Arcangelo Sassolino

Violenza casuale (Random Violence) is an installation by Arcangelo Sassolino consisting of a thick wooden beam hooked by two steel cables to a hydraulic piston. Slowly the force of the piston pressing down on the wood overcomes its resistance, bruises it, splinters it, and, finally, disintegrates it. Sassolino transforms simple and seemingly mundane materials into machinery for thought, in which physical processes such as pressure, force, gravity, and resistance are made visible and aesthetically perceptible. Heir to Arte Povera, as well as to the minimalist and process art of the 1960s, Sassolino’s practice reflects and metaphorically translates the social tensions taking place today. Conflict, says the artist, is a constant and inevitable situation of the human condition. Sassolino gives voice to existential questions and, as in Violenza casuale, shows the clash between the artificial and the natural, with a tension that inevitably leads to the breakdown of the status quo.

Arcangelo Sassolino (1967, Vicenza, Italy) lives and works in Trissino (Vi). Sassolino’s work explores through sculptures and installations the behaviors of machines and materials, and the effects of physical forces by pushing the materials used to their extreme limits. Applying these principles to the natural world, the artist emphasizes the friction between technological progress and environmental hazards.
He has had solo exhibitions at Pearl Lam Galleries H Queen’s, Hong Kong, China (2018); Galleria Continua, San Gimignano (2017); Galerie Rolando Anselmi, Berlin (2017); Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, (2016); Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (2016); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2008); and MACRO, Rome (2011). He represented the Malta Pavilion for the 59th Venice Biennale d’Arte (2022). He has participated in group shows at Grand Palais, Paris; Broad Art Museum, East Lansing, USA; Palazzo Ducale, Venice; Le 104, Paris; MART, Rovereto.