Nunzio

Nunzio (Cagnano Amiterno, 1954 – )

Giuliano Gori encounteredNunzio Di Stefano, known as Nunzio, in Rome, where he was among the young artists who had made their studiosat the former PastificioCerere. The scene at the former Pastificio would be further explored in a project titled “Capodopera,” promoted by Giuliano Gori and curated by Achille Bonito Oliva; the series of events took place between November 1984 and May 1985 at the Tourist Board Office for the Municipality of Fiesole. The initiative consisted of a series of solo exhibitions every two weeks, each focusing on the masterpiece (“capo d’opera”) of an artist, accompanied by a series of drawings and preparatory sketches. In April 1985, it was Nunzio’s turn, and he presented a wall sculpture created the previous year, “Colibrì” (1985), currently displayed on the landing of the fattoria building.

Around the same time, he came to Celle and chose his room at the end of the corridor on the first floor of the fattoria. Located at an angle, the room has two windows, one shielded by blinds due to the direct sunlight from the south, and the other overlooking the area in front of the Villa and the Chapel. Reflecting on verses 28-30 of Canto IX of Dante’s Inferno (which mentions “‘l più basso loco e ‘l piùoscuro” – “the lowest and darkest place”), the artist sets up a series of overlapping wooden boards, 2.80 meters high, which almost touch the ceiling of the only wall not interrupted by windows or door. Nunzio worked the surface of his materialwith a charring technique employed in ancient constructions (especially useful in humid places, such as along the Japanese coasts) to stabilize and waterproof the wood fiber. In front of this charred composition, which presents itself as an irreversibly blocked passage, Nunzio fits, right in the corner wheretwo walls meet, a vertical element in lead similar in shape and color to the wooden boards. The title “Smarrimento” (Disorientation) is linked to the poet Dante but also to the matter excluded from this “dark forest.”

“If there’s a quality, perceptible at first sight and running through all Nunzio’s work, it’s a sense of internal rhythm derived from the materials harmonized in every form. Thisis seen distinctly in each work endowed, implicitly – almost without volition — with an innate balance. Such a quality is immediately evident, from his first debut works onward…” — Translated from Bruno Corà, “Nunzio. Passaggi di stato e di luce nell’immagine e nella forma”, in “Nunzio. Sarai d’ombra,” ed. Galleria Franca Mancini, Pesaro, 2013, p. 33.

Works by the artist

Being Lost

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