Una Forza Interiore. Ugo La Pietra
From 15th November to 22nd December 2017, Officine Saffi is pleased to present an exhibition entirely dedicated to Ugo La Pietra’s ceramics. The show, curated by Flaminio Gualdoni, is titled "Inner strenght"and it investigates virility as a sculptural force and generator of shapes and volumes, through a series of vases, sculptures, votive figures and photographs.
The works on display, the result of the long-standing collaboration between Ugo La Pietra and Giovanni Mengoni, blend the visionary qualities of an artist with the logical thinking of the designer and the craftsman's skill.
"Bucchero is ancient, it's just ancient. And it is rare and mysterious, because it is only practised by the indigenous inhabitants of the lands of Etruria,where examples of it have been found. It is limited because it is intimately anaesthetic,because its shape, tectonics, and spatial dimensions are all swallowed up in a glossy blackness that absorbs everything, starting with its potential for beauty. And it's boring, because the technique is specific and can't be changed, it is not subject to avant-garde linguistic moods."
In his prolific and curious journey - curious due to its intellectual energy and critical tension - Ugo La Pietra could not help but come across bucchero, and put it on show at Officine Saffi,the international contemporary ceramic research centre. The result of this collaboration is a monochrome display with strong, almost primitive, expressive charge, where the artist, thanks to the help of the craftsman, goes back to auscultating the material in order to become its master, faber; without, however, forgetting the profound critical reflection which Ugo La Pietra submits all his work to.
The works on display, the result of the long-standing collaboration between Ugo La Pietra and Giovanni Mengoni, blend the visionary qualities of an artist with the logical thinking of the designer and the craftsman's skill.
"Ugo La Pietra has once again become involved with deeply-rooted artisan knowledge and he has dismantled and reassembled, both in his head and in a Perugian furnace, the idea and the possibilities of bucchero ceramics."
In fact, bucchero is the protagonist of all the works on displayat Officine Saffi, it is an ancient material but one that is capable of interpreting a contemporary vision, such as that of Ugo La Pietra. Bucchero is a particular type of black ceramic that was used by the Etruscan civilisation from the 7th century BC to the first half of the 5th century BC. The name derives from the Spanish bucaro, a word referring to certain pots from South America, made with an odorous, coloured clay, which were imitated in Portugal and became fashionable in Italy."Bucchero is ancient, it's just ancient. And it is rare and mysterious, because it is only practised by the indigenous inhabitants of the lands of Etruria,where examples of it have been found. It is limited because it is intimately anaesthetic,because its shape, tectonics, and spatial dimensions are all swallowed up in a glossy blackness that absorbs everything, starting with its potential for beauty. And it's boring, because the technique is specific and can't be changed, it is not subject to avant-garde linguistic moods."
In his prolific and curious journey - curious due to its intellectual energy and critical tension - Ugo La Pietra could not help but come across bucchero, and put it on show at Officine Saffi,the international contemporary ceramic research centre. The result of this collaboration is a monochrome display with strong, almost primitive, expressive charge, where the artist, thanks to the help of the craftsman, goes back to auscultating the material in order to become its master, faber; without, however, forgetting the profound critical reflection which Ugo La Pietra submits all his work to.