Alfredo Pirri: Contemporary Steps

Alfredo Pirri's Passi

  

Passi. 2011. broken glass and mirror. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna.

‘...architecture is the only reason for sculpture. The spirit of architecture is sculpture, and construction of sculpture is architecture...’- Arturo Martini, Scultura lingua morta (Sculpture a Dead Language), 1945




The entrance of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna exhibits Perri’s, a Cosenza born Italian, installation that acts as a transitional zone, a ‘symbolic threshold’. Its intentions are to play with spatial perceptions, dimensions, materiality, and reality. The simple application of glass panel pavements plays with the reflected sculpture images through altering and recreating an unbalanced reflection upside down. A type of ‘broken narration’ of the spectator’s reality..

The gallery, unlike previous works in the museum itself, actually commissioned Passi. The gallery hall location is particularly essential to Pirri’s work. The glass ceiling acts as a link between indoor and outdoor. The spectator’s reality of the mirrored image is projected into the exterior brightly lite space.

The space is indoor yet appears outdoor. Pirri’s work is successful through his careful study of applying an unmistakable material in an uncommon placement, integrating spectator into the artwork, and understanding the location’s uniqueness.

Steps in Florence

Passi in Florence expands Renaissance interiors. Shattered (yet safe to walk on) mirrored panel pavement floors of the main hall of the palazzo along with the corridors that lead to and from it. Tourists find the process of visiting the spaces a challenge. The decorative ceilings filled with trompe l'oeil frescos are reflected on a fractured mirrored floor creating a new interpretation of spatial perceptions. The art work ironically, rather than taking away from the interiors, forces the visitors to look more clearly at the details of painted surfaces. The results are a play of colors, shapes, and images that fill the entire six surfaces; a three dimensional portrayal of two dimensional works.

  

Perri, Alfredo. Passi. 2011.Palazzo Ducale. Firenze.

Other Pirri Works

"senza titolo" [cod.5137]
“Opere per BASE “. 1989. Galleria Carini, Florence.

Riccardo Caporossi , Alfredo Pirri. Hic Iacet Corpus. 2011. Villa Borghese.

  

Racconti Exhibit. 2006. Galleria Oredaria. Rome.

More About the Artist:
i. Official artist website: www.alfredopirri.com
ii. Artist facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Alfredo-Pirri/389361791177339
iii. Roma gallery tours: http://www.romegallerytours.com/article.304/alfredo-pirri-giacomo-guidi-arte-contemporanea.html
iv. shows: http://www.alfredopirri.com/category/archive/

Bibliography

i. Pirri, Alfredo. ‘Steps, GNAM 2011’ in Alfredo Pirri (online). http://www.alfredopirri.com [last sited: 20:00, 26/1/2014]
ii. http://www.alfredopirri.com/passi-galleria-nazionale-darte-moderna/?lang=en [last sited: 13:30, 01/04/2014]
iii. Ugolini, Paola. 'Alfredo Pirri, Racconti'. UnDo.net. Vol. 30 No. 210. Nov.-Dec. 2006. http://www.undo.net/it/magazines/1164045283