2025
The “Dentist” Shrine
Forty years of dental practice history told through clinical slides and sacred iconography.
Display case, 138 x 112 x 15 cm, in lacquered wood, damask background, clinical slides, icon reproduction, RGBW internal lighting, 2024.
This display case belongs to the “Sacred Shrines” series, in which I reinterpreted typical Italian votive shrines (also called “Madonnelle”) in a contemporary key. In this instance, the work was a commissioned piece: 270 clinical slides—blessed by Saint Apollonia (The Piero della Francesca versione, then re-utilised by Andy Warhol) the patron saint of dentists—recount 40 years of activity of the commissioning dental practice.
Working on commission fascinates me because it imposes limits and adds an interpretative, even psychological, dimension. It is a challenge that elevates the complexity of the work, which must strive to satisfy the ‘client’ while simultaneously aiming for universality—remaining independent and capable of existing beyond the boundaries of the specific request.
