Artists portfolio: Mauro Staccioli, militant sculptor in dialogue with the environment

Naxes in Volterra in 1937 and graduated from the local Art Institute in 1954. In 1960 he moved to Sardinia where he began teaching in the province of Cagliari and founded, together with young Sardinian artists and intellectuals, the Initiative Group. In 1963 he moved first to Lodi and then to Milan; he will assume the position of director of the Brera Art School in 1974/75 and 1978/79 and subsequently of the State Art School of lovere (BG). The beginnings of his artistic activity are firmly intertwined with his teaching experience and that of intemilitant politician and scholar. After an initial period in which he experimented with painting and engraving, from the end of the XNUMXs he devoted himself to sculpture, focusing on the relationship between art and society and developing the idea of ​​a sculpture that is in close relationship with the place – intended in its conception both physical and social – in which and for which it was made. He therefore elaborates "sculpture-interventions" that are placed in a profound relationship with the spaces in which they are placed. Right from the start, the artist chose a language characterized by essential geometry and the use of simple materials such as concrete and iron. Already in the Seventies the Master wrote: “My sculptures are not conceived as objects of permanent embellishment of the city, as monuments, they do not illustrate or celebrate an event; they are tools of provocation, involvement and critical detection, recall and present existential condition, occasion for a collective public discussion".It is in 1972 that Staccioli the idea of ​​organizing a series of "sculpture-interventions" in the city of Volterra matured; the exhibition Sculptures in the city thus marking a turning point by opening up to urban spaces what until then was relegated only to the closed spaces of galleries and museums. Staccioli searches for and generates a "sculpture-sign" that arises from the careful observation of a space and that dialogues with it, emphasizing its characteristics and altering its usual perception, arousing questions and possible answers. The event took shape from the 1972 exhibition Volterra '73 edited by Enrico Crispolti which paves the way for this new way of understanding sculpture and which for Staccioli finds full expression in the exhibition Reading an environment – made in Vigevano in 1977 – a title that becomes a method.

Exhibition activity

After a series of exhibitions organized in Milanese galleries and spaces (Studio Sant'Andrea, Studio Marconi, Galleria Mouths) the invitation to the Venice Biennials of 1976 and 1978 arrives, the year in which he realizes the famous Wall, an 8-meter concrete wall that obstructs the view of the driveway to the Padiglione Italy, un unequivocal gesture of strong critical value towards the art system. And this happens a full 22 years before the acclaimed Santiago Sierra, also in the Biennale, closes the entrance to the Spanish Pavilion with bricks. The intense intervention at the Studio Mercato del Sale in Milan dates back to 1981, where a gash along the floor provokes the visitor to reflect and actively participate by going through the work itself. In 1982 he was called upon to create a large work in the park of Villa Gori in Celle di Santomato (PT), the first Italian park of environmental sculptures. From now on Stacciolireceives growing attention abroad and is called in Germany (Stadtische Gallery, Regensburg; Fridericianum Museum, Kassel), in the UK (Hayward Gallery, London), in Israel (Tel Hai College) and in France (ELAC, Lyon). In these years the artist's language loses the harshness and aggressiveness that it characterized, and which reflected the harsh and violent political climate of the "years of lead", to openly challenge space by subverting its static and dimensional balances, generating effects of alienation in the observer, such as the balanced shape on the staircase of the Galleria d' Modern and Contemporary Art of Rome of 1981, or the large plinth suspended on the staircase of the University Gallery of Amherst in Massachusetts in 1984, made on the occasion of his first solo exhibition in the United States. The comparison with architecture and the urban environment finds new solutions in the genesis of the large inverted arches built inside the Rotunda of the Besana in Milan (1987), in front of the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato (1988) at the invitation of Amnon barzel and in the main square of the Seoul Olympic Park (1988) at the invitation of Pierre Stay. In the meantime he continues his activity in the United States with an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and with the series of installations created in the park of the Djerassi Foundation di Woodside in California (1987-1991), followed in the XNUMXs by new interventions and important exhibitions including the one held at the ShoshanaWayne Gallery in 1993.
In the XNUMXs the artist continued to experiment with new forms: rings that highlight the landscape, as in Ordino d'Arcalis in the Principality of Andorra (1991) and in Munich (1996); "forced" rounds in the spaces of the Foundation Darkness of Milan (1992) or precariously balanced in the Parco della No in Bergamo (1992); spheres that appear almost metaphysically in the plain of ozieri in Sardinia (1995). The artist's bond with Belgium is deep and fruitful, where he is called to carry out an intervention at the ParkTournay Solvay of Brussels for the Foundation Europeanfor Sculpture (1996) and where he will carry out numerous interventions in both public and private spaces, including the now famous one Suspended balance al Round Point de l'Europe in Brussels (1998). In the same decade, Korea promotes various public interventions including the work for the Contemporary Compaction Museum di Kwacheon (1990)
In more recent years the fruitful research of Staccioli has taken the form of various installations in Italy and abroad: Pencil Building in La Jolla (San Diego 2003), where a steel beam crosses the facade of the building, Taiwan (2003), Puerto Rico (2004), Bodio Center in Milan (2004), Carrazedade anxieties (Portugal 2008), business center Val St Quentin a Voisins-le-Bretonneux (France 2008), Parco della Cupa in Perugia (2009).
In 2009 the exhibition opens in Volterra Mauro Staccioli. Volterra 1972-2009 – Places of experience which, in addition to proposing a selection of drawings, small sculptures and photographs presented in some exhibition spaces in the city, saw the creation of 19 grandiose environmental sculptures which, involving not only the city of Volterra but its entire territory, underline a landscape in which history, culture and human work are intertwined in the artist's work. Many of the environmental works created for the occasion are still installed and have been transformed into a veritable open-air sculpture trail.
The following year on a hill in Motta D'Affermo in Sicily Staccioli carry out the work 38th Parallel, a steel pyramid corten 30 meters high inside the park of the River of Art. The exhibition follows Mauro Staccioli. The bare space, a personal exhibition organized by the Fioretto gallery in Padua which involves, in addition to the gallery, some key places in the city.
In 2011 at the Archaeological Park of Scolacium and the exhibition is held at the MARCA in Catanzaro Mauro Staccioli. Imperfect circle for the series Intersections by Albert Fiz. At the end of the same year, on the occasion of the reorganization and reopening of its exhibition halls, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome acquired and installed a new work by Staccioli – a ring of 10 meters in diameter – created for the parterre in front of the Museum. 2012 opens with the placement of the sculpture Imperfect circle in the internal garden of the Bocconi University of Milan. In February the Galleria Il Ponte in Florence and the Galleria Niccoli of Parma inaugurate two exhibitions that re-read the first fifteen years of the artist's work, publishing the volume Mauro Staccioli. The concrete years 1968-1982, a detailed catalog of his concrete works from the 70s, the result of a philological reconstruction carried out together with the artist. At the end of the same year the personal Mauro Staccioli. Lost forms at the Invernizzi Gallery in Milan explores new research perspectives that find full expression in the participation in the Sculpture Biennale of Racconigi in 2013.
The following year the Château de Mustard in Belgium he dedicates an important exhibition to him in the historic garden, for which he creates two new sculptural interventions. Also in 2014 some of his important environmental sculptures were installed: for seogwipo in the island of Jeju in Korea it is designed and installed seogwipo 2014, in Padua the work From left to right and in Florence Arch 2014.
In 2015 on the occasion of the exhibition Volterra 73 memory and projection by Enrique Crispolti, in the Badia Camaldolese of Volterra, some of his historical works are reinstalled and al Mac di Liss the exhibition is organized Arc#ive 1: Mario Staccioli, on his archival material, edited by Lorenzo Respi and Simona Santini.
In 2016 he designed a new large intervention sculpture, Villa Pisani Bonetti '16, for the Palladian villa of the same name in Bagnolo di Lonigo, Vicenza, and a concise exhibition is dedicated to him accompanied by a catalog edited by Francesca On and Luca Massimo Barbero.
Staccioli was a member ofAcademy Royale of science, of letters et of Gallery de Belgium and National Academicianwing of the Accademia di San Luca. He died in Milan on January 2018, XNUMX.

