The so-called classic and romantic have not been set up in opposition to one another, but rather to play with one another. In the same way 'painting' is not privileged but is one genre at play with other genres. Giacomo has also made installations. In one, the floor of a vaulted, cellar-like room was covered with what could be the residue from the constructed paintings: chippings and sawdust in an undifferentiated mass. This reminds us that whatever was lost in making the object was not really lost. The installation is entitled: "Where something happens".

While tautology and irony are a strong component of Giacomo Picca's language, they serve a sincere vision, a form of honesty. His reference to Caspar David Friedrich suggests a desire to reconfigure the German romantic's transcendental poetry with the materials of "our world of design, DIY, media and advertising". His 'wood' is not idealised but already acculturated at a popular level. And from Giacomo's own assessment of his dialogue with recent art trends, an egalitarian, communicative candour emerges:

"Maybe the simplicity and directness [of my work] is intentionally against a more hermetic work that has been the trend since the advent of conceptual art. [My works] seem to have no secrets; we can see step by step how the thing is made by looking at that process: by way of the finished painting."

No secrets, maybe, but still some enigma.