Il Sogno dell’Eroe. The first resident contemporary art work by a living artist.
Il Sogno dell’Eroe (The Hero’s Dream) is in fact part of the permanent collection of the MANN, the national archaeological museum of Napoli, and is exhibited in the Garden of the Camellias.
The sculptor Christian Leperino, says that Il Sogno dell’Eroe is a work strongly desired by the museum director Paolo Giulierini and donated by the entrepreneur Gianfranco D’Amato.
The work represents an athlete who recalls Cellini’s Perseus and Pitocrito ‘s Nike of Samothrace with the likeness of Diego Armando Maradona.
About Diego Armando Maradona.
CL: “I have used a modern character to interpret an ancient myth, that of the hero, which he perfectly embodies. There is a memory of our South, of our Greek root, which blends into the present and, at times, embodies the features not only of Maradona but of the divine man who lived a millenary city, like Napoli. “
In fact, he takes the appearance that can be seen on the body as symbols, traces, testimonies.
The work, three meters high, was modeled in clay, plaster and wax, before being cast in bronze. Inside the work are grafted fragments of boats and disused architecture. According him the choice of sculpture is an exciting experience that gives him the opportunity to mix and deal with history and matter.
Artist Bio
Christian Leperino (Napoli 1979)
Painter and sculptor, in his search for him he intertwines the theme of the urban landscape with the reflection on time and the memory of places. In his sculptures he alternates with the modeled one the cast from life, the trace of a living body, an object, a fragment of art from the past. Matter that absorbs, preserves and restores stories, shapes, moods, in a dialogue between presence and absence, mirages of beauty and the rubble of history.
He teaches Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts. His works are present in museum collections and public spaces, including MADRE Museum in Naples, MMOMA-Moscow Museum of Modern Art, IICT in Tokyo, Civic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Suzzara, Naples-Mergellina station, Assunta Cathedral, Aragonese Castle of Ischia, Naples National Archaeological Museum.
