When cardboard becomes a body, fragility becomes sculpture: Gabriel Giunta transforms cardboard and humble materials into deformed and vulnerable human bodies. A study of vulnerability, imperfection and the condition of the contemporary individual, also born through direct interaction with the social media audience.
There is something deliberately striking about the works of Gabriel Giunta. The first element that catches the eye is the material: cardboard, paper, wire mesh, materials that belong to everyday life and that we are accustomed to considering humble, temporary, destined to be used and then thrown away. The second is the human body, often naked, deformed, contracted, suspended in a condition of discomfort. Between these two dimensions – the fragility of the material and that of the individual – unfolds the research of a young artist who has chosen to transform what we normally overlook into something that instead forces us to stop.
Born in 2003, Gabriel Giunta has also made himself known through the web, building a visibility on social media that for many young artists today represents not only a communication tool, but a genuine space for exchange. His “social” visibility has helped bring his sculptures beyond the traditional art circuits, showing a very broad audience the creative process as well as the final result.
Material is one of the fundamental keys to entering his universe. Cardboard, above all, possesses a dual nature: it is fragile and resistant at the same time. It can be folded, cut, crumpled, torn apart and reassembled; it can take on seemingly impossible forms and, above all, it can preserve traces of its previous existence. In Giunta’s hands, therefore, it is not simply an inexpensive support with which to create a sculpture, but becomes an expressive material, almost like skin.
This choice also entails a reflection on the value of things: using an everyday and apparently insignificant material means questioning the traditional hierarchy between what deserves to be preserved and what is discarded. Cardboard does not hide its poverty: it displays it. And precisely through this declared precariousness, it acquires an unexpected strength.
The bodies Giunta constructs seem to emerge from the same logic: they are human figures that rarely appear reassuring or idealized. On the contrary, they display deformations, tensions and postures that convey a sense of vulnerability. At the Lucca Biennale Cartasia in 2024, where Giunta took part in the Academy4Young residency, this research was particularly evident. His work “The Man and His Game” featured naked and deformed bodies, created using wire mesh and cardboard. The Biennale’s official description associates the deformation of the figures with the conflict between ignorance, consciousness and fragility, and with the individual’s difficulty in confronting their own fears and fully living in the present.
It is no coincidence, then, that the human figure is so central. The body becomes the place where the contradictions of contemporary existence manifest themselves: the desire to assert oneself and, at the same time, the fear of not being good enough; the need to show oneself and the opposite need to protect oneself. The deformations do not seem to have a purely aesthetic function. Rather, they are a form of language. The body bends because something forces it to do so, contracts because it carries a weight, changes because reality is never perfectly regular.
In this sense, fragility is not a limitation of his sculpture, but its true strength. Giunta seems interested precisely in what remains when the idea of perfection is abandoned. His figures are not heroes, nor are they celebratory bodies: they are presences that seem to be fighting an inner battle. The viewer can recognize themselves in that difficulty, even when the form appears unfamiliar or disturbing.
The international dimension of his career emerged even more clearly in 2025, when his work was included in the exhibition CARTA. The Expressive Power of Paper Art, held in the historic spaces of the Lanificio Maurizio Sella in Biella. Curated by Dina Pierallini and Elena Bermond des Ambrois, the exhibition brought together twelve Italian and international artists united by their use of paper and wood. Alongside different names and artistic approaches, Giunta’s works introduced a reflection particularly connected to current affairs and the human condition.
The context of Biella was particularly significant. The exhibition was in fact born in a place historically linked to the transformation of materials: before becoming a wool mill, the complex had housed a paper mill, and paper thus became the connecting thread between industrial memory and contemporary research. In this setting, Giunta’s work takes on an additional meaning. A material considered ephemeral enters a space of industrial memory and becomes sculpture, while what would normally be destined for waste acquires a new permanence.
His presence in the Biella exhibition also confirms an important transition: the artist born and raised within the fast-paced ecosystem of social media is beginning to engage with spaces and contexts in which the work must necessarily confront the material, the dimensions of the environment and the visitor’s slower gaze. It is a delicate transition for any young artist: transforming strong digital recognition into a language capable of standing on its own beyond the screen.
