In the heart of Lecce, the Fiermonte Museum is a unique space composed of buildings from the late 19th and early 20th century, distributed across three levels and connected by an imposing Corten staircase. Entering 4 Vico dei Rayno is like crossing a threshold in time, where the past and present merge in a harmonious dance of history and art. The secret garden is more than a passageway; stopping for a moment in this meditative space is enchanting, allowing you to experience natural beauty in dialogue with the surrounding architecture and the works of Letourneur and Zwobada, works that sit in the shade of a tall araucaria and a hundred-year-old medlar tree.
Upon entering the museum, visitors pass through nine rooms before reaching the underground space. The layout and narrative flow follow a historical, chronological order, tracing the life and art of the story’s three protagonists: Antonia Fiermonte, René Letourneur and Jacques Zwobada.
Each room tells a story; each work is a window to a time gone by, a time that is nevertheless alive and pulsating. The story begins with the friendship between René and Jacques before Antonia bursts into their lives; before she falls in love with Letourneur and his soft, sensual works and then Zwobada's passionate, spine-tingling verticals. The narrative flows between panels, sculptures, paintings, drawings, holographs and stereoscopic panoramas, until everything is disrupted by Antonia's death, suddenly, in Rome in 1956. Her death represents a borderline, a demarcation, a change, an evolution. The room dedicated to the Mausoleum of Mentana, commissioned by Zwobada, is a highly emotional experience, as is the immersive experience of the 3D docufilm at the end of the tour.
