In the summer of 2008 i had the pleasure to be able to visit Asger Jorn’s Villa in Albissola, it is situated on Via Gabriele D'Annunzio 8 Albissola Marina, Italy with a fantastic view over Albissola.
From home we had arranged the visit, as the
opening hours are not available on the internet.
We called Albissola municipality at +39 019
482295 and asked for information about the opening hours for Casa Jorn, as they
call it, after beeing redirected 2 times i reached a very pleasent official that
advised me to call +39 329 96 11927 which was the person responsible for Casa
Jorn, it later showed that he is the curator for the house, his name is Giuliano
Arnaldi, here is a link to a webpage about him http://www.equilibriarte.org/eqmember/3297.
If you speak Italian it is easier, as Giuliani
is not so keen in speaking English on the phone.
We arrived almost 1 hour earlier than we had
arranged, but we met a very friendly person that opened the villa for us, we
were the only people here, i thought that there would be many visitors, but no,
this fantastic decorated house is almost unknown to the public in
We walked around the villa for almost 2 hours,
and took a lot of pictures, it is almost impossible to imagine how much ceramic
decoration Asger Jorn had put into this villa, but I’ll try to show some of
it.
This big ceramic relief meet us just to the
right when we entered the house, it is about
I was a little annoyed that they had piled up
3-4 chairs leaning at it.. A little respect
for art is wanted.
When i turned around there was anothe relief,
it is a study for the big relief created for Randers Kunstmuseum in
Ref. Asger Jorn i Italien : Urtsula Lehmann-Brockhaus Page 192 (size 1:5)
And it went on and on, next room which according to what i have seen must have been used as atalier was filled with reliefs, please note the vase at the bottom, it stood in the same place in 1972, ( picture seen in the book Jorn / Le Jardin D’Albisola ) .
Close up of the vase.
We went on, up the stairs.. and this showed up..
What more could be to see... much...
Further more there was a lot of ceramic works on the outside of the walls, even the pavement was made by Jorn, he had picked up broken ceramic pieces from the ceramic factories in Albissola and placed them in a spectacular patterns allover the estaste.
I was astonished about all i saw, but i must say that Albisola municipality doesn’t do enough to do this to a museum.
When i visited it an exhibition or ‘storage’ of
the art collector Allesandro Passaré was on
display.
So when i wanted to look at a fresco like painting that
Jorn had painted, i had to see it behind wires for lightning to this exhibition,
even though i think that these artworks are of a bigger value than Passarè’s
collection.
By now this
is the last ceramic work I’ll show, there is much more, i can only recommend all
travellers that comes close to
This work was on the outside wall, propably made one of the last times Asger Jorn was in Albissola.
Now I’ll try to tell a little about the history
of the villa.
Asger had after his ilness in the early 50’es tried to live in countries with a climate better suitable to
his tuberculosis , he had tried Schweiz, and Albissola, where he lived in an
old storage building on Via Italia, he decided in the end to remain in
Albissola, he knew Umberto Gambetta, and together they looked for a house for Asger
Jorn and his family, they found a ruin high above Albissola, and with the help
of Umberto and his wife Teresa they made it possible to live in, Jorn bought it
from signora Parzano, and paid ‘what he was able to’ as far as Umberto remembers
he paid about 5-6 € a month for some years, after paying her off he gave her a
painting, which Umberto valued to more than 4 times the value that Jorn had paid
for the house, but then both Jorn and signora Parzano had made a fine
deal...
Umberto was a builder, and thanks to him the
house was soon useful for living in, and soon Jorn and his family moved in, so
did Umberto and Teresa, and they lived here together for the next 16 years, now
Jorn filled it all with ceramic reliefs, described above.
While working on the house Umberto told about
his war experience in world war 2 at the front at Stalingrad, Jorn started to
use this story as an inspiration to a painting, which he worked on many times
over the years, latest in 1972 shortly before he died, the work is now on
display at Silkeborg Museum ‘The Asger Jorn Museum’, it is the biggest painting
Jorn ever painted, about
In 1959, after Jorn’s pictures started selling
at reasonable prices
he bought the villa next to his, to have more
room.
Jorn visited the villa from time to time, and
could dissapear for weeks without notice, either to he’s other atalier in
In late 1972 Asger Jorn was informed that he had
lunge cancer and that it was incurble, he
was hospitalised in
In marts there was a pause in the treatment, and
Jorn asked to be discharged from the hospital.
Jorn wanted to take care of Umberto
and Teresa, so he wanted to travel to Albissola, here he wrote a simple will, he wanted
to hand over his estate in Albissola to the Albissola municipality on that
condition that Umberto and Teresa should be allowed to live there until their
death, and furthermore that all of Asger Jorns family would not be allowed to
enter the estate.
The ‘will’ was
never correctly registred but the municipality respected the
paper.
Umberto and Teresa died in 1997 and 1998, and
then the municipality started renovating the house, the roof has been replaced,
and more work is going on, maybe they should renovate a few of the artworks, i
have not shown the wall which is mostly damaged, but hopes that it will be
restored over the years.
When we vistied the house they had placed a
tarpulin over a glass extension, as it looked as if the sun had bleached this
wall painting.
Arnaldi told me that in Italy it is easier to
get funding for renovating ancient buildings, so funding is missing to complete
the renovating og Asger Jorn’s villa, the other building which we guess is nr. 6
was still not able to visit, as it was a building site, but i got some photos of
the exterior, and that looks promising for what will be at display
inside.
It has now taken 10 years, and there is still
much work to be done, but if the interest rises, maybe some rich people will
donate money for renovating both villas.
Arnaldi furthermore told me that due to the
size of the villa they are not allowed to take an entrace fee, even though it’s
called a museum.
I will end this with a picture of me talking to Arnaldi concerning one of the Passaré collection pictures by Alberto Burri, which according to Arnaldi was one of the first artists to use plasctic in art.
Finally, the sources for all this
info.
Ulla Andersen
: Buttadeo
Troels Andersen : En Biografi
1953-1973
Jorn / Le Jardin
D’albisola
Joergen Aagerup
: Asger Jorn – som vi husker ham.
Pierre Amarouche / Giuliano Arnaldi : Via
Passaré
My own picturres taken when i
visited the villa on a hot summerday 7. juli 2008
And not to forget, pleasent conversation with Giuliano Arnaldi.
Link to article in 
Casa Jorn By Jeremy Hunt
