Archeologia della forma: Paolo Staccioli
Supported by
CURATED BY SIMONBART GALLERY
SIMONBART GALLERY _ PIAZZA CAVOUR 6/E - 40124 BOLOGNA
OPENING: 29th April 2026 – 18:00
Staccioli’s sculptures — ladies, horses and riders, harlequins, dolls, travellers and totemic presences — are defined by a strong plastic synthesis and a symbolic tension that runs throughout his artistic practice. The works take shape as archetypes suspended between archaic memory and contemporary sensibility. Terracotta, bronze and ceramic are the central materials of his work and contribute to evoking a timeless dimension, in dialogue with Mediterranean tradition and Etruscan heritage.
The exhibition title refers to the deep relationship that Staccioli’s work maintains with archaeology, understood as a method of knowledge and analysis of form. This poetic vision places sculpture at the centre as a site of cultural sedimentation: not representation, but essence — a primary structure that transcends periods and languages. In this sense, the works emerge as manifestations of a deep memory. The surfaces of the sculptures, the solemn postures of the figures and the repetition of forms evoke the dimension of history returning, of discovery, suggesting a constant dialogue between past and present.
Within the context of Bologna — ancient Felsina, a city marked by profound historical and cultural stratification — Staccioli’s research resonates with the memory of the territory, establishing a silent dialogue between the contemporary landscape and an archaic imaginary.
Archeology of Form offers an essential reflection on sculpture as a living and symbolic presence, capable of restoring, through the figure, a continuity between artistic research and collective memory.
