Pietro Ruffo's Paper Architectures at Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino

Pietro Ruffo (Rome, 1978) presents 'Breve storia del resto del mondo' at Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino in Catania, running until July 10, 2016. The exhibition, organized with Fondazione Terzo Pilastro, features works from 2008 to 2016. Ruffo uses scalpels and pins to create micro-architectures from paper, incorporating encyclopedic atlas pages, philosopher icons, Moorish tiles, and alphabets denouncing South African apartheid, alongside hopeful words by Khalil Gibran. His pieces allude to political and social struggles, freedom, and the violence of categorizing the world. The centerpiece is 'SPAD SVII' (1:1 scale), a replica of a warplane originally built for the Sala della Guerra at GNAM in Rome, requiring six months of teamwork. Its wings and fuselage are covered with artificial flora made of overlapping paper tiles, symbolizing nature reclaiming war-torn spaces. Ruffo cites Boetti and Pascali as inspirations, and notes his international studies (USA, Russia, South Africa) but emphasizes his Roman roots, where structural stratifications are part of the historical landscape. Curated by Laura Barreca.