Nicola Samorì's Fossil Scenography at Villa d'Este

Nicola Samorì (Forlì, 1977), known for his violated simulacra, presents a site-specific exhibition titled 'Le ossa della madre' at Villa d'Este in Tivoli, curated by Andrea Bruciati and organized with Monitor gallery. Running until April 19, 2022, the show transforms Renaissance halls into a fossil-like scenography inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses and the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha. Samorì placed thrown stones that progressively take form, occupying the floor to mirror the 16th-century ceiling frescoes with subtle reversals, creating a horizontal picture gallery. Central tables become altars for rectangular icons, some painted in oil, others left raw to reveal veining. Precious materials include onyx, black, white, and pink marble, Trani stone, brèche de Vendôme, and bronze. The exhibition also features four neoclassical heads in oval niches and a sculpture on a plinth. Samorì's art operates on a sacrificial logic, where iconic imagery is immolated to the random patterns of marble, yet the stone yearns for incarnation. His work is rife with oxymorons, from the enigma of the false non-finito to forms straining toward an otherworldly, sacred finitude. Pagan readings evoke Christian martyr profiles, with liquefied paintings and soft statues, blending Romantic uncanny and postmodern sublime.