secular sainthood, image-worship, and the liturgy of desire In this panel, Coco Chanel does not appear merely as a historical figure, nor simply as a fashion icon: she appears as an object of devotion. That is where the work draws its true force. Filippo Riniolo does
This contemporary icon is a radical act of translation — and resistance. The artist summons a centuries-old image — the Pietà, the Mother cradling her dead Son — and transposes it into the present, entwining it with ongoing genocide and the obscene reality of lifeless children’s
In the Archive Icons project, Filippo Riniolo pays homage to emblematic female figures, including Carla Accardi and Giosetta Fioroni, who have played a pivotal role in the radical reworking of twentieth-century art. Through their transformation into icons, Riniolo explores their symbolic value, attributing to them
The artist’s intention is to underline the connection between what took place at Nicaea in AD 800 and what, in our own day, characterises the use of images in Western culture. The ascendancy of the image over the word, and the representation of the divine