COMEL AWARD 2025

Interview with Fabrizio Lucchesi

by Ilaria Ferri

Fabrizio Lucchesi, a ceramic sculptor and educator, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and holds qualifications in ceramics and sculpture. Since 2001, he has taught ceramic techniques at several institutions. He has exhibited his works in Italy and internationally, including the International Biennale of Ceramics in Jingdezhen (China), “Innovative Handicraft” in France and Bulgaria, Argillà Faenza, and numerous exhibitions in Florence, Siena, and Montelupo. His work spans monumental sculptures, installations, and material experimentation.

You took part in the 12th edition of the COMEL Award with Alom, an aluminium casting: an elegant sculpture that, as you state, “aims to evoke the concreteness and materiality of dream images and, at the same time, their absolute lightness and immateriality.” Could you tell us more about the reflection behind this work?

The idea, conceived on a monumental scale, is built around a play of forces and tensions that I almost always introduce into my works, whether they are in metal, ceramic, or other materials. These forces and tensions find resolution in an element that brings balance and, at the same time, elegance: the ellipse placed at the intersection of the lines of force.
The lightness of aluminium and the mirror finish dematerialize the form and its three‑dimensionality, evoking an image suspended between dream and wakefulness.
In my research, in the concrete realization of my works, I always try to convey an image of beauty and harmony, even when I address themes of a very different and sometimes conflicting nature. I perceive aluminium—thanks to its intrinsic properties of lightness and resistance—as a material that needs to be revealed in its beauty, much like dream images, which must be interpreted in order to speak to us about our emotions and inner life.

In Alom, some of aluminium’s intrinsic qualities—such as lightness and resistance, only seemingly distant from one another—are enhanced with great formal balance. Had you already worked with this metal in the past? Do you plan to continue working with it in the future?

I have used aluminium for other works, generally following the same line of thought: formal balance and the dematerialization of the image. It is not an easy material to handle from an artistic point of view, but it is certainly fascinating because of its properties. I would not exclude using it again in the future, should creative needs call for it.

4 Elementi

Your work moves naturally across different materials and fields: from metals to ceramics, from decoration to monumental works. Within this variety of techniques and languages, what is the common thread that holds your research together?

At the core of my research are images that arise sometimes spontaneously, sometimes clearly suggested by various stimuli—intellectual, social, environmental, and so on. It is the idea, and later the formal research aimed at representing it, that guides my choice of material. For me, form is fundamental. Even in ceramic works where color is present, color is almost always subordinate to and at the service of form.

During the opening of the Kunstwollen exhibition, held in the summer of 2025 at the Museum of Rural Civilization in Montecastelli Pisano, you referred to key passages in Schopenhauer’s philosophy, particularly the idea that matter becomes image only through human intervention. How has this influenced your understanding of sculpture and your relationship with matter?

Matter in itself has no image; it has a texture, a softness or, conversely, a hardness. It becomes representation only through the creative act of the artist, who externalizes an inner image.

My creative process rarely involves preliminary sketches, models, or drawings. I prefer to investigate and discover the form through a mental activity—let’s say I “draw mentally”—so that my hands can then move freely in their relationship with the material.

Not following a predetermined image with fixed and precise contours allows me greater freedom and openness to solutions that are sometimes unexpected, yet still coherent with the initial idea.

Monumental marble sculpture (Turin)

In the same context, you also mentioned Alois Riegl and his conception of decoration as an element capable of reinforcing the functionality of form. What role does decoration play for you today, and how does this principle manifest in your work?

The theme of decoration is extremely complex. Historically, the term has taken on a negative connotation: an artwork is called “decorative” when it is considered empty or lacking in content.
In reality, as Alois Riegl argued, the decorative impulse is a primary “will,” far from being devoid of meaning—indeed, often necessary and fundamental for representation.
The word itself, decor‑action, speaks of an action aimed at giving decorum and beauty to something that lacks it or possesses it insufficiently—be it a place, a space, or something else. Decoration has always been a relationship with space—architectural, public, private—and today we can safely say that much contemporary art is indeed decorative.

In a perspective where sharing knowledge contributes to multiplying it, how much does your work as a teacher influence your artistic practice? And conversely, how much does studio work enrich your teaching?

These two elements coexist and nourish each other. The relationship with students is stimulating and full of challenges. Personal research helps me solve problems, find solutions, and sometimes suggest a path that may be meaningful for a student in training.

Sculpture implies a direct and physical relationship with materials—a true “hands‑on” process to give form to ideas. How does your working process unfold? Do you start from an idea to develop, or from a material that intrigues you and guides the project?

The material never guides my project; it can vary each time, always at the service of the idea.

Looking at your most recent work, in which direction do you feel your research is heading in the coming years?

That is a difficult question. The direction comes from the stimuli I receive daily—social, environmental, political—so I would say that my relationship with reality guides my research.

My latest works, particularly ceramic installations, are oriented toward themes such as nature and environmental sustainability, though always approached by privileging the aesthetic and emotional dimension rather than the scientific one.

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