On Saturday 26 March, the gallery Ex Elettrofonica in Rome opened a solo show (open until 28th May) by Agostino Iacurci, an artist working in various media (painting, sculpture, set design), who in recent years has created colorful murals around the world, in which decoration and architecture blend and become a new language.
The title of the exhibition is “Of My Abstract Gardening,” in reference to the flowers and plants Iacurci depicts in all his oeuvre. We called him on the phone on his way back to Bologna, where he has resided for a few weeks after six years spent in Berlin.
Could you tell us about your work?
When I was studying engraving at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome I began to make large murals – this was in 2006 – which immediately brought me international visibility. I began to travel a lot to create these works, and at the same time I moved forward with an itinerant studio practice, changing cities, working on paintings and sculptures. I have recently made a connection between these worlds, in exhibitions that I see as total all-around projects, including all the aspects of my practic.
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What inspires you?
Ancient Roman painting, like the wall decorations on the so-called “Villa of Livia” in Rome. The crafts tradition in Puglia. Travels, from Mexico to India, and the Italy of Sottsass and Aldo Rossi: the programmatic idea of freely crossing various disciplines – set design, art, illustration – also comes from them. Then there is Depero, another crossover; Sol LeWitt with his wall paintings, between art and architecture; but also contemporary names like Pablo Bronstein or Nicolas Party.
You mentioned set design: have you also worked in this field?
My way of addressing the entire space also comes from the work I’ve done for the theater, as a builder and designer of sets. Recently I have worked with Alfredo Arias, an Argentine director, for a production at Teatro Argentina in Rome, where the costumes were by the fashion designer Marco De Vincenzo. My show at Ex Elettrofonica also moves in this direction: I have constructed an architectural rhythm in the space with glazed terracotta sculptures on which I have put plants, which represent the object of the sculptures; and, vice versa, the sculptures seem to issue from the paintings.
Would you like to design wallpaper?
I’ve been asked about that, but I still haven’t had a chance to investigate. I am open to everything, I simply have to meet the right person who transmits enthusiasm.
Do you have a team for the XL projects?
At first I did everything myself, on scaffolding or with lifts. In recent years I have started to work with an assistant.
What is the most incredible piece you have done?
A mural in Kyiv, almost 40 meters high. And, more recently, the installation for an event organized by Hermès in Milan, at Teatro Franco Parenti, a total project in which we involved all the spaces of the theater, transforming it into a grand hotel for one night. A space that came alive with guests, artists, actors. On the borderline between art, set design and a party. Almost a one-night Futurist happening.
