Per filo e per segno – 10/12. Dario Picariello

 Dario Picariello
Mi fece vuota la mancanza come terra dimenticata dal semente
2026
photographic tapestry printed on silk and satin, blue-back photographic paper, brass, terracotta
2 tapestries: 140 x 180 cm each
vase: 20 x 25 cm

From October 2nd to 29th, 2026, BUILDING BOX presents the tenth installment of the exhibition project Per filo e per segno. Percorsi di arte tessile in Italia with Mi fece vuota la mancanza come terra dimenticata dal semente (2026) by Dario Picariello (Avellino, 1991).

In this installation, conceived specifically for BUILDING BOX, thread becomes a medium through which to stitch together image, memory, word, and absence.

The work consists of a large environmental tapestry in which photography, silk, satin, embroidery, poster paper, and brass coexist with a terracotta vase.

The starting point is a vernacular photograph depicting a rocking chair and a vase of flowers on a small table: an anonymous image, like those preserved in family photo albums.

Picariello rescues it from anonymity and subjects it to a series of transformations, making it appear in different contexts: in black and white on transparent pink silk; on satin through a recoloring process that draws on ancient photographic techniques; and, finally, in relation to a third silk surface on which the work’s title appears embroidered, using the image’s negative printed on blueback paper.

The thread does not erase the separation but makes it visible, and as he himself explains, “the aim is to invite reflection on absence—not as a void, but as a place of sedimentation and transformation—in continuity with a practice that uses the image as a tool for exploring time, memory, and human experience.”

To embroider means to traverse a surface, piercing it in order to join it together. Each stitch thus contains a small wound and, at the same time, its repair. This ambivalence takes on a metaphorical significance: the thread attempts to recompose what time has separated, but precisely when it sews it back together, it makes the loss perceptible.

The work appears suspended as if it were a membrane: the ribbons, rings, and brass rods contribute to the visual composition, as does the transparency of the silk, which creates a progressive layering.

The terracotta vase placed at the bottom recalls that “earth forgotten by the seed” evoked by the title.

It is therefore evident that the upper part of the work is dominated by the lightness of the suspended fabric, while the lower part foreshadows the weight of the earth. Suspension and gravity, memory and matter thus become complementary poles within a single representation dominated by an inscription that frays, as if it were itself a fabric, becoming almost illegible.

The installation demonstrates how Picariello uses thread as the conceptual framework of the work, which, while connecting the elements to one another, does not restore them to their original unity. Memory represents a fluid and increasingly vulnerable dimension.

Mi fece vuota la mancanza come terra dimenticata dal semente  is an image in which the thread makes tangible the attempt to give form to the invisible. Absence thus becomes

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From January 15th 2026 to January 7th, 2027, BUILDING BOX presents Per filo e per segno. Percorsi di arte tessile in Italia, an exhibition project curated by Alberto Fiz involving twelve Italian artists from different generations, invited to reflect on the theme of contemporary textiles. Throughout 2026, the exhibition will offer a selection of tapestries, clothing, installations, sculptures and site-specific works in twelve individual monthly installations. The artists featured in the third quarter are Francesca Pasquali (Bologna, 1980), Franca Sonnino (Rome, 1932), Sissi (Bologna, 1977).

The last decade has been characterised by an increasing focus on textile art, which has established itself as one of the most vital languages of contemporary art. The reasons for this can be found, first and foremost, in its ability to restore a central role to the matter and the body in an era dominated by digital technology. Although the use of textiles is nothing new – just think of the fabrics of Fortunato Depero (1892-1960), the carpets of Giacomo Balla (1871-1958) or the tapestries of Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994) what has emerged is an unbiased, often provocative and transgressive process that has involved contemporary artists and, at the same time, has made it possible to highlight some central figures in art history, especially women, who have long been marginalised.

Furthermore, the uniqueness of textiles lies in how they have given rise to an autonomous language, with its own expressive matrix understood as a critical device capable of questioning all forms of hierarchy, according to a renewed awareness that can be traced back to the 2017 Venice Biennale, Viva Arte Viva, curated by Christine Macel, who had built her reflection starting precisely from textile art.

The exhibition project presented by BUILDING BOX aims to connect Italian artists from different generations by developing a fluid, all-encompassing journey that highlights the potential of a versatile, malleable and environmentally sustainable material, where tradition, memory and modernity intersect without rigid formalisation. At the same time, fibers, textures, knots and weaves become relational tools capable of redefining space and the relationship between individuals.

Per filo e per segno aims to make an innovative contribution to the debate on textile art, which on this occasion develops around different perspectives, offering a broader vision with the inclusion of a variety of works such as tapestries, clothing, installations, sculptures and site-specific works, many of which are new projects created specifically for this occasion, confirming how fabric is not only a technique but also an innovative approach to reality and image. Beyond the poetic and stylistic prerogatives, there is a unifying feature that can be traced throughout the exhibition, namely the intimate, in some ways autobiographical, aspect of the research, which is not without attention to the manual component, radically opposing the standardisation and dematerialisation of contemporary society. Per filo e per segno therefore aims to be a meticulous and detailed journey that contemplates the minimal unity of the textiles and the pattern that emerges when the threads are woven together. All this with the aim of generating a new plot through twelve chapters. The artists hosted during the first two quarters of the exhibition project were Numero Cromatico (an artistic collective founded in Rome in 2011), Paola Anziché (Milan, 1975), and Maurizio Donzelli (Brescia, 1958), Antonio Marras (Alghero, 1961), Maria Lai (1919-2013), Paola Pezzi (Brescia, 1963).