The complex and refined creative imagination of Carlo Mollino - an eclectic personality of the Italian 20th century - is the common thread that unites the research documented in these pages, which combines a selection of photographs from the fifties and sixties, shot by Mollino himself, with the works of Enoc Perez and Brigitte Schindler, artists united by a visionary spirit aimed at experimentation. The volume opens with the shots of the splendid and provocative models portrayed by Mollino (Turin, 1905-1973), through which the author on the one hand explores the beauty of female nature and on the other aims to compose an image – subjective and transfigured – of the woman as the ideal counterpart of his existence. Enoc Perez (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1967) began a personal investigation in the nineties on a series of iconic twentieth-century architectures, which he transposed into paintings with an indefinite, sometimes dreamlike flavour: among these stands out Casa Mollino – the architect’s last enigmatic and secret residence, which now houses the Museum – visited by the painter in 2019 and the subject of the works presented here. The same house, designed by Mollino down to the smallest detail and conceived as a mirror of his worldview, was a source of inspiration for Brigitte Schindler (Munich, 1972), whose photographs intercept the mystery suspended in the rooms, the subtle connections between the objects carefully chosen and positioned by the owner. The volume includes contributions by Mario Diacono, Fulvio Ferrari, Enoc Perez and Brigitte Schindler, together with extracts from “The message from the dark room” by Carlo Mollino. Text in English and Italian.

Eliseo Mattiacci: Sculpture in Action in Rome is a fresh examination of the developments in Mattiacci's sculpture from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, dates that embrace the two decades he spent living and working in Italy's vibrant capital. New research by the contributors to this book reveal how the exceptional constellation of studios, galleries and institutional spaces as well as the architectural and landscape settings Rome offered were the crucial factor in Mattiacci's rapid sophistication as an artist. In the mid-1960s the city was already a major centre for art, literature, theatre and cinema, and the setting for numerous avant-garde performative 'actions' and 'happenings'. The Piazza del Popolo district was crowded with bars and galleries, and Mattiacci soon became warmly acquainted with various gallerists and artists, including the Arte Povera practitioners Jannis Kounellis and Pino Pascali. In this challenging and competitive environment Mattiacci sought to establish his own distinctive exploratory style, investigating materials, forms, sounds, presentations and actions in endlessly novel and inventive ways. The extraordinary Tubo, the long flexible yellow coil of metallic tubing that could be endlessly rearranged and even carried out of a gallery into the streets by files of admirers, was first exhibited in 1967, and made his name. The following year he staged Lavori in corso, a trio of very popular performances, in the Circo Massimo, which involved spinning huge umbrellas in imitation of the Earth's rotations and revolutions. Percorso, in 1969, was Mattiacci again in action, this time driving a noisy roadroller into and around a gallery. In the 1970s - a difficult decade of political violence in Italy - Mattiacci continued to explore both outwardly and inwardly. He was increasingly fascinated by archaeology, antique alphabets and non-literate cultures, notably the USA's First Peoples, and he created actions and presentations that ranged from exhibitions of x-rays of his own inner organs to appearances encased in 'bandaging' and plaster. In 1981 he first showed the admired Roma, a collection of 50 large sinuous metal shapes inspired by the volutes of classical and Baroque architecture, once again an artwork that is endlessly rearrangeable, indoors or out. Sculpture in Action is the beautifully illustrated account of Mattiacci's artistic creativity in those decades.

Victorian women in masks, sheep dominating young boys, hooded figures popping out of the long grass, demented cherubs and aroused attack dogs are just some of the darkly humorous figures that populate the work of rising New York artist Kent Henrickson. Employing many media and techniques--including drawing, embroidery on linen, wallpaper and sculpture--Henrickson produces rich and crafty artworks that create peculiar psychosexual worlds while balancing classical references with a contemporary sensibility. "There is an absurdist quality attached to my imagery, as boys become cloaked or as hooded executioners or young girls dance and play with ghosts while they themselves are bound. At first glance these scenarios appear to be completely inappropriate and preposterous, but upon further scrutiny they can allude to psychological games and/or individual power struggles." This first monograph features paper changes, lots of full-bleed images and a host of excellent essays and interviews.