IL DOPPIO ALL'ALTEZZA DELLE SPALLE

Pierluigi Calignano’s “Double at shoulder height” is a monumental sculptural work, six meters high, which reproduces a human skeleton composed of modular wooden elements, joined together by interlocking. In addition to its enormous size, the skeleton has disproportioned arms, on a scale of 200% as compared to the rest of the body.  The work is part of the series of "Skeletons" which comes from an "antileonardesca" reflection on the study of body size. As the artist himself says: "The human body relies on precise proportions and I thought I'd work on these by
During the exhibition “Z.A.T. Temporary Artistic Zones”, XXI-XXII Edition  of National Prize for Visual Arts City of Gallarate , the occasion for which the work was created, the skeleton invades a central street of the city as a strange prehistoric animal, able to converse with people. Yet, the laying of that huge body made him seem antimonumental: his back was faced to viewers, his face turned towards the wall of the small church of Saint Anthony and it became, for citizens, a negative presence due to its obvious staggering proportions. The skeleton was observed from below, with his back to the viewer and face against the wall, as if in punishment, in contrast with its own sculptural evidence. The work, placed  in direct contact with the Oratory of St. Anthony, was intended to interact with some aspects of the territory, i.e. with the customs of the Catholic Church, which accepted the representation of skeletons , and with the legend of the anonymous skeleton visible until the 1930sat the foot of the Bell Tower of the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta.  This close cultural connection with the territory, together with an interest for the construction of forms are found in the poetic aspects of the artist who generally draws from the history of art, design and popular culture.

Traduzione di  Francesca Cioffi, Gaetano Salvi, Federica Caputo, Martina Morazzoni. I.S. Gadda - Rosselli, Gallarate.