Riccardo Giacconi

Ecfrasi is part of a series by Riccardo Giacconi that represents the tale of an era through different visual languages including installation, video and sculpture. An ‘ekphrasis’ is in fact the literary description of a work of art. The tale Giacconi composes here relates to the postmodern era: on display we find two masks and three tents, forming a potential theatre, which is still empty as they were during the lockdown, just waiting for the audience and actors. The project revolves around the figure of the singer-songwriter Alberto Camerini, used by Giacconi as an allegory to reflect on the transition between the 1970s and 1980s: from the era of political activism to the era of regression into personal and consumerist hedonism. Specially made by artisans from Barbagia in Sardinia, the masks mix local carnival iconography with Camerini’s characters. The artist seems to suggest that through the different masks, the various personalities of the singer have changed in a continuous evolution, always poised between person and character, between fiction and reality.

Riccardo Giacconi (S. Severino Marche, 1985) He graduated in Visual Arts from IUAV, Venice, and he holds a PhD in Art from Leiden University, the Netherlands. He has presented solo shows at: Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria (2019) and FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France (2017). He participated in group shows including: That’s IT, MAMBo, Bologna (2017); Quadriennale d’arte, Rome (2016), Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow (2017) and several film festivals, including: Vision du Reel, Nyon, Switzerland (2019; 2017); the 74th Venice Film Festival (2017) and New York Film Festival (2015, 2018, and 2020).