The personal exhibition of the Italian artist Daniele Sigalot, presented by Anna Laudel Contemporary, is called “Empires Ago”. His name is already known inside the artistic circuit because of his installations of aluminum aircraft that seem made of paper and for the project “Tutto è già vostro”. Artistic research plays a lot on the ambiguity of materials and their true nature, placing the viewer in front of a new perception of the object. The works on display were entirely produced in Istanbul and are inspired by the Roman and Ottoman empires, two antique kingdoms that have always fascinated Roman artist, as he himself explains:

“The legacy of our history is a positive and negative thing at the same time, because those glorious days are so far away and it makes no sense to feel part of the past. I like the contradiction of these conflicting feelings. For this exhibition I am producing a series of Istanbul maps engraved on stainless steel. These maps affect significant areas and will be a faithful representation of the streets of present-day Istanbul. The city has grown and is changing over time: I want people to feel part of their city’s past, understand its ancient glory and the present. I am interested in how a city affects who we are and my works literally aim to reflect this idea. So, come see how Istanbul influences who you are.”

The maps created by Sigalot are made of stainless steel and reproduce a mirror effect, which reflects the faces of the spectators, as a bridge between past and present. Among works produced in Istanbul, the artist offers us a huge pile of papers, always in metal, titled “Everything that could have been but was not, now is”, a large-scale installation 3 meters high and wide 3 meters, made up of 5000 sheets of aluminum, each one of the dimensions of an A4 page that has the peculiarity of looking like a light and floating figure, but which actually weighs about 350 kg. His creative process is seen almost as an act of “redemption”, which transforms bad ideas into good ones:

“I’m probably one of the biggest producers of bad ideas, I think I’ve had thousands and thousands of terrible ones over the last 15 years, but luckily I find a good one, but to get there, it takes a good deal of failure. I thought, why do not you gather all the worst ideas in a room and try to see if all of them together turn into something different, something even beautiful? “

At Anna Laudel Contemporary was also hosted his work consisting of 3900 sponges, which incorporates the concept of identification of materials and attempts to transform an object entirely artificial and produced by man in something totally organic and natural. The sponges have 13 different colors and go to compose an entire landscape inside the exhibition room. Among other works on show we have “Enough”, a countdown timer that will last 1000 years, demonstrating the fact that installations can challenge time, just like paintings and “Magic Penna”, a series of totems that they reflect on the allegory of the creative process and finally a series of letters and post-it that play with perception of materials.

To find out more, visit his Instagram.