Piero Golia on compressed buses, gold mines, and the sublime

In a 2008 interview with Andrew Berardini for Afterall, Los Angeles-based Italian artist Piero Golia discusses his practice, which embraces intuition, reality, and chance. Golia describes compressing a 10x35-foot passenger bus into a 10x20-foot sculpture for his local debut at ART LA in the Bortolami Gallery booth, a process involving torch cutting and three bulldozers. He also recounts cutting a ramp at SITE Santa Fe for Manifest Destiny (2008), allowing viewers to jump onto a foam mattress. Golia reveals a secret permanent installation at SITE: a stainless steel column hidden in a wall, intended to one day support the roof. He discusses plans with Pierre Huyghe to buy a gold mine in Alaska, funded by a Las Vegas musical tentatively titled "Gold Diggers," with an office in Los Angeles. Golia cites influences including Cy Twombly, Richard Serra, Jeff Koons, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and advocates for art as monumental and connected to the sublime, exemplified by Watts Towers or Dodger Stadium. He submitted a proposal to the U.S. Border Protection Agency for a Richard Serra-style steel wall with randomly opening passageways. Golia reflects on the evolution of art from representation to communication, and describes his Catholic faith as akin to Pascal's wager.