Stefano Pierotti – Berluscrotto

BerluscRotto is the latest work by Stefano Pierotti, an artist/sculptor who affirms his artistic nature using chisel and Carrara marble: “Papa Wojtyla”, “Potenza al cubo” (white Carrara marble), “Crocifisso di Tor Vergata” (imposing bronze created for the Jubilee of 2000) are just some of the works by an artist that has earned praise in the art world for his statuary works.

The sequence of portraits of Silvio Berlusconi is immediate, desecrating and irreverent: 6 steps trace the paradigm of descent, created through the inevitable gradual disfigurement of material and power in the face of tempus edax. Times passes inexorably and today Italian society reawakens under the unconditioned attack of economic speculators.
We reawaken and what’s left? Just a skeleton, a frame. Italy is no longer recognisable, in the same way as the sixth and final portrait of Silvio Berlusconi in the exhibition. Unrecognisable, lacking values with just a skeleton remaining that cannot continue to sustain the image of a population and a nation.

The work by Pierotti, in the face of related events, loses its provocative or political connotations and become a symbol, a representation, like a historical-cultural snapshot of a society, a country, a population.
“I vent my feelings, also having fun, trying to describe in my own way a phenomenon that is more social than political …” explains Pierotti.

The heads undergo an evolution: the face of the first “Cavaliere” is smooth, polished and splendid – the last arrives at an image that is almost unrecognisable, with layers flaking and crumbling away. This is also today’s image of Italy.

Using biking, very little veiled metaphor, BerluscRotto freezes time, represents the moment, giving us an image of contemporaneity. Silvio Berlusconi’s portrait becomes progressively dirtied, deformed, decayed and cracked as if about to implode.