Pino Genovese: Between Sculpture, Theater, and Landscape

Pino Genovese (Rome, 1953; lives in Anzio) creates works that defy classification, existing at the intersection of happening, sculpture, theater, and drawing. He builds ephemeral mounds and huts along coastlines or in forests, marks territories with totems and assemblages, and crosses waters on fragile rafts while impersonating various beings. In an interview at Colle di Tora (Rieti province) after a residency at a villa on Lake Turano in September 2019, Genovese discussed his practice. He attributes his connection to nature to a childhood spent in the wild Lazio countryside before the building speculation of the 1960s. Influences include Alejandro Jodorowsky's 'El Topo,' Tex Willer comics, and his experience with Carlo Quartucci's 'Zattera di Babele' in Gennazzano in the early 1980s, where artists like Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Germano Celant, and Rudi Fuchs collaborated. Genovese now works with younger collectives such as Cercle and Uneveneye. He describes moving from interpreting landscapes to embodying characters, like a shaman or a ferryman on a raft of logs and bamboo. He admires Richard Long for his non-invasive traversals. Genovese uses reclaimed materials, favoring wood for its immediacy, and increasingly seeks to use less.