Mario Consiglio's 'Arma il prossimo tuo come te stesso' Explores Semantic Disruption

Key facts

• Mario Consiglio's work 'Arma il prossimo tuo come te stesso' is featured in ArtsLife's 'Un’opera a settimana' series.
• The work plays on a misreading of 'Arma' for 'Ama', altering the biblical commandment from Matthew 22:39.
• The text is a verse by Modenese poet Davide Banda, with whom Consiglio has collaborated since the early 1990s.
• Consiglio's visual interpretation is deliberately deformed, ambiguous, monochrome, and excessive.
• The work reflects a contemporary moment where economy, conflict, and power are intertwined.
• The series includes works by Marcello Maloberti, Jacopo Benassi, Luigi Presicce, Eleonora Roaro, Francesco De Grandi, Giovanni Gaggia, Francesco Impellizzeri, Elena Bellantoni, and Rachele Frison.
• The series invites artists to reveal inspiration, creative process, and hidden meanings behind their works.
• The work critiques how religions risk becoming rhetorical tools for legitimizing violence.