MURO BIANCO (1975)

Terminal 1 Departures

Pietro Consagra (1920–2005) was one of the leading figures of twentieth-century abstract sculpture, renowned for revolutionizing the concept of three-dimensionality. A founder of Gruppo Forma 1, an important artistic collective established in Rome in 1947 that promoted a new idea of abstraction, the Sicilian artist broke away from the tradition of sculpture “in the round” to develop what he called “frontal sculpture.”

His works, often thin, flat, and two-dimensional, seek a direct, immediate, and accessible dialogue with the viewer, eliminating the encumbrance of volume in order to transform sculpture into a visual form that interacts with the surrounding space.

Through the use of materials such as iron, bronze, marble, and wood, the artist developed a visual language based on overlapping elements and linear rhythms, aimed at freeing art from the weight of classical monumentality.

Located within Terminal 1 Departures at Rome Fiumicino Airport, this work belongs to the Bifrontali series, sculptures created between 1968 and 2004, and is composed of four structures with sinuous, arabesque-like profiles: one has a trapezoidal shape with wavy upper and lower edges, while the others consist of ornamental forms defined by straight and curved incised lines carved both along the edges and across the surfaces.

The choice of iron, already present in Consagra’s work since the late 1940s and closely linked to the research of Gruppo Forma 1, is not merely technical. Commonly associated with industrial production, the material is reinterpreted and transformed through form and color. Consagra reshapes its perception in order to make sculpture more accessible and engaging, without sacrificing the complexity of artistic research.

The conservation work on the sculpture was carried out as part of the educational activities of the Master’s Degree Program in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage at the University of Tuscia – DIBAF, in Viterbo, in coordination with the restoration specialists of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome.

, this work belongs to the Bifrontali series, sculptures created between 1968 and 2004, and is composed of four structures with sinuous, arabesque-like profiles: one has a trapezoidal shape with wavy upper and lower edges, while the others consist of ornamental forms defined by straight and curved incised lines carved both along the edges and across the surfaces.

The choice of iron, already present in Consagra’s work since the late 1940s and closely linked to the research of Gruppo Forma 1, is not merely technical. Commonly associated with industrial production, the material is reinterpreted and transformed through form and color. Consagra reshapes its perception in order to make sculpture more accessible and engaging, without sacrificing the complexity of artistic research.

The conservation work on the sculpture was carried out as part of the educational activities of the Master’s Degree Program in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage at the University of Tuscia – DIBAF, in Viterbo, in coordination with the restoration specialists of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome.