William Xerra -I lie to my promises-

William Xerra, born in Florence in 1937, lives and works in Piacenza. All of his work is directed between the poetic and pictorial sign, too when in the seventies, between happenings, performances and videos, he conceives a series of strictly “conceptual” works. Will be then the fragment capable of signifying the paths and memories of daily experience. The artist’s style highlights the temporary limits within which the work is carried out. From the early seventies are: the “verification of the miracle” with Pierre Restany, the “reflecting envelopes”, the “object-books”, the intervention on “tombstones disused”, and the “pinball poems” with the poet Corrado Costa. When in the early eighties Xerra rethinks painting all of these experiences return to the picture, intended as a place of constant gathering of actions, quotes, notes. Filiberto Menna confirms it, in 1987, one of the Italian Masters of painting-writing-painting. The LIVES of 1972 will accompany the artist’s work throughout his career. In 2002 he presented the manifesto at the Mudima Foundation in Milan I LIE, read by Pierre Restany. Works by him are present in national and international museums such as: MART Museum, Trento – International Museum of Art, Seoul Korea – MAGA Museum, Gallarate – PECCI Museum, Prato – M.A.X. Museum of Chiasso, Switzerland – Museo della Permanente, Milan – Center Recoleta, Buenos Aires – Lercaro Museum, Bologna – Museum of Carale, Ivrea – UCLA Museum, Los Angeles – CSAC Museum, Parma – MAMBO Museum, Bologna – MUSEION, Bolzano – Museum of people of Abruzzo, Pescara – GASC Museum, Milan – Tricolor Museum, Reggio Emilia – National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome – Museum of the Jewish Community, Synagogue of Casale Monferrato – Contemporary Sacred Art Gallery, Villa Clerici, Milan.