SCOPIO | CLEO FARISELLI

Scopio is at the same time a sculpture and an installation: a sculpture because of the materials used quality, such as plaster, epoxy resin and micaceous pigment, assembled on an iron pedestal; installation because of a not marginal detail, instead of a pedestal or a fixed support at the base, a handlebar, like those used to move periscopes, was applied.
Eyes openings reproduced on this head are a space devoted to the visual, through which experience the artwork itself.

The artwork title deliberately refers to a submarine imagery and to the possibility of exploring unconventional visual experiences. Forced into a closed space, literally immersed in a context that is trap and unknown at the same time, in which one tries to move and survive.
The act that Fariselli invites to do is exactly that of focusing just on visual sensory as the only possibility of relating to the outside world, like inside a submarine.
Both real and metaphorical, the unknown that we face and the not always reliable tools that we have for reading our present and at least trying to imagine our future.

A perfect expression of what relational art is, in which the interaction of public with the artwork is essential in order to satisfy its function. Unlike those works that must only be observed, sometimes close and sometimes rigorously from afar, Scopio requires an action from the viewer to be itself. The activation of this process is exactly what stimulates the artist: each interaction is unique, given by the uniqueness of the person who performs it, consequently the artwork itself takes on different meaning, identity and character from time to time.
Physical contact between artist and artwork is essential in Fariselli’s practice. Due to the structural characteristics of this material, plaster sculptures give the possibility of being deeply modeled, intervening with every body part – even the unconventional ones – during the creation process.

Fariselli’s work is a collective experience, a sharing moment that links artwork, artist and spectator, giving each one something of the others. A perfect synthesis of the exchange concept: sharing something own’s to enlarge other’s vision, and vice versa.

Cleo Fariselli
Scopio, 2019
Plaster, epoxy resin, micaceous pigments, scagliola carpigiana coating, distilled water, iron base, cm 33 x 25 x 28 e 55 x 140 x 55
© Courtesy the artist, photo: Silvia Mangosio and Luca Vianello

28/06/2023