Here, we invite you to discover the work of an artist who transforms nightmares into art and dreamlike visions into color: Gio Pistone.
Born in Rome, Gio Pistone quickly chose drawing as her second language, turning the walls of her bedroom into a giant canvas as a child, revealing a creative streak of almost megalomaniac proportions. Her subjects are often fantastical creatures, teetering between the bizarre and the monstrous, born from the intensity of her nighttime nightmares. Her mother, a psychology student, encouraged her to draw these visions in the morning to confront the fears that haunted her. And it’s from these dreams, or rather nightmares, that Gio Pistone continues to draw her inspiration.
With a background in theater set design, she learned how to give structure to her dreams, deepening her love for large-scale works and immersive environments. She co-founded the collective “La Sindrome del Topo,” a group of creators who build whimsical play structures and labyrinths, blending art and dreamlike experiences into fantastical rides and spaces of wonder. Her works, exhibited in muralism festivals and galleries worldwide, are defined by vibrant colors and bold lines, capable of captivating attention and telling complex, profound stories.
Before us stands the container painted by Gio Pistone, titled “Le Sarcophage de la femme poisson.” Despite its bright colors, the piece strikes with dramatic force: it depicts a murdered woman, a symbol of the tragic moment our country is enduring. The artist contemplated this idea for a long time and found the structure of the container to be the perfect medium to express it.
The message is clear: the horrifying events in the news involving women are often turned into sensationalized stories by the media, dehumanizing the victims and exploiting the pain of their families as spectacle. The artwork is a cry against this distorted narrative. The “Femme poisson, with her delicate body and buried story, invites us to reflect on who she was, how she lived, and what she loved. Like an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, this piece preserves the memory of this woman—not with her name, but with the tenderness of her existence, telling us stories of her life, passions, and small everyday moments, like the look in her eyes when she woke up in the morning.
The title, in French, adds an element of disorientation, as if distancing the brutality of the event from our immediate reality, transforming it into a universal symbol. “Le Sarcophage de la femme poisson” is not just a work of protest, but also a tribute to life, emotions, and the fragility of the human experience.