The exhibition Vuoto (emptiness) opens at 6.30 pm on 24 February 2011 in the Guido Costa Projects space in via Mazzini 24. This is the second one-man show of work by the Turin artist Diego Scroppo to be shown in this space - the first, Senza Luce, in 2007. It brings together four of his most recent artworks, one of which will be shown in the Guido Costa Projects Ghost Space in via Mazzini 39.

Once again Diego Scroppo has chosen sculpture to pursue his artistic research. The work in the exhibition, hovering between pure traditional practices and radical experimentation, probes the most striking features of his former output from both a theoretical and pragmatic level.

Everything begins with emptiness: it is the place where opposites meet and their differences reduce. Emptiness is the synthesis between being and nothingness; it is also the final resting place of knowledge. It is not by chance, therefore, that the artist has chosen to employ forms and symbols with esoteric origins that blend perfectly with the innermost soul of his artistic research.
In his first exhibition, Senza Luce, his desire to give expression to the unspeakable saw the production of creatures from the depths, primeval forms that live as close as possible to the edge. Going beyond these thresholds is again achieved through a representation of creatures from the extremes.

In the space once inhabited by science and science fiction in Senza Luce, we now find myth and history living side by side in Vuoto. It would appear impossible to capture these images beyond their representation here at the extremes of the thinkable and describable, the place where everything returns inexorably. Emptiness is a truth that we can only conceive of as a paradox, exactly as occurred in ancient fabulae, in myths and in the sacred theatre of origins.

From a theoretical and philosophical perspective the artist expresses skill and dexterity, distilling progressive reflections into a few ambitious and extremely sophisticated pieces; the same is equally true of his use of technique and materials to produce these artworks.

A genuine “anachronism” himself, Diego Scroppo’s sculpture is in many ways very traditional. Everything is contained in realistic forms and representation, with a sort of strain of wisdom and surrealism running through it all. On close inspection, very few artists seems to be treading the same path, and fewer still are experimenting with the same research in the contemporary field, at least, not in Italy.

Scroppo’s output belongs to the genuine tradition of monumental sculpture that has over the years grown out of funeral and celebrative art. It has very little in common with the deconstruction of forms or the triumph of poor materials that has become fashionable in many areas of contemporary un-monumental sculpture. Scroppo’s pieces are at once modern and archaic, as are the materials he uses, like the resins produced from the most advanced chemical research – his is a brilliant synthesis of organic and inorganic, tradition and innovation.

Their edgy existence and the extremely meticulous working methods that have brought them to life make Scroppo’s sculptures beautiful and unnerving. The creative processes behind these pieces, which include the most cutting-edge techniques used to make prototypes and slow painstaking craftsmanship, have kept the artist busy for more than three years from the initial theoretical planning phase to the final finishing-off stages in the studio. Here the artist worked away with ever-finer abrasive papers and almost micro-surgical techniques to bring out the details.

Guido Costa Projects is therefore extremely proud to be able to present the latest work by Diego Scroppo, which reveal him without doubt to be one of the most ingenious, articulate and individual of young Italian artists.

Vuoto will be open to the public in two different spaces until 14 May 2011. Half way through the exhibition, at a date that still has to be defined, it will be the subject and context for a new appointment with the Opera Filosofica Nomade, which will discuss some of its fundamental and unique aspects.

Work on show

In Via Mazzini 24:
Wreacked Ball, 2010-2011, resin, silicon, Hanau bulb, natural oxides, different dimensions;
Mood, 2010-2011, resin, silicon, natural oxides, 100 x 40 x 40 cm;
Il Vuoto, 2010-2011, resin, plastic, synthetic paints, 240 x 120 x 120 cm.

In Via Mazzini 39:
For Paul, 2010-2011, resin, natural oxides, 25 x 25 x 25 cm.

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Diego Scroppo (Turin, 1981) is one of the most interesting young artists working in Italy. He has realised a small number of few highly polished sculptures, some large-scale, that are created using highly intricate techniques. This is the second one-man show of his work at Guido Costa Projects with whom he has an exclusive agreement. Most of his work is kept in private collections in Italy and abroad.