Mario Ceroli: Progetto per la pace, 1968. Cardi Gallery, Art Basel 2024 Unlimited. Basel (Switzerland), June 13, 2024.

Official description: Originally conceived by Mario Ceroli in 1968, Progetto per la pace is among the artist’s largest and most powerful works of environmental sculpture. An expansive area of earth is covered with towering silk flags, each one measuring four meters in height, creating a visually striking monument that comes alive in the exhibition space. The plain, colorless flags offer a vision of peace that moves beyond national borders or idioms. The work has been historically exhibited in different site-responsive configurations, both outdoors and in institutional settings, inviting viewers into a rarefied space of openness, possibility, and dialogue. The result is an installation that is at once monumental and delicate, wavering between the peaceful assertion of the title and the underlying knowledge of human fallibility.

Mario Ceroli (born 1938 in Castel Frentano, Italy) is one of the major exponents of postwar Italian sculpture. Renowned for his mastery of different materials and mediums, in 1966 he was awarded the then prestigious Gollin Prize at the Venice Biennale. Ceroli lives and works in Rome.

Mixed-media installation: wood, silk, soil, hay, iron; 365 flags, 400 cm each; 16 flagpole holders, 25 × 100 × 100 cm; installation dimensions variable.

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