Jakub Ferri : the monumentality of the everyday

At the 59th Biennale Arte 2022, Ferri presents paintings, embroideries and carpets in a large-scale site-specific installation entitled The Monumentality of the Everyday. Many of Ferri’s works show everyday scenes involving animals, children, acrobats, musicians, and sporting activities. At times, the everyday or mundane turns into the surreal, or magical: monkeys speaking or making music, people turning into birds, people becoming animals or hybrid creatures.
Ferri considers carpet-making and embroidery not only as ways of producing a textile product, but also as a technique of social interaction, coherence, and community building.

With his works, Ferri zooms in to the details of everyday life, shifting our focus away from “big” topics to create an imaginary world inspired by the immediacy of life. His vivid portrayals of city life and leisure connect to folk elements and rituals where the urban space merges with nature, and where humans and animals act as equals, like in cartoons and comics or indigenous and vernacular imagery.