Tamburi, campane e campanacci, 1988 - 1989

Anthropomorphic, fabulationist, almost prehistoric: Luigi Mainolfi’s art emerges in dialogue with myths pertaining to the earth, in a fertile, magical, and atemporal dimension where sun, trees, water, and fire, but also animals and human settlements have spirits that correspond to their external forms. For the artist, object and material coincide; in Mainolfi’s hands, the concreteness of terracotta, the ductility of bronze and the generosity of wood all become sculptures that embody the earth, sun, and plant world. His investigation includes the universe of signs and the use of a prelinguistic code, capable of traversing time and linking different cultures. [...]