With the patronage of the Pistoletto Cittadellarte Foundation, Biella and the Sapienza University of Rome museum complex


FRAGILE

personal exhibition by
ALESSIO DELI

Vernissage
Saturday 20 April 2024
from 4pm to 8pm

edited by: Stefano Colonna, Edoardo Marcenaro, Cecilia Carrara

The exhibition will remain open until May 31,2024
From Monday to Friday 9.00-19.15
Free entry

Museum of Classical Art - Sapienza University of Rome
Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5,Rome
Entrance behind the Literature and Philosophy building


Alessio Deli takes us with his works into an ancient and ethereal dimension, which has its roots in classical art, which he carefully studied and revisited in a modern key. His muses are female figures with distant and diaphanous faces, characterized by an intangible mystery and endowed with an almost otherworldly grace. A distant world emerges in the present, classicism finds a new dimension and new forms while remaining on the path traced by the principles of harmony and proportion, typical of Greco-Roman art as well as Renaissance art, humus in which Deli's stylistic roots sink. Dialogues between current events and the past come to life. Now ancient historical-artistic identities are ferried into the contemporary and called to live our time. From the old something new is born. Echoes of classical statuary and Renaissance prototypes inhabit Deli's works. The art of the past is studied and revisited by the artist who, in a game of simultaneity, generates new stories of that "fragile" poetry inherent in human nature, inhabiting today a diaphanous, fragmented world, which has lost the path of history, perhaps its identity, certainly its origins. Works that question us about the fragility of our artistic cultural heritage, and consequently investigate the fragility of the human condition. The hope of this exhibition is to encourage viewers to reflect on fragility and time, on the past that returns and meets the present, on contemporary art which, today more than ever, would like to be reconciled with history: a reflection, therefore, also on oblivion, on the neglect of the times in which we live, on the need to rediscover, by turning towards our past, our own identity which we feel is progressively losing itself as a result of these very whirlwind times. The exhibition will feature around 30 selected works, created by the artist from 2017 to 2024.Among the works on display there will be sculptures of different materials such as bronze, Roman travertine, ceramic, resin and plaster, pictorial and graphic works. Among the works created by the artist and present in this selection, many have drawn inspiration from the plaster casts present in the museum. The ideal beauty of Deli's works is typically representative of the Mediterranean arts, and this is why he has received international recognition in recent years; his works are exhibited in France, England, Germany, Portugal, the United States, Canada, Singapore and China. Works that contrast with the contemporary world that surrounds them, full of difficulties and contradictions, and these seem to observe us humans from a distant and enigmatic place, which portends a sense of rebirth. There are numerous critics, artists and intellectuals who have approached his work, among others we mention: Vittorio Sgarbi, Umberto Mastroianni, Barbara Alberti, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Lorenzo Canova, Claudio Strinati, Ferzan Ozpetek, Francesco Negri Arnoldi, Marco Lodoli, Roberto Bilotti, Carmelo Occhipinti, Renato Mammucari. Alessio Deli was born in Marino, in the province of Rome, in 1981.After studying at the Marino Art Institute he graduated from the Carrara Academy of Fine Arts where he specialized in sculpture. Subsequently he qualified to teach plastic disciplines at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. In 2022 he obtained a PhD in contemporary art history and art criticism at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and in the same year he won the artistic industriousness award from the PSMSAD National Fund. Among the many exhibitions we mention the solo museum KORAI Incipit Memoria at Palazzo Valentini in Rome in 2019,the participation in the exhibition From Giotto to Pasolini at the Palazzo Doebbing Museum in Sutri in 2020,and the solo Anthropocene at MacS (Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Sicilia ) of Catania in 2021.Deli's works are placed in prestigious public and private collections in Italy and abroad, including the MacS, Catania; Fondazione Città dell'Arte Michelangelo Pistoletto, Biella, the Civic Collection of Contemporary Art of Palazzo Simoni Fè, Brescia; the Roberto Bilotti Ruggi d'Aragona Museum in Rende, Cosenza; the National Gallery of Calabria, Cosenza; the San Quirico d'Orcia Municipal Palace, Siena; the Ancient Martino Filetico College, City of Ferentino; the "La Sapienza" University of Rome; the New Church of S. Pietro Apostolo, Cosenza; and Porporati Park, Turin. MUSEUM OF CLASSICAL ART - MUSEUM CENTER, SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY OF ROME: The Museum, currently directed by prof. Giorgio Piras, Director of the Department of Ancient Sciences, with the curator Dr. Claudia Carlucci, has a collection of over 1200 plaster casts divided into 56 rooms, which mostly reproduce Greek sculptures existing in museums and collections everywhere of the world; the exhibition in chronological order allows visitors to concretely illustrate the historical development of Greek sculpture. Among the works hosted by the Plaster Cast Gallery: a collection of gem impressions made by Tommaso Cades between 1829 and 1834; the cast of the great relief of the Lion Gate of Mycenae; the cast of the Athena of Velletri; the reconstruction of the “Medici-type” Phidias Athena; the Demeter in the Round Hall of the Vatican Museums; some casts of the Parthenon sculptures; the casts of the Pergamum altar and many others. Contact information and press office: Romina Guidelli rominaguidelli@hotmail. It - 349 520 2413
Tanja Mattucci tanjamattucci@gmail. Com - 388 985 2542