Transfer market

Despite i his "fundamental" (presence in museums, public places and private collections, solo and group exhibitions), have nothing to envy, on the contrary, to the curriculum vitae of many masters celebrated by critics and the market, the quotations of Mauro Staccioli they are struggling to take off. Land his scultures, often monumental, redesign the spaces and the environment of squares and parks all over the world, from Europe to the United States, to Korea. E there are many interventions that have changed the course of sculpture. Just think Albert remembers Fiz - al Wall eight meters high, built for the 1978 Venice Biennale, which blocked the access road to the Italian Pavilion. Immortalized from the film Smart holidays with Alberto Sordi, it is much more than one boutade and wonders about the lack of communication of the work of art which becomes an obstacle to itself. In 1975, then, he prevented access to the gallery Mouths of Milan with a concrete rostrum wall, a full 25 years before the acclaimed Santiago Sierra, in the Biennale, close the entrance to the Spanish Pavilion with bricks. However, his most provocative intervention is from 198, when at the Mercato del Sale in Milan he breaks the floor and digs a deep pit that cuts the space in two, placing the spectators in front of a sudden earthquake where everyone can decide or not di cross the moat. Noel 2007 will be Doris Salcedo to realize in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Gallery shibboleth, a site installation specific which foresaw a crack through the entire floor of the museum on a surprisingly similar principle to that achieved by Staccioli 26 years earlier. Eyet his auction record for a large steel sculpture corten is just over 200 euros, fees included. And his work often changes hands for a few thousand euros. In the last 10 years, almost 200 works of various types have been auctioned (especially in Italy, Austria and France) with a turnover that – according to Artprice – in 2017 it slightly exceeded 100 thousand euros. About a hundred sculptures, mainly of small and medium size, with a percentage sold of over 80%. A separate discussion should be made in relation to the primary market where the "historic" gallseries dealing with production of the artist are doing a great job to bring the quotes of the works of I sieveli at a level appropriate to them real value (see Pricing chapter below).

Gallery: A. Arte Invernizzi of Milan, The Bridge of Florence e Niccoli of Parma.

Prezzi: in the gallery, his sculptures require an investment of between 15 and over 200 euros depending on the size and type. Works from the 60s and 70s are particularly sought after by collectors. The refined papers of the Maestro they cost between 2 and 15 euros.

Top price at auction: Ellipse, steel sculpture cortenmade in 2008 of 195 x 252 x 48 cm was sold for 204.300 euros (including royalties) by Dorotheum in Vienna in June 2015. Always from Dorotheum, in May 2014, ohneTitle of the 1987, a monumental sculpture in reinforced concrete changed hands for 134 euros.