Via Ferdinando Gregorovius 15
20162 Milano
Exhibition extended until January 14, 2026
MON-FRI 9:00-19:00
SAT-SUN CLOSED
(holiday hours from 24/12 to 6/1: Mon-Fri 9:00-15:00)
EXHIBITION:
Timeline: 1993–2025
The Drawn Life of Vedovamazzei
Curated by Irina Zucca Alessandrelli
1_TIMELINE 1993-2025. La vita disegnata dei Vedovamazzei
2_TIMELINE 1993-2025. La vita disegnata dei Vedovamazzei
3_TIMELINE 1993-2025. La vita disegnata dei Vedovamazzei
4_TIMELINE 1993-2025. La vita disegnata dei Vedovamazzei
6_TIMELINE 1993-2025. La vita disegnata dei Vedovamazzei
5_TIMELINE 1993-2025. La vita disegnata dei Vedovamazzei
2-Vedovamazzei
Timeline: 1993–2025
The Drawn Life of Vedovamazzei
Curated by Irina Zucca Alessandrelli
The artist duo Vedovamazzei, founded in 1991 and composed of Stella Scala and Simeone Crispino, has always looked around with curiosity and irony. To remember what struck them on TV, in the streets, or in newspapers, they used paper, colored pencils, and watercolors—not only because mobile phones didn’t exist at the time, but because drawing is above all a way of seeing. Those who draw are forced to observe details that escape the photographer, and while drawing, the gaze itself evolves. Since then, they have never stopped remembering and analyzing the surrounding world through drawing.
What they found special, interesting, appalling, tragic, obscure, painful, or unbelievable was drawn in their sketchbooks or on loose sheets. The subject of a drawing could be an imaginary Pinocchio comforting a distraught Mickey Mouse among torn tree trunks. Or they might portray the backs of their friends’ heads with their hairstyles meticulously rendered in graphite pencil, or an artist they met, such as Stefano Arienti. They draw everywhere: under a beach umbrella, while traveling, or at a desk in front of a newspaper, recording their daily life for more than thirty years. On their papers one may find the death of American artist Dash Snow, a portrait of Patti Smith in concert, Stella stepping out of the shower, friends on a deck chair, a pigeon at the window, a dead plant—their reality.
For the first time, the archive of their experiences, thoughts, and everyday events is being presented to the public at the Cittadella degli Archivi, the largest collection of paper documents in Milan’s history.
Outside the exhibition, their yellow neon from 2018 lights up the autumn sky of Niguarda. The work reproduces Boccioni’s signature as written by Marinetti on the occasion of the sale of a piece to the Municipality of Milan, a relic discovered in the Cittadella and transformed into an artwork by the duo.
VEDOVAMAZZEI is the artistic duo formed by Stella Scala (Naples, 1964) and Simeone Crispino (Naples, 1962), active since 1991 and based in Milan. Their practice merges two personalities into a single language, constantly evolving and experimenting across different media. They describe themselves as “desperately ironic” and confront ideologies and preconceptions with the aim of questioning identity and certainties. In their works, objects and images are reinterpreted, creating unexpected associations that allow reality to be seen from new perspectives.