Artist

Concept

Artworks
T
PROJEC
019 > TOTEM Public Art - Special Projects
ngan 2017-2
ndro Po
Alessa Exhibitions

Reviews

“With Totem I have created ex-votos, idols or altars that seem accumulate mysterious energies. They were
born to exorcise my inner demons, but then they reach a balance between gravity and lightness, between
tragedy and irony of life, creating a storytelling of resilience.
The scale is changeable, a rhythm that ranges from the smallest to the gigantic, the shapes are statuary
subjects or they pervade the space becoming a container. From that universe, ancestral and enigmatic
forms, that I am still exploring, have also sprung from surgical sectioning, if we may say so.”
ARTIST

Alessandro Pongan was born in La Spezia, Italy, in 1963. Due to the moves of
his father, an engineer, he grew up in many different cities and countries. From
1974 to 1981 he lived in Milan and Brazil, at Volta Redonda, in the inland zone
near Rio de Janeiro, and in Vitória, the capital of the state of Espírito Santo, a
city surrounded by the Atlantic. In Vitória he completed his high school studies
that began in Milan, taking a diploma in scientific studies. The period spent in
South America has left its mark, in the form of a joyful, open perspective on life.
After returning to Milan, he went to the Scuola Politecnica di Design of Nino Di
Salvatore, where he graduated in 1983 in Visual Design. His teachers includ-
ed Heinz Waibl, Attilio Marcolli and Bruno Munari, who entered the classroom
pronouncing phrases like “the tree is the very slow explosion of a seed” or “it
should be understood that as long as art remains extraneous to the problems
of life, it will interest only a few people.”
After working freelance for a few years, in 1988 he founded the visual design
studio Officina Design in Milan, which still operates today. In 1993-1994 he
spent long periods in Athens as an art director and set designer of television
programs for Ant1, a private national broadcasting network.
Thanks to these professional experiences, he was able to deeply explore the
fields of graphic design, television, set design, computer animation, video pro-
duction, web communications and installations, always making the force of de-
sign the central feature of his work.
His imagery is clear, confident, pithy and filmic. Latin passion combined with
Nordic rationalism. This attraction to the north led him to the artistic and pro-
fessional encounter with the Danish designer Hans Thyge, with whom he has
done many projects, including the interactive section for children, “the World of
Glass” in the Glasmuseet of Ebeltoft.
The list of companies for which he has worked during almost three decades of
career is a long one, among many others, Fiat, AlfaRomeo, Lamborghini, Ma-
serati... In 2015 he did the exhibit installations for the New Holland-Fiat Pavilion
at Expo Milano 2015; he directed a television advertisement for the famous
design brand Alessi using 3D techniques, and did the set design and artistic
direction for the prize ceremony of the Sport Media Pearl Awards in Abu Dhabi.
In 2019 he created the design concept for to the Azerbaijan pavilion for Expo 2020.
 CONCEPT

The work of Alessandro Pongan is organized around a

central character: the Prono (prone, procumbent). We are
faced with the invention of a contemporary archetype that to
some extent establishes a dialogue with the Vitruvian Man
drawn by Leonardo. The Prono is a character represented
in different contexts, languages and formats, without ever
losing his identity, even when joined by a series of collateral
factors and figures. He is solid, geometric, archaic and pop
at the same time. He resonates with overtones of the stat-
ues of Easter Island, of Mayan and Aztec imagery, but also
Japanese manga and UFO-robots, graffiti and comics. He
spreads tangible spiritual energy, a sense of mystery and
pursuit of the meaning of existence. Like many archetypes,
he has a dual nature. On all fours, a sign of sacrifice and
subjugation, the typical posture of the oppressed. But at the
same time an accumulator of energy. In the massive body,
we sense the tension of a sprinter at the starting blocks.
A creature utterly alert, waiting for the signal to leap for-
ward. To break free of any constraints, any inhibition.It is
no coincidence that Prono reminds us of another mytholog-
ical figure: Cronos, the Titan son of Uranus (sky) and Gaia
(earth). Prono is the symbol of the potential redemption that
lies within us. He bows on the ground, but gazes forward.
Beyond the horizon.

