THE ROOM OF POWER

«The cycle dedicated to his “Generals” has something playful and questioning to it, in the Enrico Baj manner, who at the end of the 1960s  desecrated the military authority. Vigliaturo creates complex totems – they are an assemblage of numerous pieces which can be more than three metres high – where the most interesting element is the original form of the bodies, whereas soldier’s faces have become harmless and extravagant masks in their varied colours».

 This statement by Paolo Levi is the introduction of the exhibition at Torre della Filanda in Rivoli (Turin, 2002) and can be read as a suitable introduction for “The room of power”. Power is a theme particularly close to the artist’s sensitivity and it was already explored in the pieces dedicated to epic stories. Power is a sign of monstrousness, stupidity and arrogance, which have created loss of life, massacres and the abominations that people suffered during war. 

The generals are ridiculous and deprived of the capacity to react; the artist confers them a note of sarcastic humour, overturning the myth of the power of war in search of a yearning for peace among peoples.

These solemn generals, of totemic size – in particular the big General of 2000 – represent the artist’s progressive evolution towards big sculptures.

Music has been produced by Valerio Manni (artistic director  Valerio Vigliaturo’s stage-name)