Art on Board: The Fascination of Marble

THE FASCINATION OF MARBLE

Photo credit and Courtesy Fabio Viale Studio, Turin)

The contemporary classics by Italian artist Fabio Viale gain impact as new symbols of a troubled society. From a Venus bearing Yakuza-style tattoos to Algerian women swathed in their traditional dress, depriving them of freedom

by Micaela Zucconi

Fabio Viale has an elective affinity for marble, one of the most noble materials a sculptor can choose to work with. Unsurprisingly, the word has ancient Greek roots, deriving from “mármaron”, shining stone. Its different types and colours make it the perfect medium for ground-breaking creativity. Born in Cuneo in 1975, while still a student Viale realised he was particularly interested in sculpture. A teacher noticed his talent and he was immediately sent to work with an artisan to learn the secrets of the trade. The Academies of Turin and Carrara were the obvious next steps. Viale formed close links with the temple of the marble quarries of the Apuan Alps, where the great artists of the past from Michelangelo to Canova came to source the stone for their work, and these links remained as strong as ever when he returned to Turin. “Marble suited my needs better than all the other materials, and most of all it was different from what the others were choosing”, says the artist. After a one-man show at the Glyptothek Museum in Munich, taking part in the Venice Pavilion at the latest Venice Biennale and an exhibition at Moscow’s Pushkin Museum it was then the turn of Pietrasanta, with the support of the Galleria Poggiali, to host the artist’s works. The exhibition, curated by Enrico Mattei, unfolds among some of the city’s most impressive public spaces (Truly, until 4 October 2020). Viale draws inspiration from artists of the past and as he reproduces their works he seeks to investigate their personality in an analytical way. Their sculptures are icons, symbols that have stood the test of time, and they are now interpreted by contemporary art, like tattoos. “I began to tattoo marble about fifteen years ago using the type of tattoo worn by Russian criminals. Since then there’s been constant development”, says Viale. Similarly, his Venere del Canova, by no means a simple copy, bears the typical patterns popular among members of the Japanese Yakuza. The colour penetrates deeply into the marble surface, as it does into human skin. In Laocoonte, based on the sculptural group in the Vatican Museums, the tattoos reproduce the Hell depicted in the fresco in the San Petronio cathedral in Bologna. No classical reference, though, apart from the title, for Le Tre Grazie, displayed for the first time ever in the church of Sant’Agostino. In this work the artist, who enjoys travelling in the desert, portrays three Ibadite Muslim women he encountered in the Algerian city of Ghardaïa, completely covered, apart from one eye, by the traditional garment called a haik. It is a reference to freedom denied and the accepted Western perception at the same time. Viale loves subverting preconceptions, and has even created a marble ship, Ahgalla, which can float and is perfectly functional. The marble’s lightness is a product of the artist’s talent, as he achieves different effects, from Styrofoam to leather. This involves hard physical work, now

(for both images: Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Poggiali)

Opposite, Fabio Viale, Souvenir David, 2020, white marble and pigments, 196x114x115 cm. Top, Fabio Viale, Door Release, 2018, white marble, 198x100,55. Above, Black Fist, 2020, black fist, 141x36x27

Courtesy Fabio Viale Studio, Torino

courtesy Galleria Poggiali_photo Studio Fabio Viale

Left, Fabio Viale, Venere italica o di Canova, 2016, white marble and pigments, 2016, 173x52x75 cm. Above, Laocoonte, 2020, white marble and pigments, 198,5x134x87 cm

supported by technology. Marble undergoes a metamorphosis and the sculpture is born as if liberated from a cocoon. Sergio Risaliti, Director of Florence’s Museo del Novecento and author of an essay that accompanies the exhibition catalogue, said that “At the basis of Viale’s work there always exists a respectful knowledge of the material and this virtual relationship, nurtured for many years, between technology and poetry, materials and tools, man and nature, has helped develop a creative process whose aim is to exalt the formal properties of the stone and the conceptual and figurative properties of the human imagination”.