The artist’s creative process is conceptualized and shaped

in a digital environment before reaching the physical world.
This duality will allow his artworks to land on NFTs plat-
forms very soon.
 ARTWORKS
Totem includes works ranging from
small to monumental. The research
operates a virtuous short circuit be-
tween ancient techniques, such as
lost wax bronze casting, and modern
techniques such as 3D printing. The
materials are mostly natural; bronze,
aluminum, steel, stone, wood, plaster,
ceramic, sand, sometimes polistirene,
nylon, PVC inflatables, led panels
In some cases the works are integrat-
ed or accompanied by video projec-
tions with motion graphics created by
the artist.
The artist’s production includes unique
works as well as limited series of
sculptures, installations, two-three di-
mensional wall-mounted artworks and
serigraphs.
Prono Totem

Bronze.lost wax casting, red patina.

dimensions: cm 34x44xH25

Diploma d’Onore al Premio Arte 2018

Cairo Editore.
 Prono Flux

3D print, study model for a monumantal work

dimensions: cm 24x33xH18

Prono Structure

3D print, study model for a monumantal work

dimensions: cm 30x40xH22

Collective exhibition “Relazioni Estetiche”,

Reggia di Caserta (NA) 2018.
 Human Fabric - Triptych

Serigraphy on metal discs

dimensions: Ø cm 90

Prono Strata

Layered polychrome plaster, series

dimensions: cm 15x20xH21
Brain Drain

Hanging sculpture. 3D print, video projection

dimensions: cm 30x30xH28
Brain Drain Tales

series
wood/plaster bas-reliefs
dimensions cm 70x70

Brain Drain Tales

series, ceramic - paint

dimensions cm 80x80
 Totem

Stainless steel
cm 138x60xH230

Prono Gigantino

High density polystyrene, resin, metallic coating

dimensions: cm 220x284xH160
Exhibited in “Contexto 2017”, Edolo (BS)
Prono support

Black-oxide steel, oxidized steel

Dimensions: cm 40x65xH40

Prono Resistenza

red lava stone gabions

Dimensions: cm 176x231xH120
Prono Despite Everything

Sand concretion, send bed.

Installatio dimension: 150x150xH37

Yes Man

Bronze, lost wax casting

dimensions: cm 8,5x9,5xH12
PUBLIC ART - SPECIAL PROJECTS
Totem has a strong vocation of public
art and the aim of establishing a dia-
logue with open spaces. Sometimes
it aims to create the identity of a place
thanks to a work of art as did happen
with the installation of the Prono Gi-
gantino at Parco Balossa, Parco Nord
Milano.
Totem wants to contaminate with its
simple, potent language and strong
spiritual matter natural environments
as well as urban spaces with special
interest in urban renewal. A creative
fecundation that restores life and
creative ferment to decayed areas
or abandoned public and private re-
sources.

Prono Gigantino Balossa
Winner of the Parco Balossa Art Prize
2018, Curated by Casa Testori in col-
laboration with Parco Nord Milano and
the municipalities of Novate Milanese,
Cormano and Balossa Farm.
Inaugurated in september 2018, the
sculpture is part of a permanent art
itinerary in the public park.
Metal Structure - Innocenti Tubes and
welded mesh. Parthenocissus quin-
quefolia plants. cm 400x550xH300
Arte Balossa Prize
Public Permanent Installation
Parco Nord Milano Milano, Italy
“Parco Balossa is a piece of nature
that strenuously resisted building as-
sault in Milan, Italy. The installation
consists in an anthropomorphic land-
mark, symbol of resilience, a guard-
ian inspired by the Parco dei Mostri
of Bomarzo, the mysterious giants
of Isla de Pascua, and the Japanese
UFO-Robots. A gentle giant, and a
refuge for birds, the Prono.
The work is composed by a structure
of recycled Innocenti tubes and joints.
Innocenti tubes are commonly used
in the construction sites od buildins.
Twenty plants of “Parthenocissus Tri-
cuspidata” will cover the metallic part
over time; the nature that takes pos-
session of human artifacts. The plant
species was chosen for its chromatic
properties as it changes color follow-
ing the course of the seasons, and
due to its rustic characteristics. The
Prono, is an archetype that recurs in
Alessandro Pongan’s work and that
helps him to tell stories. In this case,
its four-legged position also echoes
the first movements of babies, as hu-
man society is taking its first steps
towards a more conscientious use of
Earth’s resources.
A wish for a new conscience of man
on the natural ambient exploitation”.
The Red Giant

LAGI, Land Art Generator art/design

international competition 2019.
Alessandro Pongan’s Red Giant project
was selected to be published in the book
Return ti the Source launched in January
2020 and edited by Penguin Random
House.

