Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Akelo, the artistic pseudonym of Andrea Cagnetti, an internationally renowned Italian goldsmith and artist. Known for his creations that blend ancient Etruscan, Greek, and Roman jewelry-making techniques with a contemporary aesthetic, Akelo has captivated the worlds of art and fashion with his unique and extraordinary jewelry. His talent was recently recognized in the world of cinema, with some of his works chosen for the film "House of Gucci," bringing his creations to an even wider audience.
Today, he shares with us his artistic journey, the inspirations behind his pieces, and what it means to see his works shine on the big screen.
"featured in the film House of Gucci."
MCI : Could you tell us about your artistic journey and how you discovered sculpture?
Akelo : Talking about my journey as an artist, which is also the journey of my life, is not easy. It has been a continuous flow between art, spirituality, and research, well represented by a phrase that I consider a mantra, taken from the “Mutus Liber,” an alchemical book from 1670: “Pray, read, read, read, reread, work, and finally you will find.” I have always led a private, almost monastic life in my workshop, away from the spotlight, nurturing my passions. I like to think of myself as a "Renaissance man," both because of my intense, multifaceted activity and because I have always tried to combine artistic expression with scientific research, balancing imagination and logic.
From the very beginning, I paired intense research with the study of dozens of texts on ancient technology and metallurgy, alchemical treatises, goldsmithing, and all kinds of recipes, experimenting with both materials and techniques, even the most disparate and seemingly absurd ones. The study of alchemy has added a spiritual depth to my artistic journey. This intense activity has allowed me, on the one hand, to chart new research paths, adopting completely personal approaches and experimenting with new formal and material solutions, and, on the other, to rediscover some "secrets," or rather methodologies, of metallurgy and goldsmithing that had been lost. I have created a body of work that moves between past, present, and future: works in gold and/or bronze using techniques dating back 3,000 years, steel sculptures where the void gives rise to forms, and forms that are nothing but chaos that composes itself time after time in continuous evolutions, both plastic and abstract, freed from the constraints of mass and interpenetrated by light.
Most recently, my collection “Wave Functions” features metallic surfaces that are reflective and capable of emphasizing the presence of energetic waves that permeate everything, directly referencing quantum physics and investigating new dimensions of time and space. These are unique pieces that, at first glance, may appear very different from each other but are united by a common thread.
MCI : What was your training as a sculptor, and are there any artists or movements that have influenced your style?
Akelo : There aren't any specific artists. My artistic journey has been centered around three core certainties:
- A great capacity for observation,
- Insatiable curiosity about the surrounding world,
- An obsessive quest for Harmony and Beauty.
Beauty is a concept that I cannot define; no one knows exactly what it is. It's ethereal, elusive, and mysterious, and we only recognize it when we are in front of one of its manifestations.
MCI : What sculpting techniques do you prefer and why?
Akelo : Thanks to my in-depth studies of metallurgical techniques and ancient technologies, and especially my first love, goldsmithing (the mother of all arts, practiced alongside painting in Renaissance workshops), I can say I have used many techniques over the years, but they are always secondary to the deeper essence of the work I intend to create. Even when I use modern technologies like laser cutting, my hands are always at the center of my work.
MCI : How do you choose the materials for your works, and what is your relationship with them?
Akelo : I have used many materials, starting with gold. In recent years, as if on a reverse alchemical journey, I have been focusing on environmentally friendly materials, using industrial steel waste (among the least impactful materials on the environment), following the principles of upcycling. Unlike simple recycling, upcycling creates value, combats the throwaway culture, and helps reduce energy consumption and the costs of raw materials and production, becoming a virtuous example of the circular economy.
MCI : Could you describe your creative process, from the initial idea to the final realization of the work?
Akelo : My works do not arise from a specific experience but from the natural, unconscious sprouting of my passion and a lifetime's work. What literally drives me toward one of my works is actually just an inner voice that awakens at times, unexpectedly and compellingly, within me, taking me where it wants... In those moments, I might not see or hear, immersed in the deepest darkness, but I would still know how and why to shape a piece... This is my work, my being, and my way of communicating...
So my inspiration flows instinctively, beyond any barrier or rational scheme, just like water springing from a source and transforming, along its path, into a giver of life. It is no coincidence that my artistic name, Akelo, comes from Achelous, the god of waters, son of Oceanus and Tethys, according to Greek mythology.
MCI : How does one of your sculptures evolve during the creative process?
Akelo : After an initial instinctive phase, the idea moves into the material sphere. Here everything is focused within precise frameworks between beauty and technique, where no mistakes are allowed. If the work turns out as I want, that’s great... otherwise, it is discarded and adds to my experience as a man and as an artist.
MCI : What themes do you seek to explore through your sculptures?
Akelo : Over the years, I have alternated between anthropomorphic and abstract works with a classical matrix. All are steps in an aesthetic and existential search that draws from the art of the past to explain, interpret, and represent our complex and multifaceted present, without any hedonistic escapism into times gone by. I have always been fascinated by classicism, governed as it is by criteria of rationality, harmony, and balance, albeit underpinned by human tremors of unrest and change.
I have tried to evoke the severitas of archaic taste through a process of form construction typical of contemporary art. Much like certain computer programs used to define three-dimensional elements, a combinatorial algorithm can generate complex structures from simple shapes; in the same way, I create my works using modular elements, metal tubes (with sections of various shapes), welding, fusing, and sometimes chromatically objectifying them. The forms develop into dynamic and airy volumes interpenetrated by light, in a dialectic and osmotic relationship with the space that contains them.
More recently, after my studies of quantum physics, a discipline as challenging as it is fascinating, I have wanted to explore the realm of the infinitely small, populated by subatomic elements, measurable in quanta, that populate every space, behaving sometimes like particles, sometimes like waves. Their presence, imperceptible to the senses, nullifies even the remotest possibility of emptiness, which is instead admitted by classical physics. According to quantum mechanics, nothing is certain or fixed in their movement, governed only by principles of uncertainty and probability, which replace the more reassuring laws of Newtonian physics. The only anchor for the scientist, the only fixed point in this ocean of uncertainty, seems to be the wave function. Represented by the Greek letter Psi - ψ, it describes the state of a quantum system (for example, an electron's orbital) in all its components. More precisely, the wave function does not measure the actual state of a particle at a precise moment but only the "probability" that the electron is in "that" condition at "that" specific moment. It is the scientist-observer who makes the quantum system, in this case, the electron, "collapse" into a definite state through experimentation. And the artist? The artist, in a way, follows in the researcher's footsteps, directing his creative gaze toward the coagulation of infinite invisible energy entities in quantum mechanics and "crystallizing" some of them, transforming them into tangible matter. That is, into magnetic and enveloping sculptures that play with light.
MCI : Is there a message or philosophy you wish to convey through your works?
Akelo : Just as for alchemists, whose ultimate goal was to lead man towards spiritual evolution, a condition metaphorically expressed by the transmutation of lead into gold, the true artist must aim to enrich themselves spiritually and, consequently, enrich humanity through their work. Man should find a new way of approaching reality and reconsider our trivial certainties.
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