Bertozzi & Casoni

Tiziano Scarpa was born in Venice in 1963. His Strega Prize-winning novel Stabat Mater was published in English by Serpent’s Tail in 2011. He has written criticism and short stories about several contemporary artists. In 2007 he wrote an essay about Bertozzi & Casoni for their exhibition in Venice.  Bertozzi & Casoni was established in 1980 in Imola by Giampaolo Bertozzi (b. Borgo Tossignano, Bologna, 1957) and Stefano Dal Monte Casoni (b. Lugo di Romagna, Ravenna, 1961 – d. Imola, Bologna, 2023). Both artists trained in the field of faience pottery and chose to adopt this medium as their element. Although ceramic sculpture has often been relegated to the margins of the contemporary art scene, the artists were able to confer it total dignity and to introduce it onto the major international art circuits. Constantly experimenting both in terms of technique and form, over the years the artists developed an original and recognizable view of contemporary society, producing works that were always poised between irony and a criticism of consumerism, between doubt and hyper-realism, between splendor and a reflection on decadence.