Michele Ciacciofera

Born in Nuoro, Sardegna (Italy), 1969, Ciacciofera moved to Palermo, Sicily (Italy) where he grew up and at university graduated in Political Science. Afterwards, he returned to his native Island for an apprenticeship with the painter and architect G.A. Sulas. He has since then lived and worked in Siracusa (Sicily) before moving to Paris where he now lives and works since 2011.

Ciacciofera has always been invested in the relationship between human existence and the natural world. Using a variety of artistic approaches, including sculpture, painting, drawing, sound, installation, video and theater, he freely combines media and methods in his exploration of anthropology, nature, history, mythology, politic, and humanity.

In 2017 in The Density of the Transparent Wind, he used sound to interrogate the Mediterranean, tracing ways in which it defines and shapes human experiences, borders and social lives.

His 2016 installation Janas Code,  incorporates old tables, tapestry, ceramic, fossils, drawings, honeycombs and other materials. This work is a magic mental reconstruction of an archeological site linked to the neolithic funeral structures he studied at length in Sardinia. Here these are recoded as the houses of the fairies of popular legend now transmitted solely through art and literature.

A conceptual artist at heart, Ciacciofera is concerned first and foremost with the subject, narrative, and feeling that he wishes to convey, with the materials, drawn from a host of sources – following the concept. He constantly calls upon his background in political science, keen interest in environmentalism, and fixation with individual memory, folding in research, activism, and his own subjective reality to create poetic experiences.

His works have been recently included in major group exhibition as 57 Biennale d’Arte di Venezia Viva Arte Viva and  Documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel Every Time a ear di soun , and other important  group exhibition in Central America, U.S., Asia, Africa and Europe.

He was awarded the Civitella Ranieri NYC Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship for 2015-2016.

The artist is currently represented by Michel Rein (Paris/Bruxelles), Vitamin Creative Space (Guangzhou/Beijing), Voice Gallery (Marrakech).

www.micheleciacciofera.com