As from the end of the 1960s, the most important concept in the work of the arte povera artist Gilberto Zorio was that of ‘energy’. In his own words: “Energy means the possibility of filling a space, the possibility of emptying what is full, the possibility of filling the past, present and future and the possibility of activating the conscious and subconscious functions of language.” Recurring elements in his work include bull-skin, the spear and the star: symbols of survival and doom, accuracy and disorientation, freedom and restraint, and energy. In Zorio’s work, light also symbolises energy.
