Diego Cibelli (Naples, 1987) creates a boldly sentimental art, capable of reinventing traditional techniques in ways that are always inspired by the exhibition contexts. Now we celebrate love—that of ceramicist Marieda Di Stefano and engineer Antonio Boschi—as we enter, with modesty and passion, the home that continues to house not only the extraordinary collection of paintings created by the couple, but also the fullness of life that gave rise to it. Cibelli captures this spirit and forges a connection with the unintentional aspiration toward eternity found in a Pompeian domus and with the phrase discovered there that gives the exhibition its title—a phrase the artist interprets through fifty-nine porcelain letters. Other letters echo famous pop songs in other rooms, evoking a dual-natured memory—subtle when triggered by someone who merely hints at the evoked musical motifs in an intimate murmur, yet enduring and tangible in the transposition of the words into sculptural form.

It should be noted that the technique used is specifically the “biscuit” method, whose whiteness—in the absence of glaze—allows the inherent energy of the material to shine through without distracting painterly illusions. The vases are crafted in the same manner, drawing on the skilled craftsmanship of Capodimonte; through this tradition, they bring to Milan a tribute to marriage as an occasion of unbridled love, to be shared with guests, in a profusion that echoes the dense display of paintings the Boschi Di Stefano family had envisioned for their domestic life—a display that now becomes a more universal refuge and almost an unexpected, touching appeal to a sentiment all too often overwhelmed by the violence of hateful prejudices and brutal behavior. The childlike tossing of a bouquet in a brief and moving video and the ideal landscape modeled or sketched in pencil by Cibelli thus combine to transform a visit to the House Museum into an aspiration toward the purity of forms that serves as an allegory of a contemporary idyll.

Gianfranco Maraniello