ARTIST TALK: Mariana Ferratto: Memory of Matter

Where:

• H 135 - big auditorium opposite the rectorate
• Hviezdoslavovo sq. 18.

 

When: 

• 24. 4. 2023, from 6 p. m.

 

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• Moderated by Lýdia Pribišová

• Artist talk will be in Italian, with Slovak translation

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Mariana Ferratto's artistic research has always revolved around the theme of identity in its many facets and is intimately connected with her personal history. She is the daughter of exiles, born in Italy of Argentine parents, and has always felt with a double identity. At home she lived the Argentinean culture and outside the home the Italian one. A little bit Italian and a little bit Argentinean, or perhaps neither Italian nor Argentinean at all. Argentine in Italy and Italian in Argentina. She has analyzed the theme of identity from many points of view, in many works. Memory of Matter, on the other hand, wants to be a kind of reconciliation with this opaque core from which all her artistic work has developed.

 

The project intends to restore this voice through the traces of the artefacts that were made in prison. During the dictatorship in Argentina, many prisons subjected political prisoners to a regime of isolation and inactivity as a method of physical and psychological destruction.

However, within a short time, small groups were formed that carried out activities behind the backs of the prison guards. To alleviate boredom, to abstract themselves from the situation, the prisoners began to make arts and crafts objects with forbidden tools such as oysters taken from soups, nails, threads obtained by pulling out towels or pieces of sheets. Some of these objects were kept at great risk. They had to be worked in absolute secrecy (almost always at night) and smuggled out of the prison to be given to loved ones. Sometimes they required weeks of work and the chances that they would never reach their destination were high, given the periodic inspections. These objects became true objects of affection, acquiring immense value. They are the collective testimony of an act of resistance and underline the power of creativity as a drive for survival.

In the meeting, the artist will start by showing works related to the theme of identity and will end by describing the various stages of the Memory of Matter project, which is still ongoing, and the video tutorials that have been realized so far.

Mariana Ferratto is an Italian-Argentine artist. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and completed her studies in dance-theatre. She is represented by The Gallery Apart, Rome. Her research revolves around the theme of identity in its multiple facets, being daughters of exiles. She has often worked with video as it is a medium capable of guaranteeing immediate legibility, without penalising the depth of the message. This year she won a grant from the Italian Council, the Italian Ministry of Culture's programme for the diffusion of Italian art in the world. She has exhibited in many personal exhibitions, among which the spaces of the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti and the Pastificio Cerere, Rome and in many collective exhibitions: at MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome;   2019 at the videoart week and in 2017 in Media Art Festival; 2015 EGOSUPEREGOALTEREGO Volto e Corpo contemporaneo dell'arte, MACRO, Rome; 2013 Biennale di Monza;  2012 Re-generation MACRO testaccio;  2012 al PAN - Palazzo delle Arti Napoli;  at Fotografia Europea 012 Reggio Emilia;  at C/O Careof Milano;  in 2010 at the Monnaie de Paris;  in 2008 at the Sala Rekalde in Bilbao; at the Cordy House in London, at the White Space in Zurich; in 2007 at the V International Festival of Poor Cinema, Cuba and Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. In 2012 she won the first prize from Connecting Culture and in 2009 she was selected for the residency at the Citè Internationale des Arts, Paris.

 

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Project supported by the Italian Council (2022), Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity, Italian Ministry of Culture.

 

 

Mariana Ferratto, la escultura