In Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs there is a mysteriously mythical figure, an Italian based in Venice called Perplexus Anomalous. The author of the Map of Days – a collection of maps showing the locations of the loops where peculiar live throughout the world – Perplexus is a cartographer, philosopher and thinker and his Map of Days is a unique creation, covered with illustrations, legends, and footnotes. The mythical Map of Days and Perplexus easily come to the mind of visitors stepping into the word of artist and architect Pietro Ruffo.
His exhibition "Breve storia del resto del mondo" (Brief History of the Rest of the World) – currently on at the Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino (until 10th July) in Catania, Sicily – features indeed a series of maps that Ruffo reinvented, remixed and recreated to tackle universal themes such as human dignity and freedom (the latter symbolised by the hand cut paper dragonflies pinned on maps) filtering them through historical events, cultural, social and religious divisions and colonization.
Through his paintings, drawings and large-scale installations Ruffo examines indeed political, social and ethical subjects and the exhibition therefore broadly reflects on a wide range of issues.
Ruffo usually moves from principles, elements and materials that characterize the architectural practice, that is project concept, technical and freehand drawings, and different types of paper, analysing through them the international geopolitical situation, the consequences of the Arab Spring, Islamic fundamentalism and workers' rights in South Africa.
Eye-catching pieces include portraits inspired by Isaiah Berlin's essay Freedom and Its Betrayal: Six Enemies of Human Liberty and "The Colours of Cultural Map" (2015), a large atlas of the countries of the world and of the differences that unite people, commissioned by Luciano Benetton for the Imago Mundi project
Among the highlights there are the SPAD SVII, a 1:1 replica biplane made entirely of wood and paper, commissioned by the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, and a small architectural construction entitled "Liberty House" (2011) dedicated to Khalil Gibran.
Somehow Ruffo's modus operandi in the art world is similar to that of Alessandro Michele at Gucci: both work wth vintage images, remixing them after researching in libraries, archives and antique markets. And while we don't know yet when Ruffo will ever collaborate with Gucci on a print or an installation, the artist has actually already worked for the fashion industry: last year he transformed indeed a urban square in Rome into a layered runway for the Valentino Haute Couture show.
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