Mauro Staccioli

April – May 1992
Fondazione Mudima, Milano, Italia

“But it is actually the form of this exhibition which is most eyecatching and startling of all. The giant wooden disks covered with grey cemented or pigmented in oxide-red, which Staccioli loves to refer to as ‘wheels’, are thick (max. 90 cm), high (up to 7 metres), measure up to the height of the place itself and are astoundingly ‘impossible’. The estranging effect of the over-sizing combines with the precarious nature of the overall balance, where the slope comes from the angle of the edge; the forms are actually large conical sections. The striking aesthetic impact combines with the possible symbolic value of these round objects, studying how the biggest disk fills the space or sticks out of the second-floor balcony is evocative enough to conjure up the idea of a menacing dawn.”

Maria Laura Gelmini, Mauro Staccioli. At the roots of sculpting, p.174, Corraini Edizioni, 2008

“I tested out the fascinating charm of the wheel quite splendidly at the Mudima Foundation in 1992 […] I designed some round forms wedged between the ceiling and floor making it impossible for them to move […]. I thought about what happens sometimes in dreams or nightmares, when you feel trapped in a confined space without being able to move, run or even breathe. Something wonderful in a negative way.”

Luca Massimo Barbero, Every Deed of Man. A dialog on sculpture with Mauro Staccioli, in Mauro Staccioli, Silvana Editoriale, 2006 Milano, pp. 92-93