001 - "I have looked for ears for you, the ones that every breeze has cradled, I have intersected them to give them to you"
Eyes of Houses, 2002 - "Like in a circle of full and empty spaces, shadows and lights, the eyes of houses look at the world like windows"
Path, 2003 - "Everything was written, everything was there, magically traced in a unique and fascinating path"
Timekeeper, 2004 - "Signs and scratches which mark how long I wear the symbol of our Love"
Waves, 2005 - "Life is at the mercy of waves"
Crystals, 2006 - "The stone who gives light"
Ettore, my son, 27/02/2007 - "The only true, eternal Love"
Pietrasanta Chess, 2012 - "Historical monuments of Pietrasanta become the pawns of my chessboard"
Amo, 2014 - "In a word game a symbol with a double meaning"
Original Tuscany, 2015 - "My Beloved Land"
Biblo, 2016 - "Odi et Amo"
Elpis, 2017 - "Hope"
Twenty-one grams, 2017 - "The iron Soul, enclosed in gold, silver and bronze"
Panta Rei, 2019 - "Everything flows: Love, Life, Emotions"

Pietrasanta

Where air is saturated with art as a universal form of expression, where expressing means communicating.

Newsletter

Stay updated on creations, initiatives and events related to my life.

Marco Balderi's Atelier is located in Pietrasanta.

The space is structured in a shop, a study and a laboratory, where metals take shape and become jewels. Metals because Marco does not use only gold: bronze, silver and steel share the place of honour with the noblest metal.

How can I hep you?

I will be glad to meet you.

Address

55045 Pietrasanta (LU)
Toscana - ITALIA
P.iva 01518680465

Contacts

(+39) 349 1969683
marcobalderi58@gmail.com
www.marcobalderi.com