Fausto Delle Chiaie

Fausto Delle Chiaie has been for more than 20 years the conceptual force behind, and the only artist (or, as he says, “the custodian, the curator, the driver, the set-up guy, the photographer, the publicist, the director, the work itself”) to exhibit at “The Open-Air Museum” of Rome, on the sidewalk between the Ara Pacis and the Mausoleum of Augustus.

He studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti, at the Scuola libera del Nudo di Passeggiata di Ripetta di Roma. In the mid-80s he created “artistic infractionism”. FDC chooses exposition spaces, public and non-, official and improvised, where he introduces clandestinely his own work, installing and positiong it in those spaces. These are unasked-for donations, which the artist does in museums, galleries, and open spaces, works given to the places and their inhabitants.

He is an artist who intervenes in the places in which he has lived, not only in Rome (in addition to via Ripetta, on the Pincio, in the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and at Galleria Sciarra, among others) but also in Sicily, Molise, and the Marche, and elsewhere in Europe (France, Belgium, Holland, and Ireland). In his works he interacts with the spaces and materials which each place offers him, together with other local factors which become sources of artistic motivation.

Always, in his career, place, context, the urban scene, a plant, an abandoned object, a billboard, a puddle, a particular odor, weeds – all these become part of the work. He is an urban artist who has chosen the urban scenario as the object of his research. His art is therefore also improvisation, as when he creates and gives to visitors to his museum the the drawing/ticket, symbol of the works and of “co-opera-azione” (co-work-action, Italian for cooperation), as he calls it. The springs of inspiration and the raw material are often garbage – “robaccia”  (also the name of a piece of work) which is reused and altered so as to raise questions concerning its esthetic and social value. The work communicates directly and occasionally ironically, calling attention to social and human behaviors, styles, and manners. His originality also reveals itself in the titles he often assigns to his works. For him they are a critical element of the work; sometimes ambiguous, but always an occasion for reflection.

In the course of his 70 years, he has almost always remained outside the official art world, but has made himself known within it. Critics and experts (such as Bonito Oliva, Hoet, Christov-Bakargiev and artists such as Burri have seen and appreciated his works, and have invited him to international expositions.

In June 2010 “the art world” once again took note of him; Electa dedicated a monograph, entitled “Art? Rubbish!”, curated by Giuseppe Casetti and Federico Centoni, to his work. It contained an essay by the art critic Achille Bonito Oliva, who was also at Electa on the occasion of the presentation of the book, not coincidentally inside the Ara Pacis complex.

The Open Air Museum of Fausto Delle Chiaie can be visited every day in piazza Augusto Imperatore, next to the Ara Pacis. During summer months it is open 5-8pm. But if the author is tired, it closes earlier.

Some of his classic artworks: