THE TRIBUTE
March 24, 2025 at 9:00 PM Simone Loi
Valerio Pisano and the blue stamp by Bic
A delegation from the company visits Lanusei, the works of the artist from Ogliastra relaunched by the group
Valerio Pisano during the Ambiguitappo installation
The signal has arrived. Years of work, creations, exhibitions. Of inventions and colors in the name of a legendary pen, declined in every form, wandering through time and space. A delegation from Bic has arrived from Paris to pay homage to the eclectic artist from Lanusei. Valerio Pisano has been drawing Bic with Bic pens for a lifetime. Millions of caps and pens, thousands of Bic pens consumed. A river of ink in a thousand different streams. Such perseverance has finally been rewarded.
A first turning point came in 2024. After placing a Capo-Tribù bronze in the Bic version at Bosco Seleni, Pisano published the work on social media, as usual. «After two days I was contacted on Instagram by a manager from Bic in Paris who, after complimenting me, announced his visit to see my works». Incredulous, Pisano got to work preparing for the big day. D-Day, but it would be better to call it B-Day, coincides with the Pop-Art Arcaica set up at the Ferrai museum in Lanusei. Pisano's first solo exhibition in his homeland. Thousands of works, creations, drawings. The artist's entire universe.
Valerio Pisano and the Bic delegates in front of the Bic-bronzetto at the Seleni woods
The visit of the Parisian delegation started from the museum, continued to the Seleni and then through the different declinations of Pisan madness, such as the Alien Cap, a video showing the creation of an 80-meter cork made in a wheat field specially granted by the Maggese agricultural company. From wheat to flour to Bic-Stoccu the step was very short. Thanks to the Ferreli company the flour became pistoccu in the shape of Bic. A product that the guests were able to eat.
The visit was followed by the publication on the social media of the group of links to Pisano's works. A great coup. «For years I have been trying to get in touch with the managers of the Paris office of Bic, I wanted to make my passion known, my known and unpublished creations. Among the positive things about social networks is also the possibility of being able to see everything that happens worldwide. So I discovered that there are a myriad of artists who draw with Bic pens. Some with truly incredible skills. So I realized that it would not be easy to get the attention that I have been trying to get for so many years". After discovering the existence of so many people united by the same identical madness, Pisano was certainly not discouraged. "I do what I do because I like it. Stubborn as a true bronze, I follow this trend. I like it and those who follow me like it".
A few days after the departure of the delegates on the Bic Instagram profile (Bic.Create), a post was published with Pisano's latest creations, Ambiguitappo, a showcase set up in Lanusei for an evening dedicated to art with a romantic scene animated by Pisano himself and his kind wife entirely made of Bic caps. Menu based on caps included. Pisano created an entire room with everyday utensils covered with a print with the caps of the iconic pen of the second half of the 20th century. The question he tries to answer with his installation is: "How can we recognize the true intentions of the people we interact with?" To enter the world of Ambiguitàppo, we need to remember what functions the cap performs: "It protects the functionality of the ballpoint pen from accidental falls. It prevents it from having contact with other surfaces, dirtying them. It prohibits the pen from writing. I would like to transfer these uses to the human world. Where there are people who behave in the same and contrasting way. They protect you and, at the same time, can prohibit you from writing, from expressing yourself, from being, from living. Human caps that play the most unsuspected roles and that condition your life. Even those who gave you life sometimes dress in ambiguity. Even those who say they love you can wear the same clothes»
The visit and the publication on social media was a recognition of the artist's imagination and work. A life at the tip of a pen, always Bic.
