
FILIPPO SALERNI, ALCHEMIST
FILIPPO SALERNI, ALCHEMIST
Reflections on water, nature and sculpture
APRIL 2024 - TALKS
“Anything is possible with sunshine and a little pink”
Lilly Pulitzer

We meet Filippo Salerni on the first day of Fuorisalone 2024 in Milan, at the Fonderie Napoleoniche, when the city changes its face and finally becomes international. Many of the dormant and abandoned spaces suddenly come back to life like dusted-off old dinosaurs. And then, who knows why they have to be revived for only one week a year… The hidden, productive and bourgeois Milan is on display: the courtyards open, creativity takes possession of the streets, public places and even the Central Station. Nordic design schools bring that minimal and cool air to the city, with sunglasses, sneakers and general hype.

Filippo, born in 1985, has a mustache and that nostalgic style a bit of the 70s of the Milan of the past, that of the industrial boom between groceries, hardware stores and haberdashery. And he is one of the artists behind the installation Flow through the colors – commissioned by Rubinetterie Stella with the participation of Missioni – born from the creative idea of The Meraviglia and designed by Elena Pelosi. The installation, an exotic journey to rediscover water in various places around the world, through its incredible varieties and chromatic shades, offers a path of awareness that tells that every drop is unique, precious and protected by the taps of the SIDE collection, signed by the designers Meneghello Paolelli. A sensory story focused on the catalyzing power of the natural element as a conductor of energies and elixirs, capable of transforming itself into a process that mixes chemistry and magic: from liquid to scented vapor, from perfume to color pigment.

The pools that make up the installation are transformed, thanks to the work of the artists involved, into the visionary reconstruction of some natural places, really existing, chosen for their vivid colors, emphasized by the sun and the atmosphere, which become from time to time pink, as in Lake Hiller in Australia, intensely blue, as in the Blue Hole of Belize, a chasm in the heart of the Caribbean; carmine, as in Lake Natron in Tanzania, golden in Lake Rotorua in New Zealand and finally as dark as pitch, in the Black Lake Kelimutu, in distant Indonesia.


The artists’ installations float on the pools, and this is where Filippo Salerni comes into play. The feeling of Wonder, which gives rise to his The Pink, translates the evanescent fluctuation of water into an imaginative and dreamlike vision, in a midsummer night’s dream, when the tones of pink, terracotta and sunrises become stronger. On these shades, Filippo Salerni’s copper sculpture floats gracefully, recalling the salinity of the waters and taking on the appearance of a cloud, with its volumes and lightness. It’s only when we get closer that we discover that this cloud is actually made of metal. By recovering old artisanal techniques, Filippo Salerni establishes an innovative dialogue with current events. In the creation of his works, the artist has deepened the methods of working copper and aluminum sheet through the techniques used by the great Italian master panel beaters of the 50s and 60s. A heritage that is gradually disappearing and that reveals the importance of handing down and telling. And that makes Salerni a modern Hephaestus, intent on moving in his creative forge using a wide range of techniques, from marble processing to lost-wax casting, in a constant search for innovation.
by Francesca Russano
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