Antoine PIERINI created the series of work « Contemporary Vestiges / Vestiges Contemporains » to question our relationship to the Mediterranean Cultural heritage, a foundation to our societies with a universal impact.
This series of works includes « amphoras and jars » and the installation titled « the warrior ».
The amphora is a Mediterranean object by excellence : made out of clay, they were used during Antiquity to carry liquids and other more or less exotic products from one side of the Mediterranean to the other.
Tracing the history of its movements and distribution evokes the lifestyle of all the people and civilisations who, for thousands of years, contributed to shape and feed into our identity. It also questions our relationship to what the Greek, and then the Romans, called Mare Nostrum.
Since the dawn of time, this sea allowed goods and people to travel, whatever shores they were from.
The word « amphora » in itself resonates in powerful and diverse ways : the words « travel », « exchange », « bounds », « sharing », « transmission » come to mind. The amphora is the concrete materialization of these ideas, which is why it has been chosen by Antoine Pierini as the flagship of this series.
Are these words still topical in a contemporary society which sometimes grants more value to the ephemeral rather than to the durable?
This is one of the issues which Antoine Pierini addresses with « Contemporary Vestiges /Vestiges Contemporains ».