Crafting Archaeology

Step into the courtyard where ten unique pieces from Roberto Sironi and Luca Mandaglio explore historic colour palettes, celebrating cultural richness.
 

The ceramics created by Roberto Sironi in collaboration with ceramacist Luca Mandaglio are driven by a desire to reinterpret archaeo-anthropological artifacts from ancient cultures and epochs, thereby giving rise to a collection where colour emerges as the distinctive feature.

Through the project Colour Archaeology, aimed at exploring archaeological ceramic productions to design a new colour palette for LAUFEN, Sironi creates a series of ten ceramic pieces using diverse techniques and materials, with each piece evoking and referencing a historical production.

Within this cosmological apparatus, pre-Columbian anthropomorphic jars, Akkadian fragments, and Mesopotamian idols are brought to life, alongside zoomorphic ritual objects recreated in ceramics such as the Boli of the Bamana culture and an Egyptian headless sphinx. Additionally, there are ceramics reminiscent of Chinese Longquan productions, Japanese urns from the Kofun period, jugs inspired by medieval Islamic culture, and amphorae from Imperial Rome.

Embedded within these sculptures are echoes of archaeological excavations, where objects are revitalized with colours that have their roots in millennia-long history of ceramics. Each hue represents a result of a complex alchemical process, reflecting the available raw materials and serving as a testament to the technological advancements achieved over time.

According to Sironi, the present emerges as a product of metabolising the past, framed within a vision that reinterprets remnants of the ancient world from a postmodern perspective. This aesthetic syncretism celebrates the heterogeneity of elements, serving as an expression of the richness found within different cultural identities.

COLOUR ARCHAEOLOGY
LAUFEN SPACE MILANO
VIA ALESSANDRO MANZONI 23
20121 MILANO
The exhibition welcomes visitors until the end of May.