Carlo Stella was born in Callao, a small fishing port on the outskirts of Lima. His behavioural difficulties became apparent when he went to school, as he was unable to stay in the classroom for more than half a day. His parents separated when he was ten and Carlo was put on medication. He was interned for the first time in the Victor Larco Herrera hospital in Lima in 1981 because difficulties sleeping made him aggressive and unstable. He has lived alone with his mother since then and attends the art workshop at the hospital from time to time.
Carlo finds it hard to master his emotions and finds the adult world a frightening place. He has taken refuge in a dream world, inventing his own town, Guancanova. “My father died there trying to save me”, he explains. Over the past thirty ears, he has covered entire notebooks with drawings depicting the town in the slightest detail: fortresses with towers reaching for the sky filled with flocks of birds, public transport networks, dye-works, schools, hospitals, bridges. His world is filled with groups of children with blue and green hair riding lions, rabbits, and dinosaurs: Carlo Stella is a more child-like version of Henry Darger.

• The Museum of Everything, Londres (Angleterre)
• Treger Saint Silvestre Collection (Portugal)

• Rentrée hors-les-normes, découvertes & nouvelles acquisitions 2011 (catalogue d’exposition, galerie christian berst, 10 au 28 sept. 2011), Paris, galerie christian berst, 2011.