Diego Perrone (Asti, 1970)lives and works in Milan.He’s a visual artist working mostly with sculpture and drawing, creating mental landscapes that are neither real nor imaginary. His solo exhibitions have been presented in institutions such as MACRO, Rome (2022-23); Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Massimo, Rome; Bullseye Projects, Portland (2019); Villa del Principe, Genoa; Spazio Murat, Bari (2017); Museion, Bolzano (2013); Fondazione Brodbeck, Catania (2010); CAPC, Bordeaux; MAMbo, Bologna (2007); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2005); Pitti Immagine Discovery, Florence (2000). His works have been included in major group exhibitions at: GAM, Turin; Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Switzerland; Villa Medici, Rome; Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome; Triennale, Milan; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Magasin, Grenoble; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Palazzo Grassi, Venice; Malmö Art Museum, Malmö; PAC, Murcia; Whitechapel Gallery, London; New Museum, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. He has participated in numerous international exhibitions such as La Biennale di Venezia, (2013 and 2003); Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art (2006); Moscow Biennale (2005); Triennale India, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2005); Manifesta 3, Ljubliana (2000).
Costozza is situated on the road that skirts the eastern Berici Hills and links Vicenza to the Basso Vicentino area, just beyond Longare: a treasure trove of architecture, art and history out of all proportion to its small size. Churches, villas and spectacular gardens filled with statues bear witness to an incredible past. Since ancient times, this district was famous for the quality of its local wines and for the quarrying of the white limestone, known as Costozza stone, which was hewn both from deep inside the mountain and from the ‘priare’, or open-cast quarries. Vestiges of the centuries-old mining activity, in addition to the sheer rock walls that form the backdrop to the village, can be seen in the caves where another typical local product is grown: poplar mushrooms. These tunnels, artificial or of karst origin, form a system famous for its extent and for being connected to ventiducts, underground tunnels that were used to bring fresh air in summer and warm air in winter into the interiors of the villas and their cellars. This is a true ante litteram air conditioning system, perfected in the 16th century and also studied by Palladio. It was also utilised for the so-called Scherzo di Costozza (Costozza Trick): when the gates were suddenly opened, the illustrious guests shivered in the gusts of cold air. Legend has it that Galileo Galilei, a guest of the Counts Trento, was also a victim of this in the late 16th century: in a letter, he described his time in Padua as ‘the best eighteen years of my entire life’, but attributed all the ailments of his old age to that episode.