Sibille, installation view, Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri ,2019
This project is composed of two works titled Sibille and Door knockers.
The Sibyls are mythologycal figures belonging to Greek and Roman antiquity and were virgins endowed with prophetic virtues instilled by a god and therefore able to provide responses and make predictions.
The frontal work takes its cue from these mythological figures: it consists of many intercoms realized in glazed ceramic and installed attached one to each other forming a unique large panel. On the plates of the intercoms there are the names of some of the most influential real and fiction personalities of history of humanity, acting as “Sibyls” themselves while or if contacted.
In this surreal reinterpretation, any of us could ideally get in touch with the historical figure whom is most interested in.
For example, a historian could consult John F. Kennedy and ask for explanations on some of unresolved happenings in American history; a young film director could ask for help Federico Fellini on film tricks or a thinker could discuss of philosophy with Nietzsche and so on…
The work Sibille is put in a strict dialogue with the two big Door knockers again made of silver glazed ceramic and depicting two savage lions.
The artist’s intention is to create a sort of pagan temple with his installation. In addition to their normal function of signaling a presence at home -and of course of helping in closing the doors- in ancient times the door knockers had also an important magic function.
In fact they were attributed prodigious powers to remove and nullify negative influences that could damage the house and its inhabitants. This is the reason why most of their depictions show threatening human faces or ferocious animals.
In the installation the two door knockers act as guardians of the “temple” and have the function of protecting what – mysterious or sacred – is happening inside.
This project comes from a deep reflection on past, myth and spirituality in general and – in addition – on everyone’s need of receiving confirmations in own path of life and in the constant search of the self.
Often in his work Davide Monaldi uses banal and ordinary objects, related to everyday life as intercoms, rethinking them and distorting their meanings.
In this specific case the intercoms and the contrasting 2 baroque door knockers act as a connection with afterlife.