Franco Guerzoni
Franco Guerzoni (Modena, 1948), an artist, began in the early 1970s a personal exploration focused on the world of archaeology, with particular attention to aspects related to the stratification of culture and the concept of “ancient” as loss and subtraction. He dedicated himself to finding precise systems for representing images, also using photography as a medium, and engaged in continuous dialogue with his contemporaries (including Vaccari, Parmiggiani, Ghirri).
In the 1980s, he was involved in creating large wall papers that explore the idea of an imaginary geography (Travel Maps, Grotesques, The Forgotten Wall). In 1990, he presented the exhibition project Decorations and Ruins in a solo show at the Venice Biennale. From the 1990s onward, he continued, with major cycles of works, his investigation into the concept of time and the poetics of ruin, adopting a theoretical approach that can be inscribed in the idea of “archaeology without restoration.”
Archeologie
Inspired by the idea that "a wall is like a book to be opened" in the Archeologie collection Franco Guerzoni uses large ceramic surfaces as a medium for his pictorial language, made up of visual signs intended to stimulate "a journey into the interior, revealing the experiences, memories, signs and symbols the wall has absorbed over the centuries".