Ettore Guatelli

Ettore Guatelli (1921 – 2000) was born in Collecchio on the 18th April 1921. He had an irregular school education due to health issues that prohibited him from either properly attending school or dedicating his life to agriculture, what was usually expected of the son of farmers.
He was a primary school teacher, an ethnographer, a visionary museographer and collector who was able to link objects and stories, a person who could converse with poets and professors, photographers and graphic designers, artisans, farmers and scrap dealers.

Ettore, the son of sharecroppers, was born in Ozzano Taro in the province of Parma, where the farm buildings that hold the collection are located. He met Attilio Bertolucci, a figure that would become a point of reference in his education: Guatelli would type the texts that Bertolucci dictated to him, and in return the poet would teach him how to pass his school exam. He would peruse the warehouses of collectors in the Apennines, initially out of curiosity, later salvaging furniture and various other things coming from farmhouses and workshops. He collected altogether more than 60,000 items.

His illness and the repeated postponements did not allow him to avoid conscription in 1942. He deserted after 8 September 1943 to take part in the antifascist movement. In this period, in hospital, Ettore met Attilio Bertolucci, later to become the major point of reference in his education. In 1945 Ettore obtained his school diploma after 8 months of hard work, studying on his own.

In the 1950s he participated in local politics: he was elected municipal councilor in Collecchio and deputy secretary to an MP in 1954.
Still during those years, in his own home, he began to host a group of literary experts and intellectuals from Parma, including Artoni, Bertolucci, Bianchi, Colombi-Guidotti, Cusatelli, Petrolini, Tassi, and Viola. They read Guatelli’s diaries and published some excerpts.

During the period in which he was director of the camps in Bedonia and Tarsogno (1951 -1971), Ettore Guatelli began to visit the warehouses of collectors in the Apennines. He initially did so just to browse, but later started to trade and save pieces of furniture, tools and items of farmers and artisans from being scrapped and refurbished. In 1968, after years of working as a substitute teacher, he passed the state exam, became a full time teacher and worked in primary school until 1977, when he retired.

In the mid-1970s the Guatelli collection started to attract the attention of local people, public institutions and researchers. At the same time, after the first few articles in the newspapers, Guatelli started recognizing the responsibilities he bore towards his job as a collector and researcher. He found himself involved, in fact, in a movement of rediscovery of material culture that would characterize the 1970s and 1980s.

Until his death in September 2000 Ettore dedicated body and soul to his craft, collecting, hoarding, welcoming guests and visitors, setting up rooms and walls over and over again. During these years he received a lot of recognition and started appearing in books, magazines, lecture rooms, dissertations. The 1990s will always be remembered for having seen the emergence of the Ozzano Taro museum onto the international museographic and ethnographic scene. In 2003, 3 years before his death, the Foundation bearing his name was established. It now manages the museum and promotes his cultural heritage.

Ettore Guatelli, seen here with Bernardo Bertolucci and Roberto Benigni.