Come una diga is a solo exhibition by Giovanni Longo, with a critical text by Davide Silvioli, presented at the Accademia d’Ungheria in Roma from 30 April to 4 June 2026.

The exhibition brings together key aspects of Longo’s long-term research, developed over several years through a sculptural practice grounded in the relationship between matter, memory and transformation. At the core of his work is the recovery of wooden fragments carried by marine and river currents and deposited at river mouths across different areas of the Mediterranean. Through a rigorous process of collection, classification and comparison, these natural remnants are removed from the flow of time and reintroduced into new formal structures. Seemingly dispersed elements regain a narrative and constructive function, taking shape as skeletal organisms and anatomical forms, suspended between the real and the plausible.

At the centre of the exhibition is Like a Dam (form archive), a metal structure containing an extensive archive of wooden materials collected and catalogued over the past twenty years. The work makes visible the underlying grammar of Longo’s practice, revealing not only the final outcome but also the method and taxonomy behind it, presenting itself as a form of meta-narrative. Alongside this installation, the exhibition includes works from different stages of his research, including Short Story (calf), You can’t fly away from your destiny, and a series of drawings from the past year. Together, these works offer a broader reflection on the capacity of matter to retain traces of its origin while assuming new configurations.

As Davide Silvioli notes in the accompanying critical text, Longo’s work unfolds through a constant tension between found material and constructed form, between natural data and poetic construction, where emptiness becomes an active component of the sculpture, allowing the work to be traversed and to exist in osmosis with the surrounding space.
The artist’s research engages with themes such as identity, memory, history and landscape, using sculpture as a means to question the relationship between permanence and transformation, between what is preserved and what inevitably changes.

Giovanni Longo (Locri, 1985) is a sculptor, visual artist and art director. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Reggio Calabria, he took part in international residencies in Shanghai and Paris. His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including the 54th Venice Biennale, Kunstenfestival Watou, Wood Mood Valcucine in London and New York, and the Biennale of Young European Creation. In 2025 he received the Special Prize from Inside Art at the Talent Prize, hosted by the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome.

Giovanni Longo / Come una diga
Text Davide Silvioli

Accademia d’Ungheria in Roma
Palazzo Falconieri, Via Giulia 1

30 April – 4 June 2026
Opening Thursday 30 April, from 6 pm
Opening hours Mon–Fri 9:00–19:30, Sat 11:00–19:00, Sun closed
Free admission

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