Arman

For sports car enthusiasts, the model of the monument to the Ferrari F40 in front of the Imola racetrack in miniature format.

«It has been too long that I want to write an essay or a book about the shape of list or catalogue, that is assemblage. For sure one of the final chapter will be dedicated to Arman […] he doesn't quit to wonder about our world as an huge parade of objects for which, as we haven't found a slot where to put them in an harmonious mutual relationship, all we can do is to put them together in the shape of a mad catalogue»

Umberto Eco in Arman, libro d'artista Museo Nazionale della ceramica di Faenza, edizioni Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m, 1995

In the middle of the Nienties, during his stay in Italy, Arman felt in love with ceramic so hard to realize an entire exhibition at the International Museum of Ceramic in Faenza with works made with this refined material. When he came back to realize the monument Rampante: a five meters tall's assemblageof Ferrari F40's bronze models, opened in April 1999 in front of the Imola's race track to celebrate both, the centenary of Enzo Ferrari's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of Ferrari's first victory at Grand Prix, Arman resumed his bond with ceramic. Thanks to this organic and everlasting material, in F40Arman made again all the semantic urgency expressed by theaccumulation | assemblages.

Arman (Nizza 1928 - New York 2005) is one of the most important artists of Nouveau Réalisme, the movement which anticipates Pop Art and that designated artists as the upholders of «a new perceptual approachesof the reality» as said by the theorician Pierre Restany.