The project, which won the “Per Chi Crea” – Edition 2023 call for proposals promoted by the SIAE for the production of new works, is inaugurated on October 12, 2024 (11 a.m.) on the occasion of the celebration of the “20th Day of the Contemporary” called by Amaci.
The permanent site-specific installation was produced as part of a residency by Guglielmo Maggini in MIC Faenza’s workshop and designed specifically for the Museum’s entrance staircase in dialogue with Burri’s large panel.
The title “Stairing” is in fact an ambivalent play on words devised by the artist: in its Anglo-Saxon etymology “stairing” is the action of looking-in this case at his master, Alberto Brurri-but it also indicates the action of climbing the staircase.
The ceramic and resin work covers part of the staircase by flooding the marble steps with a liquid carpet of matter in different colors and volumes.
“I remember the first time I headed to Faenza, it was during the height of the flood of May 2023. Inside that dramatic scenario, well known to the news, I retain a bewildering image: a pink carpet of flowers at the water’s edge, vast, were the peach trees of the agricultural crops along the highway. – Guglielmo Maggini writes – Trees submerged for miles. Only a few buds resurfaced in this ghostly, absurd paddy field, only the tips of the crowns skimmed the surface. Then I arrived at the museum to set up my work for the Faenza Prize competition, took off my mud-encrusted shoes and barefoot got lost in the marvelous rest. Even now I get lost inside this extraordinary museum and feel myself dripping like flowering lava down the steps at the thought of remaining there.”
Guglielmo Maggini’s work takes place at the border between installation and sculpture. His forms ironically con-fuse different materials into an organic proliferation of elements and gestures. A research that starts from the experimentation between materials in the opposition between nature/artifice to arrive at an intimate dimension of the relationship between sensuality and tactility, between memory and the unconscious.
In an imaginary and personal place where space is understood as a plastic volume, the artist aims to investigate the emotional perception of time in a constantly liquid cross-reference between classical heritage, the natural world and references to pop culture. Guglielmo Maggini (Rome, 1992) lives in Rome; among the last exhibitions and initiatives he took part in: Contrappunti (group show @ z2o Sara Zanin Gallery, Rome). IMAGINA (27th Gubbio Biennial, Palazzo Ducale, Gubbio, 2023/24). PREMIO FAENZA – 62nd Biennale of Contemporary Ceramic (Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, 2023).
Intermezzo – adagio ma con brio (Festival dei Due Mondi 66, Official Meeting Point, Spoleto, 2023). Like the wind in the houses (solo show @ z2o Sara Zanin Gallery, Rome, 2023). Circular Art (MAXXI, Rome, 2022). The Big Burnout (HYPERMAREMMA 2022, Porta Medina, Orbetello, 2022) – MATERIA NOVA (Gallery of Modern Art, Rome, 2022). With support from MiC and SIAE, as part of the “For Those Who Create” program. 
