Pietro Scampini

Wood and stones gathered along the banks of a lake or river in Lombardy or perhaps elsewhere, lovingly assembled and tied together with a rope that narrates a tale, becoming its very structure or common thread. Pietro calls these talismans digressions, divertissements or interludes. They provide a momentary break between one creation and another, even if they become fully-fledged works in themselves, so strong is their presence and essence. Like a magic formula, Pietro's stones unbolt the door of time and space in an adventure rife with poetry and sentiments and are part of a natural process of energy and metamorphosis. In designing these talismans, by entwining threads and stones to give life to something new, Pietro attributes added value to manual pleasure that contrasts with the technological dominance of our era and rediscovers a different tempo, which is in step with the pace of life. Fragments of yarns and recollections emerge and become entangled in a symbolic mesh, and hence move about within a labyrinth of signals.