“Renewable energy can be beautiful” .

The Land Art Generator Initiative is one
of the world’s most exciting design com-
petitions and for its 2019 challenge, en-
trants from around the world were asked
to create a renewable energy-producing
artwork for the UAE’s Masdar City in Abu
Dhabi. The winning designs are profiled
in this generously illustrated volume.
Each work demonstrates the aesthetic
possibilities of renewable energy infra-
structures. Capturing energy from nature
and then converting it into power, these
designs provide more than clean elec-
tricity to the city’s residents. They also
offer space for recreation and contem-
plation, while challenging our assump-
tions about ecological systems, resource
generation, consumption, energy stor-
age, and climate change solutions. Best
of all, they illustrate the possibilities of
living well in a post-carbon future.

La Salamandra represents a flow that
springs from the building of the Mu-
seum and invades the external envi-
ronment taking animal form, therefore
a creative force alive from inside to
outside to contaminate the city and
stimulate the public. The form is inten-
tionally “not closed”, it is in growing
progression, a set of plastic forms in
movement that describe the changing
dynamism of artistic creation and cre-
ative expression. A shape in transfor-
mation and in a continuous tension.
The work is site-specific. The artist
has carefully considered the morphol-
ogy of the place characterized by high
volumes, which are wedged rhythmi-
cally between them, and by the strong
presence of a large tree at the center
of the scene. This vertical presence,
at the center of a jagged architectur-
al loop, invited to interpret the space
horizontally. Thus the linear forms
seem to arrive from the cover of the
museum descending to the ground
with sinuous volutes.
The orange color, symbol of inner
harmony and artistic creativity, adds a
chromatic vibration to already strongly
dynamic forms. The tubes themselves
La Salamandra
Museum Franklin Rowson interna-
tional art competition, 2019.
Project for a permanent outdoor sculp-
ture at the entrance of the museum.
Carbon steel tubes.
Dimensions: cm 600 x 1400 x H 890
Weight approx 5.900 Kg
carry the meaning of conducting val-
uable content, such as water or sub-
stances like energy sources, and, on
the contrary, can also be used for
drains. So the sculpture becomes
a conductor of ideas, of inspiring
thought in both direction, from inside
to outside and from outside to inside.
It is a metaphor for the vocation of a
contemporary art museum.
The shape is reminiscent of an indus-
trial plant, of production or refining,
and refers to the factory, in this case a
cultural factory.
EXHIBITIONS
Totem project is a young and con-
stantly evolving reality, an artistic pro-
ject born in Milan in 2017, a work in
progress that is growing as you read
these pages.

Despite his youth, Totem project has

already gained the attention of some
organizations in the artistic field as
well as important brands that have
commissioned the exhibition of the
works for important events.

The exhibition Capsules of confine-
“Everyday I go out wearing a mask to go to my studio one kilometer from home in Milan. I walk completely
ment: art and pandemic in Catalonia
empty streets, around me bouldings line the street and, in perspective, other distant buildings. People are is the consequence of the virtual pro-
locked in their homes. It is as if humanity were now one with their houses. Giants enduring in silence”. ject Capsules of confinement that,
from the Vila Casas Foundation, we
promoted when the state of alarm was
decreed and the consequent confine-
ment sine die.
Given the exceptional nature of what
was being lived, this collective pro-
ject arose in order to see how artists
lived the experience of confinement
and how it all affected their creative
processes. The intention was to col-
lect a series of written and visual tes-
timonies during the days that the con-
finement lasted: a period of uncertain
Prono Block 67-68, digital collage duration that ended up lasting two and
a half months, but that in the case of
many museums translated into three
months. . This explains the exact
hundred ‘capsules’ gathered in this
exhibition, as well as their transgener-
ational, eclectic and multidisciplinary
nature.
Once the museums reopened, we
realized their potential and decid-
ed to make an exhibition that would
bring together a work by each of the
100 artists participating in the initial
virtual proposal with the aim that the
exhibition reflected or ‘encapsulated’
the ‘experience of confinement from
a great multiplicity of voices, registers
and perspectives.
Càpsules de Confinament
Fundaciò Vila Casas
Museu Can Framis, Barcelona
Collective exhibition curated by
Alez Susanna, Mercè Vila Rigat.
October 2020 / Jenuary 2021
Capsules of confinement: art and
pandemic in Catalonia is therefore
an x-ray of the panorama of art that
is being made in our country, but we
sense that the interest of this project
transcends the purely artistic: when
someone wants to know how it goes
impacting the experience of confine-
ment on artists in Catalonia will have
to resort to these ‘capsules’ and this is
what has led us to transform them into
an exhibition.
Premio Arte 2018

