Maurizio Menon

I was born in 1974, in Italy, at a time when art was shifting shape and technology was starting to infiltrate everyday life.
I didn’t attend art academies; I learned by observing, building, dismantling, and reusing. I consider myself a self-taught artist, with a background in carpentry and a deep fascination for found materials.
My work is driven by an instinct to salvage what is usually dismissed as waste — broken devices, packaging, industrial remnants — and to reframe them through a new visual and symbolic lens. I’m drawn to the hidden meanings of everyday objects, to what they unknowingly carry from the culture they came from.
Many of my pieces emerge from the tension between memory and material decay. I create assemblages and sculptural works where fragments of technology, forgotten prints or abandoned furniture become part of new narratives. Each piece starts as an object with a past and ends as a reflection on time, obsolescence, and perception.
The aesthetic I pursue could be called a kind of vernacular détournement — I divert the meaning of discarded materials through a process that is both intuitive and intentional. My influences come more from constant exposure to visual culture in all its forms than from academic tradit...