Artist

Ilaria Cuccagna

Italian · Milan, Italy

Ilaria Cuccagna was born in Cesena in 1981 and lives and works between Como and Lugano. She studied sculpture and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino and at the Facultad de Bellas Artes de San Carlos at the Universidad Politécnica of Valencia, before working in art foundries in Italy and abroad — an experience that proved foundational to her understanding of materials and process. She has taught at the University of Malta and currently teaches sculptural disciplines. Cuccagna's practice spans sculpture and site-specific work, with a focus on material transformations that only reach their final state after being subjected to physical stress. She understands sculpture as a performative discipline — one in which the work emerges from conditions set in motion rather than forms imposed in advance. Nature and archaeology are central to her research: she regards the archaeological object as a synthesis of nature and culture, a human-made thing that nature has reclaimed and transformed over time. Excavation, discovery, and working with remains are integral to her method. She works primarily in plaster, silicone rubber, bronze, and expanded polyurethane.