la pietra

«The art of 'sculpture' is for me the art of taking away, the art applied by adding is rather similar to 'painting'».
This observation by Michelangelo seems to be a strictly tecnical remark, but this is not the case. Taking away is really freeing the shape that is imprisoned in the block of marble, the liberation of the superfluous, the purification, analogue to the purification of the soul.
Also, the artist can only express the Idea he caries inside, or what Michelangelo calls an "concept":
 The best of artists hath no concept to show
 Which the rough stone in its superfluous shell
 Doth not include; to break the marble spell
 Is all the hand that serves the intellect can do.
During the Nuit Blanche in Paris, Alberto Grozio wanted to create in one night the sculpture of his dreams following the approach of Michelangelo. A block of stone (1mx1mx1m) and Grozio, his intellect, his hand and his tools (and Michelangelo?) started to search the Piece that was imprisoned.
In order to allow everybody to follow the 12 hour performance and the process of the search for the imprisoned sculpture, polaroids have been taken and exposed immediately in a chronological and metaphysical order.

12 h
6/10/2002
Nuit Blanche - Paris