Lugano
Arcangelo Sassolino (1967) was born in Vicenza, where he currently lives and works. Sassolino’s work is the result of a close dialogue between art and physics. His interest in mechanics and technology opens up new meanings and possibilities for sculpture. Speed, pressure, gravity, acceleration and heat are the core of his artistic practice, which is always aimed at pushing the ultimate limit of matter’s resistance. Sassolino’s works usually consist of devices that generate inorganic performances. The materials involved, often industrial, come alive revealing contrasts and opposing forces. His works embody intrinsic conflicts and push us to contemplate the risk of the work’s collapse as a fundamental part of its experience. By exploring different states of matter, Sassolino’s works manifest a level of tension, suspension, unpredictability and danger. Insofar as failure is always a concrete possibility, his works materially embed an inescapable aspect of the human condition.
Sassolino has staged solo shows in institutions such as the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (2016); the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (2016); the MACRO, Rome (2011); the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2008); the Z33 House for contemporary art, Hasselt (2010); the Art and the City, Zürich (2012). Furthermore, his works have been displayed in various international galleries and museums: 104, Paris; MART, Rovereto; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; FRAC, Reims; Autocenter and Mica Moca, Berlin; Museum Tinguely, Basel; Swiss Institute, New York; CCC Strozzina, Florence; Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice; Kunsthalle, Göppingen; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milan.
