Alessandro Piangiamore (b. 1976, lives and works in Rome) pushes artistic creation up against the most technical wall, but also the most poetic. Placing objects and images of all kinds in a dialogue with each other in his composite installations, he proposes a new reading of their visual aspect and their reciprocal meanings. Thus the roughness of coral is highlighted by an erupting volcano or sculptures produced by the wind emphasize the power of nature… The artist invites the viewer to question what he thinks he sees and to rediscover what he no longer sees.

His latest project, Primavera Piangiamore, consists in a dialog between sculptures from the series La cera di Roma—panels coated in wax from votive candles collected from the churches of Rome—, questioning the meaning of a secular ritual, and glass sculptures of varying sizes and shapes, inside which a sealed cavity contains perfume. These perfumes come from a number of anonymous donors who accepted to give their “odor” to the artist.
In order to seal the sculptures at a temperature close to 1000°C—a temperature at which any liquid would instantly evaporate—the artist turned to the technical knowledge of glass-makers. Following a quasi-alchemical procedure, the perfume, embedded inside the glass block, cannot evaporate and thus remains imperceptible.

Curator: Daria de Beauvais