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Featured artwork of the week | Online Exhibition

 

Pessina’s Totem series is always composed of six sculptural elements representing the five continents and the sea: Australianus, Africanus, Europaeus, Asiaticus, Oceanicus and Americanus.

The superimposable and exchangeable forms of the Totem unite to a diary of all populations on earth, not of one single group or clan. The materials and sizes of the forms, as well as the traces on its surfaces always differ, one Totem is never like another.

Historically the totem links to the great variety of cultural identities on earth. Socially it represents a set of norms to follow. Metaphysically it symbolises the transcendence between life and death in ancient and modern societies. In a contemporary reading, Pessina’s Totems are metaphors of a global society, whose basic form remains the same, while its structure is flexible and constantly in flux.

Pessina’s art conveys a timeless message, which nevertheless addresses essential and pressing questions of today, even more so in the current challenging climate. Pessina’s quest for finding equilibrium in our human existence imbues his sculptural oeuvre with spiritual force and great tranquillity.

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