Marcello Cammi

Marcello Cammi, a peculiar character from Bordighera (Italy), sculpted and painted along the Sasso River for most of his life. Son of a bricklayer, he naturally elected cement as his favorite material, and began by making tanks out of this malleable and inexpensive “cement-matter”. The public space (his privileged stage of expression) having been too hostile to him in the persons of the municipal officials, it is his living space that he more favorably decorated with frescoes, sculptures and footbridges, however washed away by the Sasso river during its floods. With energy and until his death, Cammi worked on his endless task - “One must imagine Sisyphus happy”. After the death of his widow, the Cammi garden became the prey of the Sasso vulture, which carried its contents, work by work, to its mouth for forty years. The coup de grâce, struck in 2006, has turned the few remaining works-especially his “real” cafes, reminiscent of Victor Hugo’s deceptive inks-into touching rarities.