Claudio Costa

This is the first book dedicated to the entire artistic work of Claudio Costa, not a catalog raisonné but the start of a complex and systematic work on the work of one of the most sensitive protagonists of Italian contemporary art of the second half of the 20th century. A complex artist, with profound interests in cultural anthropology, alchemical secrets, chemical processes, philosophical, poetic and literary studies.

Protagonist of one of the most shocking seasons of contemporary art, present at major international events such as Documenta in Kassel in 1977 or at the Venice Biennale in 1986 and 1990, he established relationships with the most significant contemporary artists, conceiving and creating in 1992 the " Active Museum of Unconscious Forms” inside the Genoa Quarto psychiatric hospital. Claudio Costa reactivates the magical liturgy of the shaman-artist who plants his own saving totem and adorns it with fears and horrors that must be welcomed, embraced, to then be overcome. For the artist, art represents the magic of redemption, the reassuring place that is not afraid of exhibiting monsters, that knows how to calm nightmares.