Lapis sapientium

Lapis sapientium (literally: “the stone of the wise” or philosopher’s stone) is the work that the artist Johannes Pfeiffer created specifically for the Casa del Pescatore in Punta Grò.

Commissioned by the Municipality of Sirmione on the occasion of the Back to PIETRA&Co. exhibition, the installation connects with the spirit of this special place which is the Fisherman’s House (Casa del Pescatore), recalling the ancient human activities that have shaped a space of great charm over the years historical and landscape.
The work makes present something that cannot be seen, but which is somehow still there. Hidden stories are recalled thanks to the artistic intervention which stimulates an intense dialogue between present and past.
And in its integration with the surrounding nature, the work opens up to further suggestions: the changing nature of reality, the search for an internal balance, the material/immaterial border of a suspended horizon.

The work is composed of a 14 meter ash trunk, a hand winch, a 25 meter steel cable and a river stone.

Architecture and space, time and transience, stone and light are the conceptual pairs that Johannes Pfeiffer explores with his sculpture, investigating relationships and opening an imaginary space in which existence and appearance merge.

This is how the artist describes his poetics:

“Through its vision, the mind’s eye fertilizes the space of creation, draws the perimeter of the form, the virtual space of the idea.
To concentrate, the eyes close, so that the images of the world do not interfere, do not dilute the idea or form that is being born.
The body participates by fixing its perceptions on the screen of the mind, waiting to make them sensitive material for construction”.

Johannes Pfeiffer was born in 1954 in Ulm, Germany. After graduating in Economics in 1980 he moved to Italy. He attended the Academies of Fine Arts in Rome and Carrara before dedicating himself to Land Art and environmental installations in 1985. In 1988 he moved to Turin. He begins to travel with increasing frequency to carry out art projects in Europe and around the world: Chile, South Korea, China, Germany, Spain, Kazakhstan, Peru.

The work is part of the itinerary:

Back to PIETRA&Co. Public art a Sirmione
(from Punta Grò to the Grottoes of Catullus)
June – October 2024

All the artworks by Back to Pietra & Co.