2018 Milano, Italy

Palazzo Reale di Milano

Diploma of Honor as Finalist in

“PREMIIO ARTE 2018”, annual award
curated by Cairo Editore.
Exhibited in the finalists collective at
Palazzo Reale Milano, November 2018.
Published in Catalogo dell’Arte Moder-
na, Giiorgio Mondadori 2018.
Bronze, lost wax casting, red patina.
Dimensions: cm 33x43xH25

In the imposing scenario of historical immensity that hosts
this exhibition, the works of contemporary artists have
a particular prominence as they are extraneous to the
rooms. This creates an apparent visual conflict which at
the same time leads us to a temporal amalgam effect that
transports us out of time. As Mircea Eliade writes, “The
institution of a sacred space where a mythical scene out
of time is relived in the present, is man’s archetypal re-
sponse to his terror of history, of becoming and of disso-
lution in multiplicity”. The eternal return to the same safe
cognitive sphere, both as an exorcism to the throbbing
universe that artists invoke and celebrate, and as a ref-
Relazioni Estetiche
2018 Caserta (NA), Italy
Reggia di Caserta
Collective exhibition curated by
Massimo Scaringella,
preduction Villam Art.
november / december 2018
uge before the dizzying pace of a universal tide, make that
space seem closer and more recognizable to our ineffable
humanity.
This temporal synthesis is the reason why the works cho-
sen for this visual experience are all specially chosen by the
artists as “site specific”, outlining an adventurous and sur-
prising cultural journey in which the juxtaposition of points of
view, sometimes radically different, manages to unraveling
the plot of a polyphonic narrative, an echo of the world to
come as a result of the intersection of the vectors of the
most precious past with those of the contemporary world.
Contexto 2017

Edolo (BS), Italy

July / September 2017

Rock, river, valley, pass, village,

house: ART.
Fourth edition of Contexto, the con-
temporary art event that invades the
city of Edolo (BS).
Under the artistic direction of Casa
Testori, curated by Davide Dall’Om-
bra, the exhibition questions the
GENERATIONS, intended as a place
of witness passages, of cultural herit-
age that are handed down, but also as
acts that give life to something new. ,
beautiful and useful for everyone.
The heart of the city opens on the
ground floor of one of the most beau-
tiful buildings in Edolo, between the
Via and the Corte Mottinelli. 12 artists
of three generations, with painting,
drawing, video art, sculpture and in-
stallation, provide an insight into cur-
rent artistic production. But there are
plenty of surprises for three special
projects (At the Liberty building near
the train station, at the Library, ex
Casa del Fascio and at the old pris-
ons), to finish with two environmental
works: near the Town Hall and the
Church.
 Art Rights Prize 2020

Finalist in Digital Art Section-

The three works presented in the artis-
tic competition were selected among
the finalists in the Digital Art category
and exhibited in the virtual exhibition.
Despite Everything is a sculpture born in a digital environ-
ment through 3D modeling techniques. The fisical sculpture
was then created through experimental 3D printing tech-
niques in a solid concretion of sand.

Brain Drain Tales is a journey inside the Brain Drain sculp-

ture that I had already made. One day I wondered what
mysteries that shape contained, so I decided to carry out
a sort of surgical investigation, a progressive three-dimen-
sional CT scan of the brain. A sequence of arcane and at-
avistic forms has arisen. It is as if, through my gesture of
modeling a solid form, I had captured and revealed invisi-
ble shapes that already lived in empty space. Each shape
appears charged with expressive power and mysterious
meaning as virtual tags.

