Valerio Eliogabalo Torrisi, b. 1993, lives and works in Milan.

Un Altro Patrimonio [Another Patrimony]

A festoon of pink letters cuts through a gold fringe curtain resembling a smile. Pink balloons and used tissues rest on the floor as if they were the ashes of last night’s party. “ È stata comunque una festa” [It has been a party anyway] recites the festoon. This artwork results from a fictional dialog between the artist and the gigolo pictured on the song “Tremilalire”, written in 1977 by homosexual artist and songwriter Alfredo Cohen. His life has been a party, tells Cohen-gigolo, while sitting on a outskirts’ movie theatre. It has been a party anyway, in spite of the marginalisation, the stigmatisation, the aggressions and the violence which have always marked individuals who exist outside the heteronormativity. That is “the other patrimony” the one outside official history, which Valerio Torrisi intends to celebrate with this artwork.

Valerio Eliogabalo Torrisi, Another patrimony. Exhibition views from LAVAPIU, Teramo 2022 © Celeste.