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Some examples: Cubo da mostrare alle capre
is a red cube to display goats at the zoo rather
than feed them; Strozzapreti is an object to
throttle prelates; Lettiera-oliera is a cat litter
box with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, all you
need to dress the needs of cats. Dove sono le
benedette chiavi is a copy of the keys to his
studio that he had blessed by a priest in Ve-
nice. He also made a bowl shaped so as to be
useable only by small dogs, and a corridor to
parade ants. He made a yellow candlestick
that is also a juicer, and a stand on which to
kiss frogs that turn into princes.
These are objects that would help to carry out
operations you could never expect to have to
make, but suggest the possibility that they
could happen. Valerio does not wonder much
about the nature of these paradoxes, but works
within the distance between their premises
and conclusions, and in this new space con-
ducts his painting.
Like a magician who uses his powers to do
things that those that don’t have them would
never do, in this means he explicitly pushes
himself in his pictorial discourse.
Matteo Mottin
man perspective? Or maybe it was a mistake?
Objectively, turning yourself into an ant in a
place inhabited by birds is not a great idea.
I tried to explain this passage linked to the fi-
gure of the magician to the veterinarian who
attended to the birds during the exhibition.
He thought it a bit, then a few minutes later
quoted these verses from Dante's Paradiso:
“Vero è che, come forma non s’accorda
molte fiate a l’intenzion de l’arte,
perch’a risponder la materia è sorda
così da questo corso si diparte
talor la creatura, c’ha podere
di piegar, così pinta, in altra parte”
(It really happened)
One of the key aspects for understanding the
work of Valerio can be found in tragicomedy,
in particular Italian cinema during the boom
of directors like Dino Risi, Marco Ferreri, and
Mario Monicelli. For him, it’s impossible to
make art in Italy without confronting this
aspect, that in a sense is part of our historical
heritage. In this sense, in Trasformazione Per-
manente di un Mago in Formica we find this
attitude, this way of doing and conceiving
things that flows under our recent history, is
part of our way of thinking, and we are inevi-
tably condemned to continue doing.
Recently Valerio is developing a group of works
that embodies this attitude, making a series
of works/objects that insinuate the paradox
between the ten rules of good design of Dieter
Rams. They are objects designed and created
to fulfill specific functions, but which are not
really as rational or functional as you would
expect.
