Bertozzi & Casoni was founded in Imola in 1980 by Giampaolo Bertozzi (Borgo Tossignano, Bologna, 1957) and Stefano Dal Monte Casoni (Lugo di Romagna, Ravenna, 1961).

Together, the two artists cultivate an original vocation for sculptural experimentation, with a predilection for painted pottery, the primary technique used in the creation of their art.

In Lucca, the exhibition, in collaboration with the Galleria Tega of Milan, includes a series of monumental works.

Three large works in the former church of San Matteo and a group of sculptures drawn from the classic repertoire of Bertozzi & Casoni’s art, in Via Santa Giustina.

The works on show in the former church include the ‘Madonna scheletrita’, made entirely of polychrome ceramic and representing a reworking of the majolica piece ‘Scegli il Paradiso’ from the 1990s, where the Madonna uses a reel lawnmower to cut grass in the Garden of Eden.

Another work on view is ‘Composizione non fnita-infnita’, ten meters of frst-aid kits, flled with objects, all made entirely in ceramic (presented at Venice Biennale 2009). And much more.

The themes treated are the classics of Bertozzi & Casoni’s oeuvre, vanitas, memento mori, with foral motifs on refuse-laden earth, improbable decapitations, parrots on Warholian Brillo Boxes. The theme of Pinocchio, which is central to the Milan exhibition, is here replaced by that of the “falsehoods of art”, where Nulla è come appare, forse (Nothing is what it seems — perhaps), and by the spectacular falsehoods of artistic illusionism confronted with those of reality. A continuous process of investigation, verifcation and falsifcation.