The work of Maurizio Vetrugno (Turin, 1957) starts with the selection of individual elements - objects, images, signs, artworks - that are celebrated for their beauty and then transforms them according to a contemporary aesthetic. The Wild Life Wild Heat, 2022 project, created for Pitti Immagine Filati 91, evokes exam- ples of social theater, particularly in its exhibition of masks: the presences in André Breton’s work, a metamorphosis of materials and spirits; Andy Warhol’s vibrant Factory and its legacy on the New York disco scene; Le Theatre de la Mode by Christian Bèrard. Or La Mode au Congo by Man Ray, in which he adorned his man- nequins du monde, such as Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry and Meret Oppenheim, with African headdresses and jewels to testify – if ever it were needed – the sophisticated taste of African art and the persistence of its influence on the controversial affirmation of international modernism. The Wild Life Wild Heat’s works take a symmetrical but inverted direction, bringing known and less- er-known subjects into the ceremonial and ritual context of the Balinese theater. The masks on this social stage are famous pop icons or exemplar rebels, exceptional models, unheard prophets, early Dadaists, or characters of pure and simple vanity.

Camilla Mozzato
Curator and Special Projects Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci
Fortezza da Basso
Central Pavilion, Ground Floor