“The idea was to create the gripping sensation of being watched in today’s world as one moves through the exhibition’s floor. While we know this is our reality, due to the omnipresent technology that tracks our every movement, including our eyeballs, we still wanted to preserve and honor the rich decorative aesthetics that Arcimboldo is recognized for.”
– Humberto Campana
“It was our way to introduce the public to his legacy, as they cross this portal into the show, with alluring colors, provoking design, and incredible attention to detail, suggesting to visitors that even six centuries later, Arcimboldo’s questionings are more relevant than ever.”
– Fernando Campana
The timeless works of Fernando and Humberto Campana are faced with the anthropomorphic creations of the Lombard painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526 – 1593) in the exhibition “Arcimboldo Face to Face” that takes place from May 29 to November 22, 2021 at the Center Pompidou-Metz in Metz, France.
Born from a dialogue between the artist Maurizio Cattelan and Chiara Parisi, director of the Center Pompidou-Metz and curator of the exhibition with Anne Horvath, the exhibition Face à Arcimboldo offers a unique visit, in reverse of all chronology, in the meanders of the thought of this mysterious painter of the XVI century, to pierce the topicality of his vocabulary.
For this contemporary dialogue, the Campana brothers were invited to join a unique collective, presenting four works and a specially commissioned installation. The “Anthropophagic” and “Anhanguera” sofas, from their “Brazilian Baroque” collection (2012), pay homage to the decorative aspect of Arcimboldo’s work through their intricate pastiche of elements richly ornated in bronze.
The ensemble “Captivity” – composed by an eight-arm chandelier and candleholder made of a bronze-casted chicken heads and feet montage – address the contemporary feeling of imprisonment and hardships in the worst pandemic of the last one hundred years.
Exhibition Installation:
Image courtesy of Center Pompdiou-Metz.
