Interview to Luigi Icardi
Cesare Pavese original pen and Moscato d’Asti: two symbols of Langhe (Piemonte) and of Italian excellence arrive in New York
We met Luigi Icardi who attended the auction in New York on February 9, representing the Enoteca Regionale, “Colline del Moscato” di Mango - where he is chief executive - along with the Produttori Moscato d’Asti Associati. He brought with him the original pen of Cesare Pavese, one of Italy’s most prominent writers of the 20th Century. The aim of the initiative conceived by him, and tied to IMAFestival, is to combine the cultural and intellectual elements to material (commercial) ones more representative of the Langhe area of Italy, home of Moscato and homeland of the writer Cesare Pavese, in order to promote a territory where art and food make a perfect pair, that soon will be recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
1. Literature and wine, or better, in our case, Cesare Pavese and Muscat wine. How and when was this happy marriage born?
The marriage of Cesare Pavese and Moscato d'Asti bloomed in summer, in September, when the golden grape clusters of so-called "Gold of the Langhe” are harvested and the writer was born, September 9, 1908, in Santo Stefano Belbo. The bond is strong therefore: both absorb the beauty of this fertile and ancient land and are reborn in the form of wine and literature. Moscato is the fruit of the sun and colors of summer and poems, novels and short stories by Cesare Pavese reveal yet deeper meanings, the "green mysteries."
2. How does this initiative aim to increase the prestige and the value of the Langhe, as well as the diffuse Moscato d'Asti in Italy and around the world?
Cesare Pavese and Moscato d'Asti are today the two excellencies by which the Lange and Santo Stefano Belbo are known in the world. To protect and enhance the promotion and dissemination of these is the best way to achieve a comprehensive development of our territory. Literature, food and wine are the trump cards to play also, and especially the tourism market, because they allow us to offer excellent quality: Moscato d'Asti is a universally recognized brand and Pavese is among the most widely read and most translated authors in the world. A kind of immortality, which is typical of the great: the works of Pavese are liked by all generations, young people especially, because they speak of mankind and do so in a direct way, using a dry, straightforward language that the writer had elaborated in the example of the American. Moscato d'Asti is a most fascinating wine, which carries within it all the flavors, colors and scents of a unique territory. He who drinks Moscato d'Asti, while reading a book by Pavese, is steeped in history and the traditions of this small part of Piedmont waiting to be experienced in the flesh.
3. One of the aims of IMAFestival is to raise the awareness of Italian gastronomic excellence in the world through art. The auction, which took place in New York on February 9th hosted an important tribute to Pavese and Moscato. What is it? Can you tell us a bit about it?
Cesare Pavese has always been closely tied to America. The writer began his career in 1931 as a translator of "Our Mr. Wrenn," by the American writer Sinclair Lewis and then translated, among others, Moby Dick, Herman Melville's masterpiece. America for Pavese had always represented freedom, creativity, and his dissertation on the American Walt Whitman taught him that immediate and direct communication model that would become the essential characteristic of his works. Pavese is a writer attached to his land, the Langa that generated and shaped him, and to describe it in his novels, he uses a language that is direct and immediate as the American slang, learned from the american authors that he loved so much. For this we at the Cesare Pavese Foundation wanted to contribute to the event, honoring Pavese's writing, and so decided to present his original pen and glasses, both saved from the terrible flood of 1994 that hit Santo Stefano and the then Belbo Centro Studi Cesare Pavese. Two personal items, closely linked to the activities of the writer, made up of readings and ink.In 2010, sixty years after the death of the writer, the Cesare Pavese Foundation has developed a replica pen, along the lines of the original, (the "Cesare Pavese Special Edition"), which was available to all participants of the auction in New York to sign contracts for the buying and selling of the artwork.
4. Walking in Langa around Santo Stefano Belbo you can admire the typical " Pavese places”, those places where he grew up and which he described in his many works. Which of those are most closely linked to Muscat, the cultivation of its grapes and its taste?
"Pavese places" are the beautiful hills of the Langhe. his birthplace, the Museum-Laboratory Nuto, the Church of Saints James and Christopher Pavese and the Foundation are immersed in the hills planted with vines in Moscato d'Asti where the writer always refers to in his novels. In the coming months, the Cloister of the Church of Saints James and Christopher, adjacent to the Cesare Pavese Foundation, will inaugurate a permanent and interactive installation dedicated to Moscato d'Asti. A sort of sensory journey of discovery of Muscat wine, from the ground up, to understand where Moscato d'Asti draws the flavors, scents and colors that make it known throughout the world. A museum dedicated to the Moscato d'Asti in the Cesare Pavese Foundation: a way to bring wine and literature, the two splendid excellences of Langa.
