Giuseppe Mario Urso
Urso, a British-European citizen, moved from Italy to London to pursue a Postgraduate Diploma in Multimedia at Birkbeck College, followed by a Master's degree in Video at Middlesex University.
His sculptures and installations have been exhibited in London, Helsinki, Mexico City, Letterkenny, and lately at the Memorial da América Latina, São Paulo, Brazil
My artistic practice emerges at the intersection of human rights, ecological awareness, and the fragile architectures of memory and identity. Over the years, my work has evolved from video and multimedia into sculptural and multisensorial installations that invite viewers to question the structures—symbolic, emotional, and political—that shape their perception of reality.
Whether inverting statues, exchanging the garments of cultural icons, layering multiple languages, or transmitting the sounds of threatened ecosystems, my intention remains constant: to create encounters that unsettle the familiar and open space for empathy, reflection, and transformation.
Much of my recent research focuses on the dialogue between the Global South and the Global North—two regions often positioned as opposites yet intimately connected through histories of migration, coloniality, resistance, and cultural fusion. In Upside~Down Downside~Up, I reimagine two globally recognized icons—Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and the Statue of Liberty—as mirrored counterparts. By unsettling their traditional positions and attributes, I invite viewers to reflect on disappearance, displacement, and the shared emotional terrain that links communities across continents.
In many Southern contexts, spiritual and cultural syncretism has long been a way of weaving together Indigenous, African, and colonial epistemologies into new, evolving forms. This capacity for hybridization deeply inspires my work. It reveals how identities—and symbols—are never static, but living and shifting, shaped by contact and transformation.
My practice also extends into ecological listening. I am developing a sound installation that gives presence to those most affected by global warming: communities displaced, ecosystems destabilized, and species pushed to the threshold of silence. By integrating natural field recordings and human testimony, I seek to create an acoustic space where fragility and resilience resonate together, challenging the North–South divide that often defines whose stories of climate impact are heard.
Geometry has become another pathway in my work—a method of mapping, remembering, and connecting experience. I draw inspiration from diverse geometric traditions found across the Global South, including Indigenous graphic systems and diasporic visual languages. Like the sona drawings of Central Africa, these forms demonstrate how geometry can encode stories, cosmologies, and ecological knowledge. In my practice, geometry becomes a bridge: a structure that links spiritual narratives, environmental rhythms, and the movement of the body through space.
Collaboration remains central to my approach. Working alongside initiatives focused on human rights (Conflict Textiles), ecology (Alter Us), and decolonial dialogue (Neo Norte), I aim to contribute to collective processes that amplify voices, share perspectives, and create environments for healing and critical engagement. Workshops, community encounters, and participatory methods enrich my installations, allowing them to become not just objects of contemplation but spaces of exchange.
Ultimately, my practice is driven by a desire to listen—deeply and attentively—to the world and to others. Through inversion, sound, geometry, and shared experience, my installations challenge certainty, spark empathy, and invite viewers to reconsider how we construct our realities. I hope each work becomes a threshold: a moment of encounter that encourages metamorphosis and nurtures a deeper understanding of our shared condition, North and South, human and ecological.