Mauro Staccioli

The binominal sculpture/environment has always been fundamental for Mauro Staccioli, right from his beginnings as a sculptor in 1968. “To create a sculpture,” says the artist, “it means to exist in a place,” an idea that he has already embodied perfectly in the monumental works he produced in the Seventies. In these works, his powerful and essential language literally takes the shape of incisive elementary geometry, with materials which do not belong to the noble tradition of sculpture, like iron, cement and a particular type of stone.

Staccioli has gained a role in the foreground of the panorama of international sculpture, along with artists such as Anthony Caro, Tony Smith, and Richard Serra, who, like him, have all remained faithful to a concept of art, as the last great utopia. The book aims to document the aforementioned, through a significant exhibition held in different locations throughout Padua. This is the result of a collaboration between the City of Padua’s Municipal Administration and Fioretto Arte Contemporanea in order to demonstrate how Staccioli has been able to interpret, in a very personal way, the “site-specific” issue, opening new horizons of sense that can help us to authentically live the places of the world.

Padua, May - October 2010