Borgo Museo | Sculture 1976 – 2004

Biography

The engineer-artist Carlo Damerini was born in Rome in 1921, but has been living in Florence since 1931. Former naval officer he graduated in civil engineering in 1949, to then begin his profession in the studio of a well-known Florentine architect, Giovanni Michelucci. He then continues his work as a freelancer taking care in particular of projects for bridges, viaducts and roads. In 1953 he won the national competition for the Officine F.lli Lazzi in Florence in which he used prestressed reinforced concrete for the first time in the city, thus distinguishing himself for his search for increasingly advanced techniques. Parallel to his work as an engineer, he produces numerous sculptural works, some of which have been placed in public locations, such as the bronze Christ in Pistoia and the sculpture-fountain in Florence. In 1983 he was awarded the art medal at the Biennale.

Philosophy

Influenced by his career as a civil engineer, Carlo Damerini figures himself as a man completely absorbed by the rigor of mathematical calculations… which are however lacking in his work as a painter and sculptor. In his painting works, we find country landscapes, where bricks, concrete and stone are recurring elements and recall his first profession. But looking more closely at his works, especially his sculptures, one also feels the relief of those who, pressed in everyday life by the rigidity of their profession and the rules of mathematics, free themselves and abandon themselves to the imagination.

Artwork in Castagno

Damerini’s work in the Borgo Museum is the Christ of the Masons. In the sculpture you can see how the artist goes beyond the measures and proportions that characterise his work. In fact, the figure of Christ, with a particularly long, very thin and slender body, appears to be disproportionate. Here too we see how art has allowed him to leave the world of rules and conventions. Art is an act of free expression, of freedom.