Eliseo Mattiacci. Processi di scultura a Roma tra anni Sessanta e Settanta

Eliseo Mattiacci moved from the Italian region of Marche to Rome in 1964, and there he experienced a crucial renovation in his work as a sculptor. The artist lived in the Italian capital until 1986, when he moved back to his native land. This article would explore in detail the renovation of Mattiacci’s work between the 1960’s and 1970’s through his relationship with the city of Rome and unfolding stratifications of crucial encounters, personal experiences and creative endeavors. Although Mattiacci was in touch with Arte Povera, he kept his statement independent from any labeling, and was able to provide a fresh, personal contribution to the renovation of sculpture. He accomplished this by holding on to a personal procedural trajectory, one that carries the plastic object from environment to action. In his artistic research, action is the foundation of every concept, the primary verb that he further conjugates into multiple meanings. Primarily, Mattiacci instills it into the plastic shape, by forcing it through those energetic processes that subtend the exploration of matter`s intrinsic forces. Throughout the sixties Mattiacci’s work was intended to act as an intervention of plastic forms into the public space, from urban landscape to nature; through the seventies his narrative evolved into the intimate exploration of behavioral action and transitioned eventually into a performance that involved the artist`s body.