Unione Sarda - 12.10.2023
The character
A Nuragic Pen
Valerio Pisano, an artist walking through time, at the tip of Bic
Puritans and unimaginative people please refrain from any comments. There's a new bronze statue in town. It has travelled through time and has taken on the metallic clothes of a sacred icon. In recent days, the forest of Lanusei, called Seleni, has witnessed the most bizarre event in its thousand-year history. Among the holm oaks, next to the giants' tombs, three strange creatures have appeared. A small archer with the body of a pen, complete with a cap and a headdress, a similar decated one bearing two round shields and a third warrior ready for battle. Valerio Pisano, 54 years old from Lanusei, is a very serious joker. His bronze Bic pen is the latest variation of the artist's fetish object. A story that began by drawing Bic pens using Bic pens and has continued to flow into thousands of streams.
“The archer, created thanks to the help of Andrea Loddo using the Nuragic technique of wax casting, is the fulfillment of a dream. Evolution, the last phase. The two-dimensionality of an object that has come to life, animated with dances and dressed in costumes. It's a return to the origins, going thousands of years back in time whilst moving forward towards new projects." The artist's pen has replaced the Mona Lisa and Saint Sebastian, danced the Sardinian way, and has ended up on different objects and ties. It will be the only protagonist of a room in which every single object is a pen cap designed, with the same passion of the very first time. And in the book of dreams there is a school, in a distant country, marked with ink and solidarity.
Is Barras
Valerio spent a life behind bars as a prison officer. The 'Is Barras' project came to life from his experience there. “For me, it was a lifeline linked to the structure of the old Buoncammino prison where I had worked. I had to invent something artistic to be able to move forward and make that hell more bearable." He cataloged everything that remained of that hell with maniacal skill. When Buoncammino closed down, Pisano asked for authorization to take photos and film videos before the structure changed its intended future use. “I built large panels by making collages. The photos of the doors of all the cells were made into a mosaic to form the symbol of the volume on the Windows operating system, "as if it wanted to spread its sound". Then he edited images of the abandoned institute into a film with real-life sounds recorded when the facility was open. The brilliant madness of prison life and the men who lived there. “This project is waiting for an institutional sponsor. It is a gift that I would like to give to the city of Cagliari".
In his future there is a leap between the stars, up to the constellation of Orion, with a coffee maker as a means of transport. Curious it is how fuel is a precious memory that will become art. Always a Bic but not just a Bic. “I don't want to get stuck on pens, it's just the luckiest series. I'll do what I've always done, whatever comes to mind." Pisano has had a passion for this pen since he was a child. He drew and doodled. Over time the famous pen became the fetish of his artistic career. It took the form of great works of art and was the subject of laboratory analysis. The first time was in the prison in Sassari, being there as a prison warden, not a prisoner. Pisano scribbled with a pen on a piece of paper, drawing a pen and, decived by the drawing, a medical colleague tried to pick it up. «At that moment I thought I could do much better." From then on, for three years, Pisano did nothing but design Bics using Bics. He consumed thousands of bic pens giving life to ink creatures. The project has evolved over the years, also thanks to the help of technology. Now the artist has gone back to the green heart of the country. There's a new bronze statue in town, but no one feels in danger.
Simone Loi
