Alfredo Pirri and Volume!

During an exhibition curated by Lorand Hegyl at MAMC de Saint-Étienne Métropole, Alfredo Pirri remembers the early days of a special artistic adventure commenced in Rome in 1997.

Alfredo Pirri is one of Italy’s best-known contemporary artists, having become famous for his works at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome (Passi, 2011) and at the Museo Archeologico in Reggio Calabria (Piazza, 2011). He was the first person invited by Francesco Nucci in 1997 for the creation of VOLUME!
Pirri remembers the early days of this adventure during the “Fondation VOLUME! Passages” exhibition, curated by Lorand Hegyl at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole.
Alfredo Pirri
Alfredo Pirri's installation at the Musée d’art moderne et contemporaine de Saint-Étienne Metropole

Carole Blumenfeld: How did the VOLUME! adventure begin?

Alfredo Pirri: The VOLUME! adventure began in 1997 when Francesco Nucci acquired a former glassworks in Trastevere and asked me to do an exhibition there (after the necessary restoration works, of course). It was a period of general not just economic recession, when Rome galleries were closing instead of opening. It was also and primarily an ideal and imaginative period for art. We were wondering what was the right thing to do and the art world was still “governed” by a sort of post-avant-garde. I was immediately drawn to the proposal, seeing it as an opportunity to give rise to something new. So, I said yes to Franco Nucci but I didn’t think it would be particularly interesting to hold an exhibition of my own. I was more attracted to the opportunity to launch a new initiative, thought and reflection on the space of art. I began with a research project which ventured outside the art sphere to enter into contact and collaboration with other disciplines. For example, I invited certain people to participate in our initiative, which still lacked a name: the philosopher Pietro Montani, the architect Nicola Di Battista (now editor-in-chief of Domus) and the graphic designer Franco Mancinelli who, among other things, was responsible for the VOLUME! 1997… Today editorial project (Milan 2015).

Alfredo Pirri
Alfredo Pirri's installation at the Musée d’art moderne et contemporaine de Saint-Étienne Metropole

Carole Blumenfeld: How did you decide upon the name VOLUME! And, most importantly, why the exclamation mark?

Alfredo Pirri: The graphic design and name VOLUME was decided along with Franco Mancinelli. The exclamation mark is key: at a time when ideas seemed governed by a somewhat “lost” demand, we needed an assertive spirit. It was time to start developing forms. VOLUME! should not be read as a title but as an incitement: volume in the sense of both sound and space.

Carole Blumenfeld: I was impressed at the Saint-Étienne exhibition by the wealth of the first brochures published.

Alfredo Pirri: Another person whose assistance was crucial in this sense was Christine Ferry (of the Académie de France à Rome–Villa Medici). She came up with an idea that proved an immediate success and was remarkably intelligent: to carry forward the initiatives without publicizing what we were doing. For at least a year, we held exhibitions – mine, one by Jannis Kounellis and then Bernhard Rüdiger – but there were no invitations and no time or place. Only the splendid brochures designed by Mancinelli circulated but they contained no mention of the initiatives, just different and new reflections each time by Pietro Montani or my preparatory material, or those of Kounellis or Rüdiger. This meant that we started talking about this initiative more via (and thanks to) its mystery than the traditional tools of communication. Just think of the first VOLUME! exhibitions which, despite a total lack of advertising, became such cult occurrences that they attracted hundreds of people. We always ended up blocking the traffic opposite the Regina Coeli entrance and sometimes the police was forced to use sirens to get people in.

Alfredo Pirri
Alfredo Pirri, Senza titolo, 1997, Fondazione VOLUME!. Photo Marco Ciuffreda. Courtesy of Fondazione VOLUME!

Carole Blumenfeld: So you took the district over in all senses?

Alfredo Pirri: I would say so. Among other things, the first of the VOLUME! brochures, edited by Nicola Di Battista, was an investigation into the local history, although the place was not mentioned. It spoke of the street, the Orti del Vaticano, that is to say all the local urban tradition and especially that of Villa Lante, the “telescope” of Via San Francesco di Sales. Nicola Di Battista concentrated all his attention there, conducted research and offered lessons on Villa Lante’s impact locally.

