12 books, laser cut, gold leaf, porcelain and wooden base

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In L’uomo delinquente, Sala presents an antique porcelain head which shows the divisions that underpinned phrenology, a pseudoscience developed by Franz Joseph Gall in the 19th century. This notion of division imagined the brain as different “organs” or areas that controlled specific mental faculties, and the shape of these areas, believed to be mirrored in that of the skull, indicated how developed or powerful the faculties were. The sculpture is accompanied by books gilded in gold leaf which describe concepts and attributes that were associated with behaviour. These can be read as a dangerous sublimation of emotional and moral inclinations that almost paint a picture, from a biopolitical standpoint, of the individual who will have to navigate their way through the 20th and 21st centuries.

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Artwork included in the exhibition La tempestad.