The Girl and the Tree
mixed media
92 cm x 71 cm
2008

In Valerio Berruti’s works – drawings, sculptures and installations – children’s figures are represented in a simplified manner and evoke a nostalgic feeling of peace but also some awkward uncertainties that childhood, from an adult perspective, brings. Berruti’s figures of children are not determined in terms of time or space; they give the artist the freedom to “play” with primordial themes and philosophical questions.

Beruti’s work reveals his interest in childhood as an art object and his preoccupation with the simplicity of lines. He represents the collective imagination where these children become metaphors in which everyone can recognize themselves. The child depicted by the artist’s perfected and seemingly “hard” lines leads us to more complex structures of meaning, associations and feelings. Beruti’s lines convey purity, innocence, fragility, vulnerability and nostalgia.

© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, the October Salon Collection and the artist
Purchase Contract: Legal basis: purchase from the City of Belgrade Competition, the Mayor’s Conclusion No. 6-1382/09-G – 12.9.2009.
Inventory No. 212
Photo: 

Selected Bibliography:
48th October Salon, Micro-Narratives. Cultural Centre of Belgrade, 2007
Valerio Berruti: Suviše je svetla da ne bismo verovali u svetlo, catalogue of the solo exhibition, text by Zorana Đaković Minniti, Cultural Centre of Belgrade, 2011

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Valerio Berruti (1977, Alba, Piedmont, Italy) graduated in art criticism from DAMS in Turin. His works have been presented at many important exhibitions and are part of museum collections, including the National Museum of 21st Century Art MAXXI; in 2009 he was the youngest artist at the 53rd Venice Biennale; participated in the Japanese Kizuna Project – one of the most significant humanitarian projects that helped the reconstruction of Japan after the earthquake in 2012; won the international Luci d’Artista Award, etc. He lives and works in Verduno, near Cuneo, in a deconsecrated 17th-century church, which he bought and restored in 1995.

More information at www.valerioberruti.com