Omnia vanitas

by Antonio Guccione

Curated by Angelo Crespi

A theory of skulls for an ambitious post-modern phrenology project, between citationism and divertissement: characters from history, art and fashion are eternally immortalized through their skull. Dead, yet so alive in their essence; the soul forever gone from the carved occipital bulb, yet still present and recognizable by their tics, their quirks and their human suit.

This is the sense of the exhibition-performance that Antonio Guccione has designed for Hammer Partners, on the occasion of WopArt 2019. Presenting the collection of Vanitas as a Spoon River anthology, the well-known photographer from Milan narrates in the form of an epitaph the myths of pop culture, such as Andy Warhol, Napoleon, Frida Kahlo, Leonardo da Vinci, Dior and Salvador Dalì.

During his long career Guccione focused on the icons of the star system, becoming fashion’s official portraitist, but this time he left the living ones turning his attention to the deceased ones: in the attempt -common to all of the great artists- to exorcise death, he coated or painted its most persistent symbol, the skull, playing like a contemporary Hamlet through being and not being, photographed It and managed to distill, without any post-production intervention, the extreme relic that characterize the various icons or, in other words, that something that will represent them forever.

Guccione seems to be pronouncing the words “memento mori” -remember you have to die- with the subtle irony and lightness of his, because even departure requires style.

Exhibition sponsored by Gruppo Hammer