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April 12, 1989: a group show of Italian young artists, Examples, opened at Riverside Studios in London, UK, curated by Corrado Levi and Norman Rosenthal. I had 3 pieces  in the show dedicated to Andy Warhol. In 1988, I started to elaborate Warhol’s Green Coca Cola Bottles (1962) I had seen at  Moma, New York. I had done two solo shows about this subject: at Studio Cristofori, Bologna 1988. ( see the review  on la Repubblica by Dario Trento: E le linee fanno pop, Oct.22,1988) and at  Guido Carbone gallery in Turin 1989, with book and essay by Martina Corgnati.

By the end of April 1989,  seven art critics – among them Levi, Rosenthal, Cortez –  and seven artists all left Europe to go to Tokyo to represent our single country in a show titled 7 Artists, organized by INFAS and Hanae Mori family. I did an installation of 10 Coca Cola Classic. It was a great experience and we had fun. I had the opportunity to meet such artists like Annette Lemieux, USA, Boyd Webb, UK, Tatsuo Myajima, Japan, Thomas Lange, Germany, Federico Guzman, Spain.

From 7 Artists, book (in Italian and Japanese), Corrado Levi writes: ” Da alcuni anni in Italia c’e’ una nuova nidiata di artisti. Essa possiede caratteristiche autonome rispetto ai movimenti dell’arte italiana del dopoguerra, arte povera e transavanguardia. La caratteristicha della nuova arte italiana e’ la sua attenta ricettivita’ da campi diversi fra loro, senza stabilire centri privilegiati di osservazione.

Corrado Levi also writes in il Tic di Vittoria Chierici: ” Nel panorama della nuova arte italiana l’arte di Vittoria Chierici tiene un posto singolare, quello di essere a un tempo portatrice della cultura del moderno insieme alla sua messa in questione. I suoi recenti quadri consistono nella ripetizione maniacale, n di volte, dello stesso quadro di Andy Warhol ( Green Coca Cola Bottles) nelle medesime dimensioni di cm 170 x 130 sullo stesso sfondo…Il soggetto del quadro e’ cosi’ preso dalla piu’ famosa icona dell’arte moderna con un tragitto che dal consumo arriva all’arte e di qui a sua volta si ricicla.  L’automatismo nell’esecuzione affronta in maniera radicale la soggettivita’ dell’artista e la sua inattitudine…“

Coca Cola Classic was also exhibited in 1991 in a group show at the Rocca in Umbertide, near Perugia and it was included in its collection of contemporary art after a donation by Ciangottini Foundation. It was the second show I had with a group of excellent  young artists from Tuscany, Maledetti Toscani. The first show, L’erba Voglio, organized by Fabio Sargentini is documented in a very nice book published by Electa and curated by Corrado Levi, Enrico Mascelloni, Fabio Sargentini with contributions by Alberto Boatto, Vittoria Coen, Maria Luisa Frisa.

I want to thank and remember the  group of artists Maledetti Toscani, with whom for years  had friendship, discussions, ideas, travels…Paolo Fabiani, Vittorio Corsini, Massimo Barzagli.