Alcove – Dialoghi sulla scultura

ALCOVE – Dialogues on Sculpture is a two-venue exhibition project conceived by artist Alberto Timossi for the underground space of his new studio, “Specus – Studio for Contemporary Art.” Curated by Ilaria Monti, with a critical contribution by Davide Silvioli (art historian, researcher, and lecturer at the University of Rome Tor Vergata), the exhibition presents works by Arianna De Nicola (Rome, 1986), Paolo Garau (Rome, 1975), Meletios Meletiou (Lemesos, Cyprus, 1989), and Graziano Pompili (Fiume, 1943), some of which have been created in direct response to the site and its surrounding landscape.
The event marks the public opening of Specus – Studio for Contemporary Art, the second studio of sculptor Alberto Timossi, who, while maintaining his base in Rome, has chosen to relocate part of his practice to Cori. Located in the town’s historic center, the studio occupies spaces that once served as a wine cellar and storage grotto. Its new function as a place for artistic research and exchange connects the artist’s personal and family memories with the architectural and material heritage of the area, as well as with the physical and conceptual processes of sculpture — building a bridge between history, territory, and contemporary art.
Inside the grotto, visitors are invited to experience the raw materiality of rock and sculpture, in a dialogue between natural and artificial surfaces, between environment and technique. From the depths of Specus, the exhibition extends to the upper loggia of the Museum of the City and Territory, establishing a dialogue between two contrasting dimensions: the underground and the sky, darkness and light, intimacy and openness. Among the 27 carved capitals of the loggia in the Monumental Complex of Sant’Oliva, the artworks engage with the centuries-old history of Cori, weaving connections — both direct and symbolic — between the sacred and the profane, the natural and urban landscape, and the transitions between epochs, from antiquity to the present day.
ALCOVE inaugurates a new cycle of dialogues on sculpture and place, and will be accompanied by a catalogue, to be presented on November 9, 2025, at the Museum of Cori on the occasion of the exhibition’s finissage.
The project, under the patronage of the Municipality of Cori, is realized with the support of the INPS PSMSAD Fund, in collaboration with the Polygonal and Arcadia associations, and with Guendalina Viani, Director of the Museum of the City and Territory of Cori.