Moreover, in the 2005 work Cosmic Voyage n. 2, made of polished and coated bronze, it is noticeable that the association between the work’s linguistic and technological aspects constitutes the basis for a more penetrating message that is clearly perceptible in the relief sign motifs that occupy its rectangular surface. Here is evidence of the technological metaphor that crops up repeatedly in Fiorese’s work, in a variety of forms: in his 1988 wooden piece Flight, as in the two mixed technique (crystal and gold) works dated 1990, Metamorphosis and Message. In these cases, as in the 1993 piece Vital Structure, made of Dutch stoneware, the artist’s informal abstraction breaks free of the allusive conventions of figuring to convey a sense of emotional urgency. Here, the references to transcendental thinking can be found in the individual fragments, which seem to be correlated dialectically, like the various constituent parts of a single discourse, while yet remaining intact in their autonomy of sign and meaning. As the records tell us, one of the fundamental milestones in Fiorese’s artistic career was the time he spent in the seventies at the Bonvicini foundry in Verona, where he had an opportunity to discover and learn new methods, working elbow-to-elbow with such great masters of plastic research as de Chirico, Pomodoro and Manzù. The echo of that lesson is still easily discernible in the luminosity of the 1993 steel Structure, but also in his unflagging refusal to work in the round, so as to throw light on the mystery of unknown dimensions by excavating, gouging and corrugating his matter. As a result of these choices of aesthetic, his works often look like archaeological artefacts, wounded and fractured by the wear and tear wrought by time. Fiorese has never gone back over familiar ground since 1975, when he composed Musical Sensations in polished bronze. Ever since then, his prevailing idea has been to apply plastic elements formally with critical clarity to express the dramatic rhythm of contemporary life, highlighting man’s involvement in situations of social interfacing. In his 1976 work Evolution, made of semi-stoneware, majolica, copper and gold and patterned on a geometric rendering in space vaguely reminiscent of the abstract images of the fifties – the lesson that comes to mind is that of Consagra – the idea of breaking emotionally through the programmatic terms of abstract art comes across very clearly. In his 2001 piece Bonds, made of semi-stoneware, as later on in his 2004 Genesis of a Cube, in varied plastic material, there is a stronger sense than ever of the artist’s desire to achieve art that is in any case objective, but at the same time pulsating, so capable of avoiding the temptations of intimacy. The same can be said about his 2003 Fountain, in pink Portuguese marble: here, however vivacious and sunny is the flood of sentiments, the hardness of the material seems to erect a dyke against any emotional excess. In his latest works, while retaining the third dimension, Fiorese has ventured towards a plastic expressiveness that is intentionally contradictory, as it is subjected to a strictly frontal, so unequivocal interpretation, waiving the suggestions of dynamics and space and maximising the focus on the values of sign and colour. What we have reached here is the symbolic sign achieved by virtue of the situation, a mental form of writing, a sort of elegant, esoteric shorthand, strict and anti-decorative. Fiorese now moves on a level that is more conceptual than ever, passing from one sculpture to another along the classical razor’s edge, progressing by subtraction, placing himself at the extreme of an iconic purity and on the verge of dissolving into an empty space, bereft of all resonance. Undeniably difficult sculpture, it is not hermetic; vigorously dialectic, it is ultimately successful, as it is visually complete and as clean as a classical epigram.