Diego Cibelli. A Life in the Open Air

Diego Cibelli signs the new permanent installation of Fondazione Luigi Rovati: A Life in the Open Air, a series of biscuit porcelain sculptures distributed throughout the spaces of the palazzo on Corso Venezia, from the atrium to the inner façade up to the Piano Nobile.

 

 

“Walking through the Museum spaces and discovering, through the exhibited works, the world of the Etruscans, I perceived a civilization strongly connected with nature, a people who drew energy and inspiration for life from the very elements of nature. I was particularly struck by the depictions of fantastic animals and of deities with naturalistic forms, and my first impression was that of encountering a people passionate about the pleasure of living in the open air.” From here takes shape a vision intertwining seductiveness, play among forms, and a gaze always open to wonders: values that have always permeated Diego Cibelli’s work and are reflected in these hybrid, delicate figures, capable of narrating both origin and present through an aesthetic of transformation and the marvelous.

 

The installation begins in the entrance hall of the palazzo, which comes alive with Etruscan-inspired faces enclosed in four medallions rich in floral elements. On the Piano Nobile, in the entrance hall, sculptures of figures with ancient features move in a circular dance, suspended in the void, while on the wall a pair of birds flies outward, into the open air. On the façade facing the garden, four trees stretch out, inhabited by faces and entire anthropomorphic figures looking beyond, surrounded by deer, hares, and birds running freely across the surface.

In the White Space, the artist’s studio worktables are populated by sketches, casts, and sculptures, reconstructing the creative process in all its phases, including failures, that led to the realization of the work.

 

 

Born in Naples, after a decade of study in Berlin on humanistic geography, Diego Cibelli has developed an artistic research focused on the concept of landscape as a space of interiority and relationships. Territory is not only a physical space, but a web of encounters and identities. Each project is therefore born from the relationship with a context: a collection, an archive, a place, a community.

In recent years Cibelli has brought porcelain back to the center of contemporary art and his own practice, transforming it from a decorative material into a form of thought, into a living matter of ideas. His work and research are framed by time in the construction of bridges between ancient and contemporary, and this also occurs in the installation A Life in the Open Air. The sculptures move between naturalistic evocations and symbolic forms: animated bodies that narrate our common origin – “from water and light, from flowers and fire” – and that celebrate, above all else, the value of encounter and change.

Technical rigor and poetic vision merge in the artist’s research. Porcelain, with its fragility and resilience, becomes a representation of the human condition, a beauty that arises from attention, care, and shared work. Cibelli’s works are always the result of a collective process involving young artisans and collaborators in his Neapolitan studio in Scampia. “Porcelain is not royal, it is dirty work,” he states, with a tone that unites an ethic of making and a passion for material. “Matter, without soul, is useless”: from here comes the balance between technical knowledge and creative impulse. Diego Cibelli expresses the power of matter to become form and bearer of meaning through the creation of new worlds. His artistic practice is a form of delicate resistance, a message of beauty affirming the power of fragility as moral and aesthetic strength.

 

With this new permanent installation, Fondazione Luigi Rovati confirms itself as a place capable of welcoming contemporaneity within history. And Diego Cibelli is today one of the most original voices of Italian art, building a creative process that brings together dualities: past and present, form and emotion, knowledge and wonder.

The project will be accompanied by a publication with texts by Sylvain Bellenger and Alessandra Troncone, published by Fondazione Luigi Rovati in collaboration with the publishing house Johan & Levi.

 

 

 

Diego Cibelli was born in Naples in 1987. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and later moved to Berlin, where he graduated from the Weissensee Kunsthochschule. He returned to his hometown and obtained a degree in Product Design from the Vanvitelli University. His artistic research has always explored humanistic geography, interpreted as the study of territories, their history, and the sense of belonging that human beings develop, generating new living spaces. Among his most important solo exhibitions are L’Arte del Danzare Assieme and Gates at the Royal Factory and the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte (Naples). Diego Cibelli won the 2024 edition of the Prix Carta Bianca at the Madre Museum (Naples). His work is included in the collections of international museums such as the MAD Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte (Naples), the Seattle Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne).

 

 

 

INFORMATION

 

DIEGO CIBELLI. A LIFE IN THE OPEN AIR

The new permanent installation at Fondazione Luigi Rovati

From September 17

Corso Venezia 52, Milan

WORKSHOP: Saturday, October 4, 10:30 am (for children aged 8–13) and 4:00 pm (for adults)

In October Diego Cibelli will lead two workshops: one designed for children (10:30 am) and one for adults (4:00 pm). In both, he will demonstrate live the technique he uses to create his porcelain works, guiding participants through the entire creative process of his sculptures.

The workshop fee is €30 for adults and €20 for children. Reservation required on the website.

Fondazione Luigi Rovati

Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 am – 7:00 pm

 

 

 

From September 17 to December 14, Diego Cibelli’s work will also be featured at Casa Museo Boschi Di Stefano. The exhibition Viva chi ama, made possible thanks to the contribution of the ACACIA Association, enters the House Museum with large phrase-works, created with biscuit letters suspended alongside pencil drawings. The phrases were conceived for the rooms of the house that most inspired the artist’s thoughts, feelings, and affections. The drawings evoke, in filigree, other aesthetic realities that complement those inspiring the rooms. Cibelli’s works – from letters to vases, up to a specially created video – become a visual “completion” of the domestic space: a place of relationships that transforms simple functions into stimulating suggestions.