free horses / Luigi Pirastu

The exhibition “Free Horses” by Luigi Pirastu is presented in the Aquabit Gallery in Berlin during the 13th edition of Berlin Art Week from September 11 to 15, 2024. This unique showcase explores alternative visions of equestrian sculpture, featuring Pirastu’s innovative “sculptural installations“.

Luigi Pirastu (Cagliari, 1966), architect and sculptor, is an artist renowned for his ability to blend tradition with innovation. His education in architecture at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura (IUAV) in Venice and his international experiences have enriched his artistic approach, allowing him to develop a unique perspective in the visual arts. Pirastu began his career as a set designer in prestigious venues such as the Corderie dell’Arsenale in Venice and the Italian Trade Center in London, also collaborating with the renowned Catalan artist Antoni Miralda for the Spain Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. His extensive on-site experience enabled him to acquire broader technical and artistic skills, which are clearly reflected in his works, allowing him to mix and merge diverse techniques.

In recent years, Pirastu has primarily focused on sculpture, developing two distinct themes: one centered on stone horses and another more provocative theme represented by fish made of composite materials. His latest project, “Free Horses,” now presented in Berlin, showcases a sculptural work that investigates novel perspectives on the horse figure.

His representations of horses are linear and archaic, stylized and sketched: formally, they evoke stones polished by nature. The animal transcends reality to act, play, and fly, embodying a sense of freedom and joy. Pirastu does not seek the precise anatomy of the horse but focuses on the gesture, often unnatural, which becomes predominant in his works. Each horse is sculpted in the round and stands on a base, often allowing (though not for all sculptures, such as the foetus and flights) to be handled, creating a tactile interaction.

The artist describes his works as “sculptural installations“, a definition that reflects the hybrid nature of his creations. Pirastu steps outside rigid artistic classifications and celebrates a more fluid world that allows for greater expressive freedom. His horses, in this sense, are freer than the categorizations society imposes.

Pirastu’s sculptural installations feature fascinating technical details: meadows with green fiber optic inserts, plexiglass supports illuminated by customized LEDs that highlight the flights and dives of the horses. In the flights, the support sheet is deformed into a circle to symbolize the breaking of the sound barrier. A particularly evocative work depicts a foal fetus, with the support carved to recall the embryonic sac. The bases of the sculptures, of varying heights, are cylindrical columns that contain the technological part and change color, metal, and patina depending on the subject.

The final result is an allegorical and surreal work, a hymn to freedom and the possibility of achieving what seems impossible. Each horse is a unique piece, reflecting Pirastu’s incredible ability to blend art, design, and technology to create profound and meaningful visual and tactile experiences.

We live in an increasingly fluid world, a context that challenges the sharp categorizations of artistic and identity expressions. In this sense, the artist’s horses are symbols of a freedom that transcends our daily limitations. They express a vitality that seems to escape our definitions, and they break free by acting, playing, flying, and omitting, going against the current and their own limits.

The idea of kairos, the moment of opportunity and transformation, is embodied in these works. Each horse, in its stylized form, captures a moment of pure possibility, an instant in which reality can be rewritten. This unnatural dynamism breaks the conventions of traditional sculpture and challenges us to see beyond the boundaries of the real, inviting us to explore the infinite potential of life and our existence. Through the symbol of the horse, they lead us on a journey that exalts the power of creativity and the beauty of freedom. These horses show us a world where the joy of the artistic gesture can break the chains of reality and lead to new dimensions of expression and meaning. His works are an invitation to see the world with new eyes, to discover the dynamism and vitality hidden behind the simplicity of forms, and to rediscover the joy of a free and creative gesture. An invitation not to be afraid of doing what we believe to be impossible.