Prono Block 67-68 is a small poem for images that fixes

a crucial moment in our times, the resilient life during the
social distancing imposed by the pandemic.
“Everyday I go out wearing a mask to go to my studio one
kilometer from home in Milan. I walk completely empty
streets, around me bouldings line the street and, in per-
spective, other distant buildings. People are locked in their
homes. It is as if humanity were now one with their houses.
Silent giants enduring in silence”.
The imaginary building is the result of a digital collage based
on two photos I found on Instagram. I contacted the author
of the photos who allowed me to use them for the creation
of the works that make up the diptych. I chose the diptych
shape to give the impression of random shots taken during
a walk in the city.
Timeless

2019 Milano, Italy

Centri Porsche MIlano

The exhibition was commissioned by

Centri Porsche MIlano in occasion of
launch of the new 91, flagshipo car of
the brand.
The exhibition covered 25 pieces and
took place in the huge headquorter of
North Milan for an audience of over a
thousand people.
What’S Next?

2017 Milano, Italy

Exhibition commissioned by Nexi on
the occasion of the launch of the new
brand.
Pongan is an old-school artist and, at the same time, the
REVIEWS
most contemporary kind of professional. Every work is
the necessary and unpredictable interpretation of the ar-
chetypal theme he has developed in hours of maceration
and ideation, immediately translated into rigorous design
and implementation.
It would be inappropriate to divide the two aspects, the
ideation – so dense in anthropological, philosophical and
historical meanings, all together – and the project, made
of hours of freehand drawing, exchanges and close col-
laboration with 3D printing workshops and craftsmen
versed in ancient casting techniques.
The process takes on modernity precisely in its imple-
mentation as a whole, its blossoming in the contempo-
rary material, its extraordinary ability to ride the multiple
technological possibilities of the present, giving rise to
the everlasting thought of these sculptures, which cross
time, immutable as their own longing.
Davide Dall’Ombra, Casa Testori
In the past, artists created a work.
Some artists repeated that same work over time, trans-
forming it into a stereotype, a cage of expression in which
they wound up losing their own identity. Alessandro Pon-
gan, on the other hand, has attempted to do the hardest
thing of all. Instead of making a single work of art, he has
pursued life and outlined a world that he is now popu-
lating with landscapes, visions and creatures, spanning
between matter and form.
He has not simply imagined its inhabitants; he first builds
them in his mind and then shapes them in 3D to endow
them with the breath of life. He has synthesized their DNA
and has now left it free to express itself and self-generate.
The spectator is thus on the front line, seemingly seated
by the side of God in the moment of creation; as if it had
been possible to plan and to see even before its imple-
mentation, the terracotta army of the Emperor Qin at Xi’an.
Alessandro Pongan is therefore not just a forerunner, but
also a “Creator.” After all, the word “creativity” comes from
the root KAR, and in Sanskrit “KAR-TR” is “he who makes”
(from nothing). Pongan is a poet, a utopian, an artisan, a
free non-artist without preconceived notions, who is mov-
ing the art industry into a new territory.
Alfredo Accatino
“Timeless”
In philosophy: regarding that which is independent of time
or does not refer to a definite moment in time.
In linguistics: the atemporal present, a particular aspec-
tual value assumed by the present tense when it refers to
an action as having eternal validity and universal applica-
bility.
Looking at the works of Alessandro Pongan, timeless is
the first adjective that comes to mind. His ancestral and at
the same time futuristic forms seem to cross an indefinite
time; their existence seems like something that has fallen
from an unexplored world. Yet they summon up and move
emotions inside me... a sensation of having known them
in other lives.
Alessandro: I have admired him for some time; I envy his
technological know-how and high-tech professionalism…
Yet... this time, opening his images, I cannot deny being
strongly struck. I closed and opened again... a number of
times. Then I saw…
Mysterious forms that can be very small and at the same
time become enormous, without changing their propor-
tions, without mutation.
Forms... abstract yet ready to be traced back to images
buried in our imagination... that can live and be in harmo-
ny with inner and outer spaces, ancient and very modern
contexts, that can be representative of many things... as-
sociated with a thousand human productions... becoming
the symbol and expression of many energies… TOTEMS.
Because in these sculptures nothing changes, nothing
gets becomes deformed, nothing gets lost, nothing mat-
ters...
Meteors... that have traveled in timeless spaces... per-
haps signals of the future which Alessandro, like a radar,
has been able to listen to... and finally capture, to bring
them to us... to then convey them for us in the context of
art... to pass them down, and who knows... maybe one
day to return them to their mystery.
Cinzia Manfredini, Aleart
WWW.TOTEM-PROJECT.IT
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e-mail a.pongan@me.com