Franco Mazzucchelli - edited by Gianna Schiavon & CCH (ChertLüdde Books, Fondazione Mancini Carini)

Text in Italian only

The release of Franco Mazzucchelli's latest monograph, edited by Gianni Schiavon and CCH and produced by the Fondazione Mancini Carini in collaboration with ChertLüdde, follows Mazzucchelli's exhibition at the Church of San Domenico in Alba. There, medieval architecture met contemporary art in a striking dialogue. Curated by Gianni Schiavon and CCH with support from the Fondazione Mancini Carini and Famija Albèisa, the exhibition suspended a large PVC spiral within the high vaults of the nave and guided the viewer towards the apse where gold-colored inflatables stood as a focal point of the exhibition.

Franco Mazzucchelli (1939, Milan, Italy) lives and works in Milan. He was professor of Techniques of Sculpture at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. His works have been shown in historical exhibitions, including the 15th Milan Triennale (1973), the 37th Venice Biennale (1976) and the 11th Rome Quadrennial (1986).

Known for his pioneering experimentation with synthetic materials in the sixties, as well as his large-scale, public spatial installations that disrupted the quotidian conventions of local inhabitants, Franco Mazzucchelli has produced a decades-spanning, prolific body of work that extends to this day. His most well-known series A. to A. (Art to Abandon) consists of inflatable sculptures made of PVC that were at first abandoned in lakes and deserts before being left in public spaces across Italy such as squares, schools and factories. The works temporally became part of the urban fabric, and the contact with passers-by activated their unexpected social roles: the public did not passively admire the artworks but was rather keen to touch them, move them around, play with them and take them away. Of the majority of these “abandoned” objects, the only remains are photographs and videos that document interactions between the artworks and their ambiances. His later series, Bieca Decorazione, which translates to “pure decoration”, are works that, unlike their ephemeral A. to A. predecessors, reference their objecthood and the art market. A statement against the commercialization of art that seems at first to contradict itself, the Bieca Decorazione series relies on context and history for its value beyond mere commodity.