STEFANO BOCCALINI
Pubblica / Privata, 2015
Permanent installation in Temù (Brescia), Italy
Stainless steel, iron
100 x 700 x 20 cm
The idea for Pubblica / Privata was born from the artist's experience with the territory of Camuno; its mountains, and the Oglio river which traverses the valley from the Legno Bridge until it reaches Iseo Lake, with its hydroelectric plants and dams. The project was equally born from listening to its people, who wanted to protect a natural asset which they felt should be common to all. The word PUBLIC is realized in stainless steel, while PRIVATE is fashioned from raw iron, which in contact with water would rust over time. The work presents a reflexion on a wide-ranging ongoing contemporary debate, is water a public or private commodity?
From his first installations, the relationship to space is the element which characterizes the work of Boccalini. This relationship initially was physical, developed with links to architecture and nature, and has since begun to transform into a more complex set of factors, both social and anthropological. The capitalist nature of current economic processes has been the focus of the artist's recent projects: the linguistic revolutions of the economy with its symbolic and social repercussions reveal the dynamics on which his work reflects critically.
Bocallini received a diploma in Sculpture from NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti), Milan in 1987. The same year, he began as a teacher's assistant to Gianni Colombo, and has since continued to work in the same school where he is currently Professor of Public Art and Urban Design. He is a co-founder of the Isola Art Center, a consultant of the Gianni Colombo Archives, vice president of Art For The World Europe, and is a board member of Careof, Milan.