Antonio Ievolella

Ievolella’s works breath the poetics of memory, of rites, of archetypes, and invite in a timeless and universal language.
At Forte Belvedere, a theatre of history and suffering, a place of a mixture of different peoples and nations, Ievolella speaks in an extremely clear language. Two large-scale cement shields lean against the wall of the inside rooms and allude to battling: they are really “Shields”, with an archaic and highly evocative look about them, and proclaim how, over time, war can change its apparel but not its face, it can refine its techniques but maintain its own archetype. In such a context survival is what humanity mainly hopes for: it tries to protect itself, to protect its own body. Now these shields protect the memory of those fallen bodies. This is how this “creator of evocative forms” has marked the anniversary of the First World War. With distant roots in ancient and totemic forms, the exhibition ends with

a site-specific work, La pagine non scritta. This work consists of 56 iron and lead tiles that make up a large “page of life”, the life that the young soldier victims of the conflict were unable to write. Each tile is framed in dark metal and shows traces of red fabric: a small, simple army with few signs but many symbols.
War is privation, distance, fear. In the atmosphere that can still be felt in this place, Antonio Ievolella also entrusts his works with extracts from perennial everyday life, as in the sculpture Il mistero del pane. It is an epiphany of simple things that gain value and become precious precisely when we become aware of their absence. Here the sculptor, through the strength of his works, articulates the footsteps of history and the memory of them. (Arte Forte – Forte Belvedere, 2016)
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Available works

Installations

Available works


  • Il mistero del pane, 1992

    Corten steel
    67 x 62 x 26 cm


  • Innesto (Senza titolo), 1989

    Wood and pigments
    153 x 87 x 83 cm


  • Senza titolo, 1989

    Wood, lead
    240 x 80 x 11 cm


  • Scudo, 1989

    Wood and pigments
    250 x 80 x 14 cm


  • Scudi, 1986

    Cement, wire mesh, pigments
    160 x 100 x 30 cm each


  • Formelle, 2020

    Ceramic, iron
    23 x 28 x 5 cm

Installations


  • Rosso e Grigio, 2020

    Installation view
    Studio la Città, Verona


  • Rosso e Grigio, 2020

    Installation view
    Studio la Città, Verona


  • Antonio Ievolella, 2017

    Installation view
    Cittadella dello studente Lungoargine Piovego, 20 Padova

    News

  • Verso Terra (Towards Earth) is the new Antonio Ievolella solo show, curated by Nicola Galvan and Mattia Munari, currently on display at the Maco Arte in Padua. On this occasion, some works by the sculptor are exhibited all united by a thematic commonality: water. The exhibition will remain open until February 10, 2024.


  • As part of the program dedicated to the dialogue between the city and contemporary art, the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Pavia organizes the exhibition Fons vitae by Antonio Ievolella in the courtyard of the Visconteo Castle from 9 October 2021 to 6 January 2022.


  • After the interruption due to the pandemic, the MAPO (Museo Arte Ambiente Arena Po) reopens. Three large sculptures by Antonio Ievolella, Renzogallo and Costas Varotsos, are now part of the renewed open-air exhibition path.