tin, lead, silver
83 x 220 x 1 cm
2016
Since Thomas More’s book “Utopia” about the fictional island of the same name, islands are not merely understood as topographical elevations surrounded by seas: a non-place or as a place situated beyond the boundaries of the known, the island turns into a mirror image of the world and represents a symbol of another, better, order. Dealing with islands consequently entails departing into the ambiguous and blurry zone between existing islands and those imagined and desired, which envelop meager rocks, protruding from the sea, like a fleeting mirage. It is notably in the Mediterranean that such islands nowadays can be found, fluctuating between symbol and reality, luring the desperate in overcrowded boats, like sirens. In the sculpture “Utopia (Lampedusa)” the ambivalence between utopia and dystopia, between the desirable and the deniable, between hope and catastrophe is condensed in the metallic amalgam of silver, tin and lead.
UTOPIA (LAMPEDUSA), 2016
UTOPIA (LAMPEDUSA), 2016
UTOPIA (LAMPEDUSA), 2016