Mattia Ferretti's Installation Explores Lucanian Santa Lucia Rituals at Studio Ariaudo

Mattia Ferretti (born 1987 in Atripalda) presents a solo exhibition at Studio Ariaudo in Turin, translating the Lucanian celebration of Santa Lucia—a ritual involving handmade spools and reversible roles of charioteer and horse—into an autonomous symbolic installation. The show references the myth of Phaeton as a metaphor for human aspiration, loss of control, and the price of ascent. Three anthropomorphic sculptures, built with elemental materials in a poor-art aesthetic, represent transitional states of being: the first idol, associated with copper, embodies primordial existence; the second, in silver, introduces fracture and self-questioning; the third, gilded and elongated, suggests dissolution of identity through solar radiation. The works incorporate ex-voto eyes, bridle-like arms, and a pulsating heart-chimney, evoking a body that feels and remembers. Ferretti's practice avoids ethnographic illustration, instead creating a symbolic structure where transformation passes through matter, memory, and pain toward broader consciousness.