Lot 5 D

In a career that spans almost 5 decades, the Italian artist Claudio Parmiggiani has always remained truthful to his signature themes. Famous for his large installations, often depicting fragmentation (glass shards) or poetic themes (harps with butterflies), he has transformed into art what could be regarded as concerns with the motifs of absence, trace, and the exploration of the individual’s role in the world. Especially the idea of absence of objects – such as items removed from their location – has spurned him on to create the ‘Delocazione’ series. One must imagine the physical and logistical effort that goes into the productions of said tableaux. The local fire brigade needs to be called, Parmiggiani then carefully places objects, such as bookshelves or shower curtains in front of a board. A controlled fire is started, and to create the dark soot, tires are burnt. The smoke is directed into the room with the artefacts and left to settle for 3 days. Upon entering the grey and dusty work area, the actual items are then removed, and the outline remains on the board and is later impregnated. The offered work depicts the outline of a female figure. The viewer is left with a sense of passage of time, absence and futility. It is almost the memory of an object, and not the object itself. Born in Luzzara in 1943 the artist does not shy away from the physicality of the process, as well as making sure the poetic nature of his themes is transported. A writer and lover of poetry himself, Claudio’s soot works provide a direct link from the works created by Yves Klein and Alberto Burri with the usage of fire in the fifties.