Arcangelo Sassolino Italy, b. 1967

Arcangelo Sassolino’s artistic practice emerges from the intersection of art, physics, and engineering, sustained by a strong interest in mechanics and the behavior of materials. Immersed in the industrial context of northern Italy, the artist transforms tools and production dynamics into “the inorganic performances”, where the materials come alive in the tension between opposing forces and internal conflicts. His sculptures and installations explore phenomena such as gravity, pressure, friction, and heat, pushing materials to the limits of their endurance. By applying real physical forces, Sassolino releases latent energies, revealing the fragility and internal tensions of matter. The functionality of machines becomes an aesthetic language that transforms mechanical action into a sensory experience. Central to his work is the creation of spaces of tension and anticipation, where slow movements, accumulations of force, and energy-laden states of stasis make the risk of rupture a foreseen and orchestrated element; in this way, the viewer, immersed in this suspense, is called to confront unpredictability, tension, precariousness and danger, witnessing the risk of the work’s collapse as an integral part of the experience, becoming a metaphor for human fragility and instability. Through technology as a critical medium, art assumes a fundamental role in shaping future modes of technological reflection - more conscious and sustainable understanding of both matter and ourselves.