Installation Artist Maurizio Ruggiano

Some artists work with clay, others with watercolors. Many use spray paint cans and empty urban landscapes, while others busy themselves with pastels. And, as we’ve now learned, there are some artists whose medium consists of discarded junk found on street corners. Maurizio Ruggiano belongs to the latter group, and we had the chance to visit him in his tastefully cluttered apartment in La Kalsa.

One man’s trash is another’s treasure; a well-known maxim which is visually appreciable in Maurizio’s living space. With an attuned eye, Maurizio scouts the plentiful trash heaps of Palermo for his treasures, which he then worked into art. Broken plastic toys join items decidedly less cute, such as petrified cat corpses, in a surreal collection which extends throughout the apartment.

Maurizio also uses photography and odd contraptions in his work; I suppose his medium can best be defined as “ideas”. The finished pieces are often introspective in nature, with a lot of religious imagery (though he’s not religious himself). He was excited to tell us about an upcoming project which would be mounted in the Oratorio di San Lorenzo. Taking inspiration from Hinduism, Maurizio intends to display a project he’s been working on for over a decade, and let it be slowly destroyed by the sun.

Walking back to our apartment after meeting Maurizio, I caught myself eyeing a junk pile, wondering if I’d be able to spot something worth collecting. Gingerly poking at the mess, I found a circular piece of colored glass and was just about to snatch it up, before realizing it was partly covered in shit. Hmm. Best leave the trash-picking to the experts.