Carole Blumenfeld: How did you work in such unusual surroundings?

Alfredo Pirri: For me, it marked the beginning of a year’s work which focuses mainly on getting to know the space. The first thing we did was make holes: we sounded out the floor and stripped it, layer after layer, to determine its composition. We discovered several levels from different periods but the second room brought the biggest surprise: we were removing soil when water appeared – a key feature in all my works. It was simply water that had infiltrated from the River Tiber, not far away. My work consisted basically in creating a passage from the shadow towards the light. There was also a metaphorical aspect, of course. We had to dig in the first room, enter the ground, penetrate the history of the building, then resurface in a second room and walk on the void in the third, before returning to the street. This made it a route from black to grey and finally white, like a painting that becomes 3D, but also a mental passage from the darkness towards the light. We mustn’t forget that there were also passages in strictly architectural terms because we’re talking of several levels.

Alfredo Pirri,
Alfredo Pirri, Senza titolo, 1997, Fondazione VOLUME!. Photo Marco Ciuffreda. Courtesy of Fondazione VOLUME!

Carole Blumenfeld: How would you define the role played by architecture in your work at VOLUME!

Alfredo Pirri: Architecture has always performed a key function in my work. There was an initial project but we decided to postpone it to a later date when we had the elements of an art that was already tending towards a spatial investigation. These huge holes were then filled with white lime, which is basically cleansing and purifying. This meant we were disinfecting the space and its memory. At the same time, we reconstructed a new memory by placing most of the elements that form my installation below the new floor level, literally burying them.

Carole Blumenfeld: How did you convey the identity of VOLUME! as a place more given over to an experience than an exhibition space?

Alfredo Pirri: You only have to think back to the first VOLUME! exhibition. I invited the greatest person among us, Jannis Kounellis. He participated very enthusiastically. Indeed, I would say with greater enthusiasm than was shown by other younger artists. This only goes to show that an artist’s youth stems from the way he/she approaches things, more than being a biological age. His work was the product of an impressive organisational adventure. He presented a woman almost in her ninth month of pregnancy – a truly beautiful woman –  naked and sitting on a stool. I remember there was an oil lamp in front of her and a small hidden fan that moved her hair, giving her an almost cinematographic appearance. This wonderful girl lent herself to the performance, which lasted 15 or 20 days. The first day arrived and, 10 minutes before the opening, Jannis had a big idea that he absolutely had to put into practice but we couldn’t find a pregnant woman willing to sit there in the cold for all that time. In the end, we found this girl who was the wife of a juggler in Piazza Navona. Michelle (Kounellis) went to speak to her and, in 10 minutes, she was convinced. Had it not been for her, there would have been no Kounellis exhibition.

Alfredo Pirri
Alfredo Pirri, Senza titolo, 1997, Fondazione VOLUME!. Photo Marco Ciuffreda. Courtesy of Fondazione VOLUME!

Carole Blumenfeld: How would you define Francesco Nucci’s role in VOLUME!

Alfredo Pirri: Nucci is, above all, a neurosurgeon with a great love of art but also other things. I found the relationship with him fascinating because they were talking about the brain and how it is a very complex field to work in because, when you operate, nothing is ever in its right place; it is a mobile organ and constantly evolving. So I imagined a workshop or a work that was like a brain, an organ constantly evolving, with neural relationships that are always in movement. When you think of a doctor operating on the brain, you think of someone with both great knowledge and extreme delicacy - that is exactly what Franco Nucci is like.

Carole Blumenfeld: I was impressed to see Nucci’s eyes shining with pleasure at seeing how happy the artists at Saint-Étienne were.

Alfredo Pirri: This is an attribute of true collectors but I would not even call Franco a collector. He is slightly different because I don’t think he has a desire to accumulate or to exhibit. He is someone who would rather collect ideas than objects and relationships rather than property. In this sense, he’s an old fashioned collector. That is how he sees himself.

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