WEM EDITORIAL #6 DANIELE SIGALOT
Words (2013 – ongoing)
Irreverent, cynical and paradoxical: Daniele Sigalot’s Wordsseries makes fun of contemporary art and of his role as an artist himself
“I like the playfulness, the lightness. I love to make fun of things but in a serious way.” Daniele Sigalot
The series Wordsby Daniele Sigalot perfectly embodies the ironic and provocative language of the artist. Cynical and playful, it is aimed at generating in the viewers a sense of estrangement and reflection. The pillars of his research are text, illusion, matter, color, space, through a game that lives of semantic and semiotic misunderstandings.
The famous post-it Art Must Be Taken Seriousl y fully expresses the playful nature of the series where art is on the contrary, deliberately mocked. Post-it such as “Nothing Really Meaningful Here”, “Your Living Room Wants Itexpress with sharp cynicism the ephemeral nature of a work of art; “If I’m Still a Live” targets the role of the artist, devaluing his genius or “I’ve bought this artwork because it’s red” and “I only go for the opening for the booze” break down the art world system and express its mundane and glossy nature.
What Sigalot makes look like a continuous joke is a desecrating operation, which unhinges the precarious balance of a world made of false myths and blunders. His works, in fact, are often bittersweet experiences: irreverent messages that make you smile but never really laugh.
The relationship between past and present emerges in his research, like an alliteration: elements that are part of tradition, of the history of art, are contaminated by modernity. They evolve while retaining their symbolic value. There is a deep research that draws on the personal history of the artist and is rooted in current events, but does not disregard the knowledge of the history of art.
Are the emblem the post -it dedicated to Alighiero Boetti, Piero Manzoni and Gino De Dominicis where on the one hand the artist mocks the role of artists through the text, the other recognizes the greatness through the titles of the works, apologizing directly to the artist.
The artists mentioned by Sigalot “belong to the pantheon of my gods. I don’t like to take myself too seriously, I like to joke around. I work seriously but I don’t take myself seriously. Boetti, Manzoni, De Dominicis in different ways were titans in not taking themselves too seriously.”
Ultimately, Sigalot tries to amaze and deceive the mind: these are the only rules of this game that thrives on misunderstandings, both semantic and semiotic. To truly understand his sculptures and installations, it’s sufficient to recoveryour own playful dimension and to not take too seriously a reality that acclaims and makes art anything, as long as it is incomprehensible.
