They say love conquers all, or, in the case of Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli’s latest artwork: 2000-odd years coupled with a painstakingly meticulous restoration process. Freshly unveiled at London’s Almine Rech Gallery, Eternal Kiss features a pair of ancient marble busts locked in a fictional embrace.
Vezzoli acquired the sculptures at auction and together with a team of archaeologists has restored the Roman portraits of a man (circa second century AD) and a woman (Imperial, Hadrianic, circa 117-138 AD) to their original state. Exploring notions of beauty and the artifact, Vezzoli takes on the role of surgeon as he nips and tucks his subjects, mending their broken features and imbuing them with new personas.
This show marks the Milan-based artist’s return to London following a nine-year absence (his last outing here, in stark contrast to Almine Rech Gallery’s intimate space, was held at the Tate Modern). ‘The exhibition will focus on the objects themselves. Eternal Kiss will become nothing less than the most ancient sculpture of a kiss in existence. It’s as simple – or as complicated – as that,’ muses Vezzoli.
So what next for the multifaceted artist? He’s directed a new film starring Cindy Sherman as an ageing diva, which will be unveiled next month in Greece as part of Rufus Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna.
Vezzoli explains: 'The main objective of Eternal Kiss is to use the process of aesthetic restoration to re-enact a fictional kiss from two thousand years ago.' Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech Gallery.
Eternal Kiss has, Vezzoli continues, two main aims: 'The first is to restore to the heads the notion that originally they were made to function as objects of desire; the second, and more ambitious, aim of the work is to create the most ancient sculpture of a kiss in existence.' Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech Gallery.
INFORMATION
’Eternal Kiss’ is on view until 3 October 2015
ADDRESS
Almine Rech Gallery
11 Savile Row
London W1S 3PG
-
Dior’s new Beverly Hills dining salon raises the bar for couture cuisineFrom Peter Marino’s onyx bar and faceted mirrored walls to Nicole Wittenberg’s vast, immersive botanical canvas, Dior’s first restaurant outside Paris is here
-
Inside the factory where your Birkenstocks are madePart high-tech laboratory, part artisanal workshop, the German factory straddles past and future. For Wallpaper*, Stuart Brumfitt takes a rare tour
-
Nathalie Du Pasquier, Peter Shire and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon create exclusive artworks for Riso ClubGlasgow print studio Risotto celebrates the 100th issue of its monthly Riso Club – a hand-printed, hand-posted subscription that has grown from a small artist exchange into a global community
-
Jean-Michel Othoniel takes over Avignon for his biggest ever exhibitionOriginally approached by Avignon to mark their 25th anniversary as the European Capital of Culture, Jean-Michel Othoniel more than rose to the challenge, installing 270 artworks around the city
-
Rolf Sachs’ largest exhibition to date, ‘Be-rühren’, is a playful study of touchA collection of over 150 of Rolf Sachs’ works speaks to his preoccupation with transforming everyday objects to create art that is sensory – both emotionally and physically
-
Joel Quayson’s winning work for Dior Beauty at Arles considers the theme ‘Face-to-Face’ – watch it hereQuayson, who has won the 2025 Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents at Arles, imbues his winning work with a raw intimacy
-
Architect Erin Besler is reframing the American tradition of barn raisingAt Art Omi sculpture and architecture park, NY, Besler turns barn raising into an inclusive project that challenges conventional notions of architecture
-
What to see at Rencontres d’Arles 2025, questioning power structures in the state and familySuppressed memories resurface in sharply considered photography at Rencontres d'Arles 2025. Here are some standout photographers to see
-
‘With a small gesture of buying a postcard, we all become copyists’: the Louvre’s celebration of copying speaks to human natureContemporary artists are invited to copy works from the Louvre in a celebration of the copyist’s art, a collaboration with Centre Pompidou-Metz
-
What is recycling good for, asks Mika Rottenberg at Hauser & Wirth MenorcaUS-based artist Mika Rottenberg rethinks the possibilities of rubbish in a colourful exhibition, spanning films, drawings and eerily anthropomorphic lamps
-
San Francisco’s controversial monument, the Vaillancourt Fountain, could be facing demolitionThe brutalist fountain is conspicuously absent from renders showing a redeveloped Embarcadero Plaza and people are unhappy about it, including the structure’s 95-year-old designer
