Luigi Mainolfi

Luì e l’arte di andare nel bosco (Luì and the Art of Going to the Woods) is a short story by writer Guido Quarzo that Luigi Mainolfi has divided into 47 sentences written in the form of illuminated signs, to be read while walking. It is the story of the madman Luì who manages to rescue children and other people lost in the forest thanks to his ability to invent objects that make noise and to create sculptures by carving wood found along the way. The protagonist of the story is thus presented as an alter ego of Mainolfi, a sculptor engaged in the creation of sound works such as bells and castanets.  

Luigi Mainolfi (Rotondi, Avellino, 1948) moved to Turin in 1973 after studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and made his debut in the 1970s with installations and exhibitions in which he presented plaster casts of his own body. During the same period, he worked on the more theoretical aspects of sculpture with a series of drawings and writings, then developed a personal language that drew on the values of material culture and an imagery that combined the archaic and the poetic and fable-like dimensions. In the 1980s, he came to the attention of critics with works made from earth-related materials such as tuff, terracotta and lava stone. Internationally renowned, he exhibited at documenta in Kassel in 1982 and at the Venice Biennale, which dedicated a solo room to him in 1990. 

His numerous exhibitions include his participation in 1986 in Ouverture II, the second exhibition of the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea del Castello di Rivoli curated by Rudi Fuchs, and the 1995 anthological exhibition curated by Pier Giovanni Castagnoli and Riccardo Passoni at the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti.  

Recent solo exhibitions in Italy and internationally include: Galerie Italienne, Paris (2018) and Reggia di Venaria Reale, Venaria (2024).    

Silvia Maria Sara Cammarata