Calori & Maillard

Letizia Calori (Bologna, 1986) and Violette Maillard (Bourg la Reine, 1984), have been working as artist duo Calori & Maillard since 2009.

Their collaboration combines backgrounds in architecture (Calori) and film studies (Maillard) into a practice that merges the real and the surreal, often bringing the absurd into a real situation. Their research is focused on observing and interpolating the relations between architecture and the human body. They intervene on hierarchies and conventions, overturning them with sudden and unexpected elements, then searching for and finding an exit route with neutralizing irony.

The artists trained at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt am Main with Tobias Rehberger, and at the IUAV in Venice. In 2013 the duo received the Ernst & Young Prize and the Staedelschule Portikus e.V. grant. In 2014 they were artists in residence at Österreichische Skulpturenpark in Graz (Austria), in collaboration with the Joanneum Museum. In 2015 they collaborated with the Heinz and Gisela Friederichs Foundation on the project L’Oiseau de Feu, a ballet of tower cranes. The same year they were selected by the Fundación Botín, Santander as artists in residence. In 2016 they were given the XIII edition New York Prize by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Academy of Advanced Studies at Columbia University, they were also artists in residence at ISCP.

In 2017 the former Gavina showroom in Bologna reopened to the public with the site-specific exhibition Causerie promoted by Istituzione Bologna Musei | MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna. In 2018 the duo took part in the European Photography Festival in Reggio Emilia with the project Energia Potenziale. Their research continues by experimenting with different materials and extending the concept of the artwork into transdisciplinary fields such as design, photography, and the mechanical industry. In 2023 their work was acquired by the Museo Fotografia Contemporanea as part of L’Italia è un desiderio promoted by MiC-DGCC, Mufoco and Fondazione Alinari.

Calori & Maillard have taken part in several international shows, in both institutional and experimental spaces such as MAMbo (Bologna), Palazzina dei Bagni Misteriosi (Milan), ISCP, and the Italian Cultural Institute (New York), MMK and Deutsche Filmmuseum (Frankfurt am Main), Villa Iris – Fundación Botín (Santander), Österreichische Skulpturenpark (Graz), and Moderna Museet (Stockholm).

For Paradisoterrestre Calori & Maillard created some limited edition pieces. In 2017 for the exhibition project Causerie – conversation they presented the Murano glass vase Altabella 23 – Portare acqua al mare, inspired by the Gavina shop designed by Carlo Scarpa in Bologna, venue of the show. In 2024 for the exhibition WE ARE FOU at Paradisoterrestre Gallery they created Moi, toi et Le Témoin (2024), a Man Ray-inspired intervention on Kazuhide Takahama’s iconic Mantilla sofa and Sleeping beauty, a tribute to Meret Oppenheim’s renowned Surrealist coffee table.