Interview with Francesco Pessina on the occasion of his exhibition: Sine Nomine Herma – Where the hell is Hermes?

Brief introduction: the Herma statues were quadrangular pillars surmounted by heads or busts that originated in Ancient Greece where they depicted the god Hermes and were then adopted by the Romans and revived in the Renaissance.
In Greek mythology Hermes is the great messenger of the gods and in this role the protector of travel. The statues functioned as apotropaic symbols to ward off bad luck. They were therefore placed at road crossings, country borders and entrances as divine protection. Before his role as protector of the merchants and travellers, Hermes was also associated with fertility and luck, often represented as a phallic symbol. He also became the guide of the souls and the deceased through the Underworld.


The exhibition presents a new series of sculptures, the Herms.
How did you conceive these new shapes and what kind of materials and techniques have you used?

The materials are the ones I always use, namely different kind of stones and wood, like volcanic stone, river stone, marble, pinewood and so on.
These materials are very close to my personality, to my simplicity and I like the way they strongly relate my work to nature.
As most of my creations, their conception is mysterious: at the beginning there is a strong desire to realize a certain shape with a certain material, so in this sense they (the creations) originate from passion, the subconscious, from a kind of Dionysian inebriation.
Then, once the first form has been made, I stop working and start to rationally think and ask myself why, for what reason I did what I did, and I wonder how to place this new shape in a historical and social context.


How would you place the Herms within your artistic research? Is there a connection to earlier sculpture series like the Totem series or to the earlier figures of miles, servus and prophet?

The herms originally derive from a very specific, ‘circumscribed’ context, which is the Mesopotamian culture or Asia Minor, where the sprout of Western culture was born. The Totems on the contrary are placed in a much broader framework.
The three archetypes of miles, servus and prophet also come from the Mesopotamian culture, but they are very much linked to my personal past: sometimes I felt myself like a warrior, sometimes like a prophet. Through these (earlier) works I liberated myself from certain constrictions and educations. It was a way to expand my territory. It is not by chance that the Totems, which reflect on a global dimension, a global brotherhood, were born soon after.
The meaning of the Herms is related to the current social period, a moment of transition that affects all humanity yet remains an individual reflection as well. The Totems also represent a moment of rebirth and of transformation but in global terms.


In Roman times the herms reproduced the facial features of the deceased. Is the relationship with the funerary tradition intended? Is it linked to your idea of death being associated with periods of great change? Are your herms even symbols of the transition between life and death?

My link to the funerary tradition comes from the idea of it being a moment of passage, the passage between life and death. You find this aspect in my Totems as well; actually each of the 6 shapes is inspired by a cinerary urn.
Death is a place of transit and change and nowadays humanity is going through similar times; we are living the Internet era, which has changed our lives incredibly, as has in the past happened with the birth of writing or the invention of printing.
Internet will probably lead us further, to an even greater revolution, to a global and primogenial reunion (communion).
All moments of significant and profound change bring the end of one thing and the beginning of something new like death. That‘s why my herm and totem sculptures are linked to funerary tradition, aiming to illustrate the moment humanity is going through.

Does the phallic form of some herms formally recall the Greek-Roman versions or does it have a different meaning?
Is there a connection to fertility or does it represent the link between the earth and the sky?

The phallic form is actually not intended. All my shapes derive from my subconscious. I personally do not see any phallus, but I can see the connection to this kind of imagery.
In general, everything vertical and aspiring upwards stands life, fertility, the divine and spirituality.

What’s the significance of the formal division between the plinth and the head? You made that decision very consciously, even more clearly than in the Ancient sculptures – why?

As mentioned before, firstly I created the head and then I decided to add a bust or plinth, what I call the body.
If the shape of the head came up very naturally and impulsively, I thought very carefully of what to use as a “body� and what significance it would bear.
The body of every herm is a representation of the past, it is related to matter and because of that is made from found wood panels that give the sculpture this worn-out look - (the body) is linked to the transcience of life.
The bodies of the herms I will be showing in London are composed of super-imposable blocks. They intentionally refer to Neolithic stones, the Menhirs and bethels. The cubes aim to embody the beginning of history, again an attempt to represent the past.
The head instead is polished and smooth, sometimes wears a hat or hair-like stripes. It represents what it is, namely the human being (mankind) that reflects upon the present for a possible future.
This aninconic (quasi-abstract) representation allows people to develop their own image and the more the imagination is enriched the better, it will stimulate and sharpen everybody’s own conscience.
My herms are good wishes. They embody the passage between a known and uncomfortable present and an unforeseeable future: we have to work on the present to understand the future.
Further, the head is fully left to the imagination because we cannot place the head of a hero or of a famous leader. Today people have to use their own imagination, their own conscience to successfully face the future - nobody can lead us.
My herms aim to serve as non-presumptuous warning.

What do the Hermae represent for you personally?
What would be a contemporary meaning or equivalent of an Hermae figure?
Are they announcing or maybe welcoming a new period in history? Or even a new period in your sculpture/oeuvre?

On a personal level they represent a new game created in the awareness that they are toys to stir the imagination. They are tools for elevating the conscience of others.
And then of course, if I had to find today’s equivalent I could ironically say they are contemporary road signs to welcome and guide the travellers.


Is there a spiritual significance of the Herms?
What is their social function, historically and maybe today?
Did they have an anthropological meaning?

I don’t think they (the Herms) contain much spirituality, my works bring out the silence, which allows people to reflect.
The spiritual is something huge, I don’ t feel up to this task, it’s a different level.
But they definitely make you reflect or just wonder: What the hell is Pessina up to!
I come up with logical explanations that correspond to my knowledge of history, my intuitions about life, to what I catch and see as a contemporary individual. They (the Herms) might also bring out unknown remote meanings taken from my inner self that even I am not able to see myself, but I leave any reading or interpretation to others.