At the Labirinto della Masone, Bertozzi & Casoni's ceramics reflect on man-made corruption of nature

The Labirinto della Masone in Fontanellato will host the exhibition Bertozzi & Casoni from September 14, 2024 to January 7, 2025. It’s Not What It Seems, curated by the Franco Maria Ricci Foundation and Bertozzi & Casoni, which through the works of artists Bertozzi & Casoni, known for their extraordinary technical and formal skills, will offer a reflection on contemporary society with an acute and original gaze. In particular, the theme of the corruption and decay of the natural environment due to human intervention and the potential for regeneration inherent in nature itself will be highlighted.

An artistic duo born in Imola in 1980, Bertozzi & Casoni is composed of Giampaolo Bertozzi and Stefano Dal Monte Casoni, who passed away in 2023, artists from Emilia-Romagna, both trained in the field of Faenza ceramics, have always favored this expressive medium, elevating it from a secondary role to an absolute protagonist in their creations. At the beginning of the new millennium, they abandoned the traditional technique of painted majolica to experiment with industrial materials and technologies. This approach allowed them to achieve an extremely realistic ceramic rendering, making it difficult for the public to distinguish between fiction and reality. Their continuous technical innovation has transformed the complexity of execution into an accessible perception, making their works strikingly mimetic.

The works of the Bertozzi & Casoni duo are the result of prolonged, careful and thoughtful studies. Their meticulously precise compositions are often revised until the last moment in a continuous search for perfect balance between form and content. This painstaking process produces sculptures with unlikely but incredibly realistic iconography, filled with references to pop culture, art history and its most celebrated performers. Their works allude to a theater of the absurd linked to the everyday, reworking contemporary society with an original and distinctive gaze. Bertozzi & Casoni’s creations strike a delicate balance between irony and criticism of consumerism. The hyperrealism of their works generates doubts in the viewer, while the beauty of the sculptures stimulates reflections on the decay of society.

About forty sculptures will be on display at the Labirinto della Masone, not only in the rooms dedicated to temporary exhibitions, but also along the museum route, in a dialogue that aims to involve spaces and works and activate reflections on the relationship between man and nature today. In the room dedicated to Parmigianino will be placed Flamingo, a sculpture composed of two flamingos, one of which has a severed neck populated by butterflies, and among the twentieth-century works there will be In Your Shoes (an epiphany), in which the shoes of a well-known brand are represented worn and worn; Electric Chair with Butterflies will stand out in the small room dedicated to vanitas, and in the galleries where the volumes of the Franco Maria Ricci publishing house are exhibited will be placed two works in which books constitute everyday objects, accompanied by Bertozzi & Casoni’s typical clearings.

In the first room, the public will be immediately greeted by the series of seasons inspired by the famous works of Arcimboldo. In these sculptures, the triumph of fruits, vegetables, flowers and plants is joined by the disturbing Fifth Season, composed of plastic, cables and human waste. This depiction of the deterioration of reality continues with the presence of animals imprisoned in plastic bags and placed on dirty barrels.

The culminating work of the exhibition is the enormous Caretta caretta, created especially for the occasion. In this sculpture, a sea turtle lies on a veterinary table, entangled in fishing nets thrown by humans. However, the work suggests a note of hope: thanks to human intervention, the turtle could still be saved. This symbolic piece invites the audience to reflect on collective responsibility to the environment and the possibility of redemption through human action.

The second room presents a disenchanted view of human life through some of Bertozzi & Casoni’s most iconic works. Prominent among them is Resistance 2, a large table set at the end of a banquet, filled with leftover food and used dishes. Alongside this work, other creations show dirty dishes, plastic bags and trash cans, composing a stark and realistic portrait of contemporary consumerist society. Amidst the remains of various foods are broken eggs, as in Horn and Snapshot, and octopuses, as in Tray Ma. From all these objects emerges a representation of our age, crystallized and suspended in time, reflecting on the habits and contradictions of modern life.

In the last room of the exhibition itinerary, the theme of the exhibition evolves toward a note of hope. On display here are new forms of life emerging from the wreckage of human disintegration: animals and plants return to populate environments dirtied by man, flowers regrow on clods soaked in cigarettes and litter.

The recovery of “abandoned,” sometimes dirty, nonetheless silent and helpless objects brings these same objects back to a second life. They become points of interest not only for the animals that inhabit them, but also for the observer, who finds himself observing them out of their everyday context. This room is meant to celebrate nature’s ability to regenerate itself, suggesting that through collective and conscious engagement, it is possible to repair the damage inflicted and foster a more sustainable future.

On the occasion of the exhibition, a book of the same name published by Franco Maria Ricci will be published, collecting, in addition to the works on display, a series of original short stories by Tiziano Scarpa.

For info: www.labirintodifrancomariaricci.it

Hours: Daily except Tuesdays. Until Oct. 31 from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; from Nov. 1 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

At the Labirinto della Masone, Bertozzi & Casoni's ceramics reflect on man-made corruption of nature

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