Untitled (2003)

August 12 , 2009
Untitled
Marco Boggio Sella
2003
Iron, 210 x 364 x 304cm
The artist’s deposit in 2007
Born in Turin in 1972, Marco Boggio Sella works in New York.
Marco Boggio Sella’s formal process springs from a reflection on the visual and psychological impact of the work of art on the spectator and the interpretation that the spectator makes of it.
Untitled (2003), representing a German helmet which is both monumental and rusty, functions as a metaphor for the weight of History, still deeply anchored in our minds. The act of reproducing this emblematic object in a hyper-realistic and over-dimensioned manner transforms it into a representation of the concept itself.
What at first glance reminds us of a painful and violent image of our contemporary society is revealed as a troubling vehicle of memory. The rust that covers the object, associated with its relic nature, annuls all doubts as to the possibility of a commemorative reading of this sculpture. 
In placing this work on Vassivière Island, on land that resisted the Nazi invaders, the artist wanted to reactivate our duty to remember by echoing the ever-living memory of the local population. 
Marco Boggio Sella thus erected a rusted and abandoned representation of Nazism. Here the helmet, a relic of those dark times, stands imposing in all its volume, forcing us to a permanent confrontation with History.