 December 23, 1999 - UNESCO and the Russian
painter Vladimir Liagatchev joined forces to recreate the world of
Dante's Divine Comedy
on the web. With a single image as a starting point, the site,
which was launched today, takes you to a virtual journey through the
world of Dante. The site contains 120 paintings accompanied by
extracts from the emblematic creation of the Italian artist
(1265-1321). The graphic work, which maps Hell, Purgatory and
Paradise, serves, at the same time, as an intellectual and technical
navigation tool. By launching this project, UNESCO aims to
demonstrate the possibilities offered by new technologies in the
field of artistic creation. This initiative forms part of UNESCO's
strategy to promote free and universal access to the common property
of all nations.
This first large virtual UNESCO exhibition shows that
"creation knows no boundaries and is enriched by the meeting and
mixing of cultures", says Philippe Quéau, Director, Information and
Informatics Division, whose web team has developed the site.
For Vladimir Liagatchev the paintings, which took 10 years to
complete, is "a search for the interpretation of this poem, which is
an important part of world heritage". "My 120 paintings accompany
Dante's journey and acquire profound significance as the
20th century draws to its end and a new millennium begins
with continued conflicts and controversies", says Vladimir
Liagatchev.
Putting the 120 paintings of Vladimir Liagatchev with the
texts of the Divine Comedy on-line on the UNESCO web site, gives a
sense of wholeness to this work, so closely the painted universe
reflects the universe dreamt by the poet. This project allows us to
visualise a world which, due to its virtual nature and encyclopaedic
complexity, was difficult, up to now, to access. The image
demonstrates Hell, Purgatory and Paradise in the world as conceived
by Ptolomee where the planets and the Sun revolve around the Earth,
and takes the visitor of the site in to an incarnation of the poet's
world view, represented as a Globe with a nucleus, stemming from our
contemporary world view.
Vladimir Liagatchev, born in 1942 in ex-USSR, is a graduate
of the Moukhina Institute of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, the Graphic
and Polygraphic Arts Institute, Moscow and l'Ecole nationale des
Beaux-Arts, Paris. He currently lives and works in Paris. He has
participated in numerous personal and collective exhibitions in
various countries and is the winner of many prizes.
Dante's Divine
Comedy on the web
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