Trophey

The Hug

This year the Italian artist Christian Loretti has again created a new bronze trophy from a wax original, based on a unique football moment: the goal celebration that unites the players as they hug each other, in a single body. This masterpiece combines the power and dyamics of a sporting gesture that has turned into one of the most significant in football.

The joy and excitement of the group hug despite being masculine and simple is in itself harmonious and vivid. This new sculpture represents that. The trophy is spinning in a vortex that slowly envelops all of its components in a circle, leaving each part free, yet bringing it together. The shape shows individual players pushing for victory with their own emotions, but at the same time being united with their team in the chase for victory.

Loretti has also incorporated the tournament logo into the trophy - the golden ball that rises above it, crowning the trophy with a solid materiality that unifies all the components and shows the unity of a complete group win.

Antonio G. Del Vecchio

Profile of Master Christian Loretti

Born in 1977 in Foggia (Italy) in 1977, Master Christian Loretti is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Foggia with a specialization in sculpture, and is a Professor of mat materials, artistic anatomy, and techniques of molding types of new materials and sculpture. He is also a qualified teacher in the field of plastic arts and a teacher in secondary schools (Art School). Even at his young age he was overlooking the national art scene, with projects destined for permanent exhibition in public spaces in various Italian cities. His artistic influences are the Italian sculptors of the late twentieth century, mainly of "material culture" and ‚carry-final‘ in the conception of the final work, in metals such as bronze and aluminum. He draws inspiration for his sculptures mainly from nature, in order to create works that can be exposed in open public places that are accessible and easy to read for everyone.

Loretti has participated in numerous competitions for the construction of monuments to be included in public spaces, with placings of honor and, above all, prestigious wins: in 2004 he won the "Wonder" in Cuneo, with the work "soap "(which now occupies a space in Piedmont) and in 2008 he won a public competition for the construction of a complex of sculptures dedicated to the bull in the municipality of Santo Stefano Ticino (Milan).

His experience in Urban Design and the décor of important public gardens has allowed the artist to work with different administrations and participate on various redevelopment projects and interventions of monumental works (Friezes municipal fountains, panels in bas-relief, restoration and commemorative works).

He has also participated in group exhibitions of gradually increasing importance, such as the Collective Sculpture "Porch Gaetano" in Gaeta (1999), the Collective Contemporary Art "The Garden of Roberto" with four sculptures in bronze, at the Peano Foundation of Cuneo (2012), the collective of contemporary art "Alimentum," at Banca del Monte, in Foggia (2012), the collective of contemporary art "Cultures in Comparison," organized by the foundation De Nittis in the basement of Barletta Castle (2012) and the exhibition "aluminum between futurism and modernity, a path in Italian sculpture on the edge of matter,"to be held from June 9, 2013 at the "Mold for sculpture" in Montevarchi (Arezzo). This event will include a historical section, with works by artists such as Vangi Thayaht, Ram, Queen, Renato Di Bosso, Bruno Munari and others, and a section of contemporary artists with works created after 2000. Since 2000 publications of sculptures of national sponsored posters, catalogues and magazines, reviews and critical writings on his artistic activity, by various scholars, have appeared in local and national newspapers. In 2013 an essay included in the magazine "Hypogeum 06" num.11 Institute Scipione bracket, Tring (Foggia) by the critic C. A. Strazzeri said: "Christian Loretti: from the phenomenon to the archetype."