Alessandro Biggio
∗1974, Cagliari, Italy
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 coexistin 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 boundarybetween creator and material producer, while distancing the state of insularity from that of isolation. WithConi di Cenere(‘Ash Cones’, 2008 - ongoing), the artist performs a gesture bordering on the oxymoronic, giving form to ash. The result isambiguous in nature: although they appear to be sculptures of solid concrete, they are actually fragile creatures, precariously balanced between decay and completed form. Although similar in appearance, each cone undergoes a drying process thatmakes it different from all the others, an inorganic mode of ageing. Their size is determined by a physical limit, which cannot be exceeded on pain of the work’scertain destruction. 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.
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