And perhaps this is precisely where Gabriel Giunta becomes most interesting. His art is born in an era in which we are accustomed to consuming images rapidly, but asks the viewer to do the opposite: stop in front of a figure, observe its deformation, recognize the imperfections of the material. Cardboard, with its folds and irregularities, prevents the sculpture from being completely smooth; the body, in turn, rejects the ideal of perfection.
For this reason too, Giunta’s work can be read as a kind of antidote to surface. In a universe dominated by the digital image, filters and the construction of identity through photographs and videos, his figures bring everything back to physicality. They are bodies that occupy space, materials that reveal their own weight, surfaces that preserve the mark of the gesture. It is as if behind the great popularity achieved through the screen there were, paradoxically, a need to recover a tangible material.
If cardboard is fragile but can become a structure, the fragility of the human being can also be transformed into a form of resistance. This is probably the most interesting core of Gabriel Giunta’s artistic research: taking what appears weak, marginal or imperfect and demonstrating that precisely there an unexpected strength may be hidden.
Interview with the artist
How do you define yourself?
I define myself as a visual artist and sculptor. I am not looking for beauty for its own sake: through my works I want to convey authentic emotions, deeply rooted in the fragility of the human experience. My sculptures ask to be felt before they are even observed.
Tell us something about yourself and your story…
I was born in 2003 in Reggio Calabria and, from a young age, I felt the urge to give form to my emotions and anxieties. After art high school, my interest in three-dimensional work grew until I chose sculpture as my main language. Today I live in Turin, where I continue my artistic research, while dreaming of international experiences to broaden my perspectives and expressive tools.
When did you start working as an artist?
I began working seriously after high school, especially when I experimented with materials other than traditional clay, such as cardboard and reclaimed materials, which today represent a fundamental part of my artistic language.
What kind of training do you have?
After attending the “Mattia Preti – Alfonso Frangipane” Art High School in Reggio Calabria, I continued my education in Turin, attending a master’s degree in cinematic special effects, where I learned new techniques such as silicone prosthetics, latex masks, the study of skin textures, etc.
Who inspires you?
I do not follow specific references: ideas take shape spontaneously, often at the most unexpected moments. A simple sketch gradually develops into a completed work capable of conveying a message. I listen to what the process suggests, allowing myself to be guided by the sculpture itself.
Is paper the material you use most, or do you use others as well?
For me, paper and cardboard express fragility and vulnerability, values that are central to my art. I use them together with other reclaimed materials such as wire mesh, wood, fabric and iron to create contrasts of form and tension.
What type of paper do you use: type, grammage and characteristics…
I do not use a specific type of paper. My choice falls on everything that is considered waste: raw papers and cardboard, common materials used every day for packaging and transportation. These are supports created to be functional and temporary, which I bring into the artwork for their symbolic as well as material value.
Their fragility, imperfections and signs of use become an integral part of the work, helping to reinforce the sense of precariousness and authenticity that runs through my artistic research.
Can you tell us about the work “Equilibrio”, exhibited in Biella?
As part of the exhibition “CARTA. The Expressive Power of Paper Art” at the Lanificio Maurizio Sella in Biella, I exhibited a sculpture entitled “Equilibrio” that engages with the fragility and resilience inherent in paper, staging profound contrasts between lightness and emotional weight.
The work depicts a child hanging from a no-entry road sign, inside which a house is drawn, symbolizing family, safety and belonging. The child clings to the sign with one hand, in an unstable position that suggests effort, precariousness and resistance.
In the contemporary world, the home no longer represents a certainty, but becomes a question mark, as does the very idea of the future. The no-entry sign becomes a metaphor for the limits imposed by society, while the child’s gesture expresses the desire to uproot those barriers and imagine a different possibility: a future in which he can be happy and in which he can finally feel “at home”.
Have you created other works with paper? Would you like to tell us about them?
Yes, I have created several works using paper and cardboard as central elements. In “Past or Present”, paper allowed me to explore the theme of time and the fragility of the body, placing memory and decay in tension. In “Condemnation”, cardboard becomes the supporting structure of a suffering figure, accentuating the sense of vulnerability and human injustice. In “4 Lives”, paper engages with the structuring of the figures to tell different stories of existence, all united by the same fragility. In “The Illusion of Control”, cardboard plays a fundamental role: it helps construct a scene that appears stable but is actually precarious, reinforcing the theme of false security and the fragility of human control.