Corrado Feroci ,when an Italian isn’t famous just for making coffee ,pizza and being a criminal

Life is funny sometime ,you go travelling to an Asian country to find out that one of the people that played an important part in their history is a compatriot ,an Italian ,Corrado Feroci is the father of modern art in Thailand.

I came to Bangkok to do researches for a future business I will do with a Thai friend and my brother and the only Italians I knew own businesses or chasing girls for sex ,the last thing I would expect was to discover a cultured Italian that played a key role improving Thai culture teaching modern art and at the end being adopted as a Thai under the name of Silpa Bhirasri .

In the past I knew some famous Italians in other countries but unknown in Italy but they always worked in the show business and had no impact in the local culture ,Corrado Feroci was unexpected and I’m surprise he isn’t in history or art books , two months in Bangkok I tried to get as much information as possible about the character ,I mean we talk about an Italian that in 1924 decided to go to work and live in Thailand something absolutely unusual for the time ,his mindset was on a different level then the majority of other Italians and after I had the chance to read some of his letters that you can find at the museum dedicated , the personality of the artist come on the surface and becomes understandable the needs to leave and never go back.
I wanted to know everything about him ,I researched on internet ,I visited the house where he lived that now is a cafe’ and art gallery

the museum set inside what used to be his office ,and some of his most important sculptures that are the most important monuments in Bangkok ,he elevated Thai art to be recognized globally ,In 1943 he founded what later became Silpakorn University, the University of Fine Arts.

Those are the Italians I would love to hear about on the magazines not the sport players that went to play for the NBA or for the Premier league ,what an example would be for those Italian kids that instead to dream to become a sport player ,an actor or a businessman they would chose a more deep vocation like Arts ,Philosophy ,Medicine ,I wish for the day where the main news on media will be about writers ,scientists ,Artist ,that would be the day this world would start to change in better.

I collected so much information that I could became easily a tour guide ,I got the chance when an Italian friend in holiday in Bangkok with his family asked me to show them around ,I couldn’t miss the chance to take them at first at Corrado Feroci house then at the museum where proudly I told his life story ,there was this funny episode at the museum when waiting at the entry for my friend to come out the toilet two South American girls asked me info about the museum ,I told them I was Corrado Feroci nephew and if they wanted I could explain about him ,they were surprised and asked me if was true ,I couldn’t keep up with the joke and told them I was not but if they wanted I could tell them about his life that I knew for real ,I felt like a guide for real this time ,explaining how he got to Thailand till becoming famous and fully integrated part of Thai society and Thai itself changing his name in Silpa Bhirasri and nationality ,actually this wasn’t his choice but when after the second world war Italy surrendered and allied to the United States the Japanese that lost the war and was allied with Germany arrested it cause Italian ,Thai government helped him changing his name and nationality ,so as Thai citizen the Japanese released him.

Reading some of his letters I could easily understand his personality ,sensitive ,kind ,devoted to his job and love ,Art ,and I find out that the reason he stayed is the reason why I came ,the desire to leave a materialistic society for something more real ,simple ,Thailand nowadays changed a lot from Corrado Feroci times but I feel that deeply still preserve that uniqueness ,simplicity.

Would be nice to follow his footsteps but I would be happy enough to know that my coffee and personality is appreciated among Thai people

Final note

There was a song called Santa Lucia he used to sing all the time meanwhile working ,it’s now the Silpakorn university anthem.