Claudio Parmiggiani Solo Exhibition "Ashes"

Claudio Parmiggiani's solo exhibition "Ashes (Cenere)" is on display at Serge le Borgne Gallery from February 12 to March 22. Born in 1943, Claudio Parmiggiani was a contemporary of Italian Arte Povera in the 1970s. Although he did not participate in the mainstream consciousness of Arte Povera, his creative philosophy resonated with it. Since the 1960s, he actively explored the conceptual framework of Arte Povera, seeking "that complex experience which cannot be defined... This will be the key to sensitively re-establishing art." Parmiggiani instinctively and poetically reveals this world, hinting at and exploring infinite magical energy.

Italian art critic Carusi wrote: "Gold, wood, water, fire, and earth are all vital primary materials: combining them into a substantial life allegory. Such an obvious convergence of life and art... involves an interesting verification of the concrete and the collapse of the abstract. Through this presentation, it is never dialectical (...) the main dialogue, thereby rediscovering the relationship between image and reality, space and environment, matter and form..." In this solo exhibition titled "Ashes," Parmiggiani displays two large series of neatly arranged square aluminum boxes (150 each), filled with powdery ash, evoking the temporality of all things in the universe. In this process, everything turns to ashes; as if all worldly things will turn to dust, with everything being born anew through transformation and destruction, endlessly continuing.

The artist states: "I believe a work cannot be described by language; language belongs to another discourse, while images are another language. The language of images contains sensibility. (...) I can only speak of its clear form, a will, a kind of intimate inspiration. Aware that a work is never a good teaching act, nor something for people to feel at ease, nor optimistic or decorative, but rather radical, heavy, and provocative. A work's will is secret and silent, hiding behind a mysterious veil. 'Mysterious,' I know, is a word hard to utter. Almost heretical, yet it involves a force, a deep manifestation at the root of existence. Secretly, because one must guide towards profound observation through ambiguity. Silently, silence is a provocative language today, as it is a space for contemplation. Traces, dust of time, the truth of the most processual signs. They are the moving and secret aspects of material life."