Dimitri Prigov (Mosca, 1940 – Mosca, 2007)
In 1988, Giuliano Gori promoted the exhibition MoscaTerza Roma (Moscow: the Third Rome), bringing 8 artists from the Moscow underground to exhibit in Italy for the first time. In May the show was first hosted by the Sala Uno art space in Rome before moving to Celle in June of the same year; the artists followed their installations to Tuscany and at Celle Dimitri Prigov transferred his untitled work to the wall of a room on the first floor of the fattoria building. He carefully arranged each sheet of the Pravda newspaper on which he drew with paint and Bic pen ink. At the exhibition opening, Prigovheld a poetry reading of his compositions, translated into Italian for the occasion.
A year later, the artist contacted Giuliano Gori, asking to come back to work in his fattoriaroom; he wanted to add a series of sculptures associated with writings and interspersed with the so-called “Veils of the temple” used in the Orthodox Church rite. During this second stay, Prigov worked in the library of Villa Celle to sculpt the model later used to cast five identical figures in bronze. In additionally, with the help of handymen, he attached five wooden panels underneath the bronze icons, creating a word for each one: “Beast, Child, Man, Hero, Sage,”thus each one representing the five stages of man according to Nietzsche.
