‘A mole in chives’, exhibition by Michele Savino at Window Gallery De Prachtvink Vinkhuizen
From May 1 to May 31, 2026, Michele Savino, an artist from Italy, is exhibiting an anagrammatic installation entitled ‘A mole in chives’ at window gallery ‘De Prachtvink’ at the Vinkhuizen shopping center, Platinalaan 505a, 9743 GZ Groningen.
‘A mole in chives’ is an installation from 2026 featuring a simple sheet of A4 paper, a window, and pieces of masking tape. A sheet of paper has been sloppily stuck to a window pane, suggesting that the homeowner has left a brief notice for visitors, such as ‘I’ll be right back’ ‘For Sale’, or ‘Watch out! Just painted’. However, in this case, the message is: ‘A mole in chives’. An absurd statement, since nor animal neither plant are nearby. Though the message might actually have some meaning behind it. In this instance, it is an anagram of the artist’s name: Michele Savino.
An anagram is a challenge of word and mind. Language that seems immutable and is fixed in ink allows itself to be broken down by the mind into letters that take on a new arrangement meaning something entirely different, while the original meaning remains present. In doing so, the anagram challenges the reader: what does this actually say? Or, to quote Martinus Nijhoff: ‘Just read. it does not tell what it tells’.
The mole in chives turns out to be an Italian artist, but also in his native language ‘mischia veleno’, ‘I mix poison’ or ‘se invochi mela’ ‘he invokes an apple’ or ‘mi sa che l’è vino’ ‘I think it is wine’. He does not hold back in Dutch either: ‘schil van moe ei’, ‘shell of tired egg’.
Michele Savino (1989) was born and raised in Bergamo. He studied at the Giacomo Carrara Academy of Fine Arts in Bergamo and later at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. His craft is conceptual art using traditional forms such as paint and canvas. He writes, paints, but also is keen on cultivating bonsai.
Savino is engaged in a long-term project in which he is battling with the letters of his name to discover anagrams within them and exhibit them, in his hometown of Bergamo, among other places, but now also in Groningue.