Photo courtesy Simone Piresti
Photo courtesy Simone Piresti
Photo courtesy Simone Piresti
Molecular and molecular are dialectical terms that contextualize Daniele Sigalot’s work. The aluminum sheets, made on a 1:1 scale as if they were hundreds of papers to be trashed, seem to be connected by an atomic energy that manages the orchestral gravity of the individual elements.
The final form is a planetary sphere that defies quantum space, a semantic nucleus with Euclidean roots and geological codes, a virtuous metaphor for the molecular processes that sustain the digital universe of the new millennium.
– Gianluca Marziani
I wanted to see what would have happened if I had put all my mistakes in a single room. Would those crumpled and battered sheets of paper, bearers of crooked and lame thoughts, turn from bad ideas into their opposite once they had joined forces?
La mostra
For the entire month of February the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome host Master of Mistakes (2022), a monumental and singular sculpture by the artist Daniele Sigalot. The artwork was conceived and created to represent all the bad ideas he has collected throughout his life. The work, on show for the first time since its recent creation, measures over two and a half meters in diameter and weighs over five hundred pounds.
The title of the work Master of Mistakes (2022), an ideal symbol of an agglomeration of “mistakes” that become art, confirms Sigalot’s interest in oxymorons. The sculpture, which appears fragile and papery, actually has a solid and metallic nature, being made of aluminum and steel with a weight that exceeds five quintals. An aesthetic paradox that extends to the conceptual since the erroneous nature of these ideas is denied by their presence inside a world-class museum where a space adjacent to the Central Hall has been dedicated to them, where the exhibition of the master Ettore Spalletti is hosted. Thousands of crumpled “sheets” that form a gigantic sphere, a little less than three meters high, to represent the ideas destined for the trash can that – according to the Roman author – by coming together, find an escape route from their inevitable destiny and, instead of being recycled, end up on display in one of the most important museums in Italy.
“I wanted to see what would happen if I put all my mistakes in a single room. Would those crumpled and battered sheets, bearers of crooked and lame thoughts, turn from bad ideas into their opposite once they joined forces? Can the obsessive repetition of a mistake become a success?” declares the artist.
Art critic Gianluca Marziani in an analysis of Master of Mistakes wrote: “Molar and molecular are dialectical terms that contextualize Daniele Sigalot’s work. The aluminum sheets, made on a 1:1 scale as if they were hundreds of papers to be trashed, seem to be connected by an atomic energy that manages the orchestral gravity of the individual elements. The final form is a planetary sphere that defies quantum space, a semantic nucleus with Euclidean roots and geological codes, a virtuous metaphor for the molecular processes that sustain the digital universe of the new millennium. The sheet of paper is the creative unit of measurement that crosses the history of drawing, capturing within it the playful semantics of Alighiero Boetti, the tautological balances of Giulio Paolini, the cellular formations of Tony Cragg. From the sheet comes the serial intent that reorganizes the minimalist roots of the module, multiplying the unit (molar) to form a synchronic (molecular) embrace of multiplicity. Mistakes become experience, dialogue becomes thought, corrections become sculpture.”
