Silvia Celeste Calcagno on Ceramics, Photography, and the Fireprinting Technique

Silvia Celeste Calcagno (Genoa, 1974) is the first Italian woman to win the Premio Faenza (2015). Her practice spans performance, installation, and ceramics, with a focus on the body through repetitive actions. She grew up in Albissola, a historic ceramics hub, but initially kept her distance from the medium. Her breakthrough came from merging ceramics and photography into fireprinting®, a patented technique (2015) that transfers photographic images onto ceramic surfaces through chemical processes. Calcagno cites influences from artists like Salvatore Fancello, Gina Pane, Ana Mendieta, Marina Abramović, Hannah Wilke, Orlan, Liliana Moro, Vito Acconci, Mario Schifano, Marc Quinn, Claude Cahun, and Irina Ionesco, as well as filmmakers Marco Ferreri, Lars von Trier, Yorgos Lanthimos, David Cronenberg, Park Chan-wook, Kim Ki-duk, and Takeshi Kitano. Her recent installation "Eye Verbal Motor" at Nuova Galleria Morone in Milan features over 170 self-portraits exploring identity, memory, and pain, referencing the Glasgow Coma Scale. The work is accompanied by the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" (1966). Calcagno has exhibited at GNAM Rome (2015), Officine Saffi (2015), Museo di Villa Croce (2017), Museo Carlo Zauli (2018), and Nuova Galleria Morone (2020).