Laura Alunni and Alberto Burri — A Dialogue Across Time

Some artistic dialogues happen across time. Laura Alunni was born and works in Perugia; Alberto Burri was born in Città di Castello, a few kilometres away. They never met. Yet when Laura speaks about Burri, something shifts — the tone becomes that of someone addressing a neighbour, not a monument.

"Quando guardo i suoi sacchi, le combustioni, i cretti, penso: questo è il mio interlocutore più vicino, e allo stesso tempo il più lontano."

("When I look at his sacks, his combustions, his cretti, I think: this is my closest interlocutor, and at the same time the most distant.")

Close, because Burri also worked with wounded matter — and understood that beauty inhabits imperfection. Distant, because where Burri controlled destruction — the combustion was his, the moment of stopping was his — Laura does the opposite.

"Io farei l'opposto: prenderei una sua superficie e le toglierei il controllo. Lascerei che gli ossidanti agissero senza che nessuno decida quando fermarli."

("I would do the opposite: I would take one of his surfaces and remove the control from it. I would let the oxidants act without anyone deciding when to stop them.")

This is not provocation. It is the clearest statement of Laura's artistic philosophy: she does not control what happens — she controls the conditions in which something can happen. The oxidants, the wax, the worn fabrics are set in motion and then released. What emerges is always different from what was anticipated. Always.

Where Burri's Combustione is a precisely timed intervention — flame applied, flame stopped, result fixed — Laura's surfaces continue to evolve. Her works have no frame deliberately. A frame declares the process is over. Her process never ends.

"Non per correggerlo — per continuare un dialogo."

("Not to correct him — to continue a dialogue.")

That sentence contains an entire artistic ethics. Not correction, not homage, not influence — dialogue. Two artists, one territory, two opposite approaches to the same fundamental question: what happens when matter is allowed to follow its own logic?

Laura Alunni — Entropy series (2025, ongoing). Oxidants, wax and mixed media on canvas. Detail.