Promoted by the Municipality of Bagnacavallo under the patronage of the Emilia-Romagna Region, the event is part of the “Off” program for Argillà Italia 2026, a highlight of the Municipality of Faenza’s cultural calendar.
The works Ruggiero has created specifically for the exhibition spaces in Bagnacavallo—spanning ceramics and installation art—aim to offer a space for reflection on the human condition and its seemingly irreconcilable drives and desires, prompting visitors to confront themselves.
A sculptor and ceramicist, Giovanni Ruggiero has long dedicated himself to a distinctive body of work focused on exploring the human being—examining both essence and appearance.
His artistic inquiry moves between the diverse qualities of ceramics, metal casting, painting, drawing, printmaking, and site-specific installations. He seeks to represent the seemingly contradictory details of every human being—viewed by the artist as a microcosm where the brutality of the world and the purest beauty are in constant embrace.
“Cenere e stelle” (Ash and Stars) stems from an intuition that is as simple as it is radical: every act of destruction carries within it the seed of a new light. The title encapsulates this tension between opposites: ash representing residue, an ending, and burnt memory; stars representing promise, a horizon, and a beginning.
It is within this suspended space—between what is consumed and what is born—that Giovanni Ruggiero’s work unfolds.
The “terrible miracle” mentioned in the subtitle is life itself, in its continuous process of making and unmaking: a journey the artist explores without offering easy consolations, creating images where beauty does not conceal the wound but rather passes through it. In 2011, Giovanni Ruggiero (Fontanarosa, 1973) was a joint winner of the Faenza Prize at the 57th edition of the International Competition of Contemporary Ceramic Art, organized by the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza.
In 2022, he won first prize for sculpture at the international “Artist’s View of the World” competition, held as part of the “Around the World: Art Without Borders” festival organized by the Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design.
A distinctive feature of his work is the *introrilievo* (incised relief) technique—the inverse of bas-relief—which plays on perception, visibility, and viewer engagement.
Having previously taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and ISIA Faenza, he is currently a professor of Foundry Techniques at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin. He has collaborated with the Bottega d’Arte Ceramica Gatti, working alongside artists such as Mimmo Paladino, Luigi Ontani, Giacinto Cerone, Aldo Mondino, Ettore Sottsass, Giosetta Fioroni, Enrico Baj, and Sandro Chia.
