CYGNUS is a durational artwork created over a three-month period while I travelled across North America from Los Angeles to Boston and overseas to Rome.  The title is Latin for swan (or figuratively poet) and also refers to the Cygnus constellation in the summer sky.

 

The project mirrors the reverse pattern that my family migrated from Italy to America and includes my travels to twelve US states from the west to east coast. The pilgrimage was articulated by folding origami swans that I made from maps of the cities I visited and from printed images provided by my family and friends.

 

My residency culminates with this c.re.t.a.rome exhibition of all of the origami and includes the black sands from the shores of Lago di Bracciano, a volcanic lake in Rome that is frequented by swans in the summertime. The epic journey of CYGNUS draws inspiration from the classical Italian heroic characters of Virgil’s Aeneas and Collodi’s Pinocchio. 

 

“Sic itur ad astra” —That is the journey to the stars —Virgil

 

BIO

For the last decade, Louis Pesce has worked as a full-time team member with Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio in downtown Los Angeles. As artist-in-residence in the autumn of 2014, he created a mixed media installation, V Formation, a solo exhibit at the c.r.e.t.a.rome gallery.

 

Before migrating in 2007 from the East Coast to Southern California, Louis received both a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Tufts University affiliated with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from University of Florida in Gainesville. 

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