Leonardo Marenghi (IT)

Leonardo Marenghi considers himself a sculptor and an engraver. The artist finds analogies and similarities between sculpting and engraving, for the implication of a gesture and for the freedom of expressivity that the media offer. Lately, Marenghi has started to work on large-format woodcut that allow him to move freely inside and above the work. Marenghi’s xylographies are inspired by Le Città Invisibili, a novel written by the Italian author Italo Calvino.

The large compositions depict some of the mysterious and fictional cities that Calvino imagined and told about in his playful novel. In the city of Eufemia, merchants from the whole word gathered during the days of solstices and equinoxes. Under the city of Ottavia there was nothing for hundreds of meters, all the people had to walk on roads made of spider webs and wood. Eutropia was the capital of a territory with many cities; during different periods just one was inhabited and the others were left empty. Marenghi’s compositions incorporate these stories written by Calvino and the vivid imagery of the artist.