AlbumArte presents
Nessun ricordo è innocente
(Cronologia imperfetta dei sorrisi e delle lacrime) by Iginio De Luca
Edizione Gli Ori – Collana I Limoni
Curated by Pietro Gaglianò
An informal conversation between the artist, the curator, the readers and the public
HURSDAY 2 OCTOBER 2025 at 6.00 pm
The twenty drawings accompanying the book will be on display until October 11th (4.00pm – 7.00pm)
Saturday 4th on the occasion of the XXI AMACI Contemporary Art Day with opening hours 12.00 – 19.00
On Thursday, October 2nd, at 6:00 PM, AlbumArte will present Nessun ricordo è innocente, Iginio De Luca’s first book—the first, of course, in which the artist engages in writing, with a free-flowing narrative that begins with his visions and returns to his works, offering us, along the way, hours of exquisite reading. The book features ten stories, set between a childhood in the 1970s and the maturity of a contemporary artist, ten chapters that recount the genesis of ten works of art. The volume was published by Gli Ori in the “I limoni” series, directed by Pietro Gaglianò, which is largely dedicated to critical writing, focusing on art and public sphere issues. This selection of titles (which includes works by scholars such as Giulia Grechi, Teresa Macrì, Stefania Zuliani, and, soon to be published, Nicolas Martino) also includes a section for artists with a strong penchant for beautiful writing or narrative as a medium for their art.
Regarding Iginio De Luca’s writing, Gaglianò writes, “The ten stories that launch the book’s chapters are all scenes from a provincial childhood, that sprawling province without precise regional boundaries that Italy was until the 1980s, a place we can all identify with, amidst the flavors of industrial ice cream, television broadcasts, public liturgies, and, even more so, private ones that paint a picture of an aesthetic education incredibly common to two or three generations. The artist brings it to life with a prose that combines the necessary irony and the inevitable bitterness with which memories must be handled. From these memories, almost a gallery of genre paintings, years later the works that Iginio has presented in Italy and abroad take shape, and which he restores here to their genealogy.
Each story is illustrated with two pen drawings, choosing a medium rarely seen in his oeuvre, to accentuate the speculative dimension in which memory and its elaboration are reunited. In this binary rhythm, the first drawing evokes the distant past, reconstructing the occasion that gave rise to the work; the second shows an aspect of the latter, its formal synthesis that has coalesced at various times as a performance, a blitz, a sound action, a choral project, one of the many languages practiced by the artist.
To these, from today, is added the writing that Iginio has always used but never with creative awareness, and here lies the origin of Nessun ricordo è innocente. The book was born in a scattered way over the course of various work experiences, all animated by a lively exchange of reflections between artist and critic, written to explore the reasons behind a project, to outline the components of an exhibition, to translate into words the life of works that otherwise suffice unto themselves and require no explanation. The unexpected pleasure of reading made me feel the need for this collection, on the border between writing and visuality, between the finiteness of the work and the porosity of processes, between personal memories and the breath of a shared memory.” (Text taken from the afterword of the volume by Pietro Gaglianò).
The twenty drawings accompanying the book will be on display until Saturday, October 11th (4:00 PM – 7:00 PM). On Saturday, October 4th, on the occasion of the 21st Contemporary Art Day, AMACI will be open with special opening hours from 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM.
Iginio De Luca, born in Formia (LT) on August 21, 1966, graduated in Painting in 1989 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, where he currently teaches Decoration. An artist and musician, he lives and works in Rome, expressing himself through video, installation, and performance. His “Blitzes” are actions that straddle the line between urban art and performance, involving unauthorized interventions in public spaces, denouncing, with irony and commitment, the crisis of values of our time. His work has been included in major interdisciplinary projects and has been the subject of solo exhibitions in art galleries and independent spaces, both in Italy and abroad. Numerous publications have been dedicated to his research.
Pietro Gaglianò (1975), a graduate in architecture, is an art critic, educator, and independent curator. He investigates the relationship between the aesthetics of power and the counter-narratives enacted by art, favoring the urban and social context as a stage for contemporary languages. In his projects, he experiments with hybrid formats between art, pedagogy, and social sciences to cultivate the political perception of public space and community. He teaches Art and Criticism at the Santa Reparata International School of Art, Florence. His publications include: The Emancipation of the World. Suzanne Lacy and the Form of Community (Edizioni Kappabit, 2024), The Syntax of Freedom. Art, Pedagogy, Anarchy (Gli Ori, 2020), and Memento. The Obsession of the Visible (Postmedia Books, 2016).
TECHNICAL DATA SHEET
Exhibition: No memory is innocent, with the twenty drawings that accompany the book (2025)
Artist: Iginio De Luca
Cuarator: Pietro Gaglianò
Space: AlbumArte, Via Flaminia 122, Roma
THURSDAY OCTOBER 2, 2025, 6:00 PM
Exhibition UNTIL OCTOBER 11
Opening hours: 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM (closed Mondays)
SATURDAY 4 OCTOBER XXI GIORNATA AMACI TIME 12.00 – 19.00
FREE ACCESS
INFO: www.albumarte.org
PRESS CONTACTS
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