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Alessandro Biggio - Studio per un ritratto, 2024 - Hotel Ladinia, Ortisei

Alessandro Biggio, Studio per un ritratto, 2024. Video Installation. Variable Dimensions. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina 9. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo
Alessandro Biggio, Ash Cones, 2010-ongoing. Ash. Variable dimensions. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo

Each work by Alessandro Biggio begins with an experiment, the result of which the artist does not know in advance. Decay and complete form thus coexist in a precarious equilibrium in all his works, made with materials such as ash or clay. After graduating in economics, Biggio set up his studio in Calasetta, on the island of Sant’Antioco, devoting himself to art as a self-taught artist. From here, in 2013, for his most radical project – BRACCIA – he invited nine artists to design a work which he then created himself. This was an experiment in sharing that blurs the boundary between creator and material producer, while distancing the state of insularity from that of isolation.

In the series Studi per un ritratto (‘Studies for a Portrait’, 2014 – ongoing), the artist models faces in clay, stopping before they start to become recognisable individuals. The heads are then immersed in water and left to melt. The resulting mud is then used to colour cloths of various shapes. The video images of the melting faces, presented in Ortisei, have been made in the artist’s studio by a number of visitors over the years and have never been shown before. “I believe this material is more than mere documentation. It also serves as a collection of fragments of individualities: those of the people who made them, at those particular moments.” The videos recall the landslides of mountains eroded by climate change, and at the same time investigate the ability to annihilate one’s own individuality so as to manage to see the Other, be it a living or an inanimate being. (M.P.)

ALESSANDRO BIGGIO

Alessandro Biggio (1974, Cagliari, Italy) lives and works in Cagliari and Calasetta. After a degree in economics, he turned to art as a self-taught artist and established his studio in Calasetta, on the island of Sant’Antioco. In his artistic practice, the process of exploration and experimentation with matter plays a fundamental role. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows including: Fondazione La Quadriennale, Rome; GAMeC - Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bergamo; Museo MAN, Nuoro; Museo Marino Marini, Florence; Gallerie d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Cagliari; Galerie Stadtpark, Krems; and CLER, Milan. In 2020 he was among the recipients of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. In 2017 he was artist in residence at AIR-Krems.

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Alessandro Biggio - Studio per un ritratto, 2024 - Hotel Ladinia, Ortisei

Alessandro Biggio, Studio per un ritratto, 2024. Video Installation. Variable Dimensions. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina 9. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo
Alessandro Biggio, Ash Cones, 2010-ongoing. Ash. Variable dimensions. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo

Each work by Alessandro Biggio begins with an experiment, the result of which the artist does not know in advance. Decay and complete form thus coexist in a precarious equilibrium in all his works, made with materials such as ash or clay. After graduating in economics, Biggio set up his studio in Calasetta, on the island of Sant’Antioco, devoting himself to art as a self-taught artist. From here, in 2013, for his most radical project – BRACCIA – he invited nine artists to design a work which he then created himself. This was an experiment in sharing that blurs the boundary between creator and material producer, while distancing the state of insularity from that of isolation.

In the series Studi per un ritratto (‘Studies for a Portrait’, 2014 – ongoing), the artist models faces in clay, stopping before they start to become recognisable individuals. The heads are then immersed in water and left to melt. The resulting mud is then used to colour cloths of various shapes. The video images of the melting faces, presented in Ortisei, have been made in the artist’s studio by a number of visitors over the years and have never been shown before. “I believe this material is more than mere documentation. It also serves as a collection of fragments of individualities: those of the people who made them, at those particular moments.” The videos recall the landslides of mountains eroded by climate change, and at the same time investigate the ability to annihilate one’s own individuality so as to manage to see the Other, be it a living or an inanimate being. (M.P.)

ALESSANDRO BIGGIO

Alessandro Biggio (1974, Cagliari, Italy) lives and works in Cagliari and Calasetta. After a degree in economics, he turned to art as a self-taught artist and established his studio in Calasetta, on the island of Sant’Antioco. In his artistic practice, the process of exploration and experimentation with matter plays a fundamental role. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows including: Fondazione La Quadriennale, Rome; GAMeC - Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bergamo; Museo MAN, Nuoro; Museo Marino Marini, Florence; Gallerie d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Cagliari; Galerie Stadtpark, Krems; and CLER, Milan. In 2020 he was among the recipients of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. In 2017 he was artist in residence at AIR-Krems.