I was born in Turin in 1967. I received my diploma from the art college preparatory school of Turin, where I studied with Sandro de Alexandris and Gilberto Zorio. I further studied at the Faculty of Architecture at Turin Polytechnic University, where I graduated several years later after succesfully defending a dissertation on the marble culture of 18th Century Piedmont.
My first step as an artist was a series of drawings made in 1987, shortly after enrolling at the university. These works encompass the fascination I held for Wifredo Lam. An artist from Jesi named Franco Carotti introduced me to printmaking techniques, while I learned the first rudiments of stone sculpture from a Tuscan sculptor based in Turin. Furthermore, I made several paintings, sculptures, etchings and linocuts – these earlier works demonstrating my interest in primitivism, materic surfaces and craftsmanship. Among my father’s friends and acquaintances were art critics Armando Ginesi and Roberto Sanesi, along with artist Magdalo Mussio. The earlier newspapers and magazine articles on my work were published by Ginesi or through his direction, while Mussio introduced me to Fabio Mauri, or art critics such as Dario Trento, Cesare Vivaldi and Gillo Dorfles. My first exhibition, in 1993, was a solo exhibition at the Salvi Prize in Sassoferrato (Italy), upon invitation by Ginesi. Sanesi showed interest for my work and years later wrote a text on my sculptures, left unpublished.
Alongside the artistic activity, I studied the history of technology, publishing various specialist papers. From the mid-1990s I worked within a mobile unit for health risk reduction among migrant sex workers, an experience which, years later, formed the basis of various visual art projects. Between 1996-1998 I created a new body of work, much darker and lugubrious than before, paired with a stronger relation to the materials’ origin. In sculpture, I began using old pine wood trusses originating from the demolition of a roof. Moreover, in my flat works I focused on the possible outputs of different canvas preparations and paintings. In 1997, my work with woods was awarded the Mannucci Sculpture Prize. At the end of the 1990s I stopped working as an outreach worker, however continuing to be active within the sphere of social inclusion and gender empowerment.
In 1999 I moved away from traditional artistic techniques, using airbrush painting first on cardboard and then interacting with an industrial process of production. In the latter, large sheets of a special type of kraft paper were provided by Abet Laminati. After being airbrushed by me, they were returned to the factory, to be filled with resin and subjected at extremely high temperatures and pressure to form plastic laminates. This collection of plastic laminates became my first solo exhibition in a private art gallery at the end of 2000. It was entitled Modo (Mode) and held at Carbone.to in Turin.
Shortly afterwards I definitively abandoned painting and started to use new mediums such as photography, video, and installation. The formal appearance of this creations often turns out to be a mere wrapping that conceals a much more complex and contradictory matter. The first exhibition presenting these new types of mediums was a solo exhibition at AOC F58 in Rome, entitled Silent Nights. This conveyed a video, the wall installation Tealight and a plastic laminate painting divided into panels, which were then disposed in a grid.
Memorial, my first work of photography, was created between 2001 and 2002. The idea of this work originates from my experience as an outreach worker on the streets of Turin and its province. In this piece, and all following photographic works, I collaborated with photographer Piero Ottaviano. Memorial was first exhibited at the 2nd Turin Biennial of Young Art at the beginning of 2002. In the same year I acquired lost luggage from the Italian Railways company, transforming them into an installation. This was the first of a group of works consisting of re-contextualised objects. They are reunited in this website under the name of Fetish Club. In 2003 I had my second solo exhibition at Carbone.to Gallery, displaying my Cristiano Bertis. At the end of 2004 I moved from Turin to Jesi, although I kept my Turin artist studio open until 2011. In February 2006 I had my third solo exhibition at Carbone.to Gallery. In May, Guido Carbone passed away, and the gallery closed. In December of the same year I had my first exhibition abroad, in the Berlin group show Sex Kunst Realität. My first solo show abroad was in 2008, at a cultural centre named Stanica in Zilina, Slovakia. Over the years I placed greater emphasis upon collaborative work, interactions, and artistic acts.
Almost all of the works completed between 2002 and 2011 were exhibited in a large solo exhibition, Vertigo of Reality. This was held at the Mole Vanvitelliana, a maritime fortress and contemporary arts centre in the city of Ancona. The catalogue published by Allemandi is the most comprehensive publication on my work so far.
In 2012, I started my vast project Futile Cycles, which arises from a reflection on the affinities between historical and artistic research. In these most recent projects, the information collected by the historical research conducted by me merges with the images I create. Along with installations and videos, the Futile Cycles project has involved the publication of two artist’s books, Gaggini: Le Alpi e il Tropico del Cancro (2017) and Eredi Boggiano (2022). The latter was awarded the Italian Council grant by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture, allowing the translation into English and Spanish.
In 2014, I started teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata, where I still holds courses for Multimedia Communication and Multimedia Installations. I am married and have two sons.