title: The Water Guardian
typology: Installation
event: Terrena - Tracciati di Land Art in Bassa Romagna
location: Parco Golfera, Lugo (RA) Italy
year: 2018
The serpent with sinuous movements emerges from the depths of the earth, rising from the dark hidden and protected gorges. A mysterious and mysterious animal, the custodian of an immense primordial power, guardian of pulsating energy, it evokes the spiral, the line and the circle and this is why it represents the cycle of life-death-rebirth, the perpetual return, the regeneration.
This for me is an important concept in the solstice period in which has been inaugurated the first edition of “TERRENA-traces of Land Art in Lower Romagna”, an event to which I was invited to participate with my work “La Guardiana delle acque”, now permanent, inside the Golfera Park’s lake, Lugo Ravenna (IT). I represent the serpent in its sinuous form with dried lotus flowers made of ceramics, which come out of iron stalks immersed in the lake. I chose the shape of the dried flowers of the lotus because it attracts me aesthetically but also because the fact that they are represented in their dry form remembers the moment that symbolically precedes the “rebirth” in the cycle of Life. The snake changing its outline reminds of the perpetual return, the regeneration that Mother Earth accomplishes in the Life / Death / Rebirth cycle.
title: The Suite of Goddess Snake
typology: Installation and Performance
event: Terrena - Tracciati di Land Art in Bassa Romagna
location: Podere Pantaleone, Bagnacavallo (RA) Italy
year: 2018
“The serpent with sinuous movements emerges from the depths of the earth, rising from the dark hidden and protected gorges. A chthonic and mysterious animal, custodian of an immense primordial power, guardian of pulsating energy, it evokes the spiral, the line and the circle and this is why it represents the cycle of life-death-rebirth, the perpetual return, the regeneration.”
Respecting the symbolic theme of the snake, which I chose for “TERRENA-traces of Land Art in Lower Romagna”, I realized another permanent work, inside the natural oasis “Podere Pantaleone” in Bagnacavallo (RA). In this environment, I wanted it to manifest itself in its creeping form, made up of many wooden rings, positioned on the ground in a carpet. Starting from the entrance the snake, in this natural and wild place emerges from the earth, to wrap itself up to the trunks of the trees and to the objects already present.
To remain linked to the work “The guardian of the waters” I traced inside the wooden circles, small seeds with luminescent paint, which recall the holes inside the flower of the dry lotus, so as to remain visible even during the night.
Performance/Celebration: “The Suite of the Goddess Snake”
Music by Gian Luca Simoncini - Interpretation by Sofia Quintavalli in the “Hymn to Isis”.
Isis, sister and wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, Goddess of maternity and fertility, queen of the sky, lady of the underworld, of snakes and of the magical arts. The Goddess symbol of Transformation, power of death and rebirth, of regeneration and renewal, one of the oldest faces of the Great Paleolithic Goddess, which in the Neolithic takes on an iconography of its own with the symbol of the serpent. The main function of the Goddess in her new aspect of Serpent was to guarantee the continuity of vital energy and offer regeneration to every exhausted existence. The symbols are keys that open us access to new visions and transformations!
For the opening, I specially created a night-time performance that took place around the snake. The metallic sound of the idiophone represented these four moments of human interiority: stasis, confusion, death, rebirth, interspersed with the voice of the actress who recited some passages from the “Hymn to Isis”. I danced around the snake, in the dark, overturning every trunk that formed the snake, which turned red from white and into the illuminated head, symbolizing the change of the suit.
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title: Deep sleep
typology: Installation and Performance
event: Nell'Arena delle Balle di Paglia
location: Cotignola (RA) Italy
year: 2018
“I’m waiting for you here, in front of the entrance of my house, a vulva symbol of the eye of the mother earth, under a wild weaving of wicker. Entering the earth is a way to make contact with yourself, even for a moment: it’s a special moment where you can find your land inside and out. The breath, slowly, will take the calm rhythm of the earth, the mind will leave the place to the heart, to the feeling. I will be there, guardian of the door, where I will lead you with the voice in a deep relaxation. The light of the straw around us will enlighten us."
The idea starts from my personal experience with the practice of Yoga Nidra, a
technique that leads to a total abundance of body and mind. I sat outside the structure and in a set time, led the person inside, lying supine, in a short session of deep relaxation, a special moment in which the person took contact with itself and the breath took the slow pace of the earth, protected inside the great YONI (vagina), an eye that looks inside the bowels of the great mother. A time when everyone could find their land, inside and out. Around the shape of the seed, eye, vagina, I placed a bed of straw, which seen from the top of the bank illuminated and defined the shape of the vulva.
title: Placenta
typology: Installation and Performance
event: COMMON PAST _ COMMON FUTURE Fraihausviertelfest Perormance Festival
location: Schleifmühlgasse 12-14 Gallery, Wien (AU)
year: 2018
Thanks to the birth of my second daughter, Alma, I was able to experiment with the Lotus method, in which at birth the umbilical cord is not cut, but remains linked to the Placenta and the child. This method prevents one of the first traumas of the human being: a violent cut, a drastic detachment from his first home: the Placenta. It is a method by which the child remains tied to his “old house” until he naturally chooses to leave it, this can happen in 2-3 days up to 9; It is a sweet, personal and non-traumatic choice for the child.
Placenta, or what you like: in some cultures Placenta is called the “mother’s cake” and if we think of our birthday cake that every year celebrates our birth is round like a placenta. La Placenta is something that mom and dad have done for the baby, the mother gives nourishment to both (placenta and baby). Placenta is the link between pleasure and nourishment, an aspect that unfortunately in life is often neglected, even if we have the sensation of living fully when life gives us pleasure. The remedies made with the placenta have special therapeutic powers that can cure the mother and her child for a lifetime. Until now, most people could not keep their placenta.
The research and the practice of new rituals that link man to nature feed my artistic activity. For this reason, during my performance, I realize for the guests a symbolic, special and personal placenta to recreate the magical bond that only the placenta can give.
The first performance took place at the Schleifmühlgasse 12-14 Gallery in Wien (AU) on 28 June 2018. Inside the Gallery I set up a circle made up of symbols representing the 4 elements, water, earth, air and fire and in the center a red circle where people sat waiting for me to create their personal placenta. Each person entered the gallery individually, putting his own personal object inside a small box that he handed to me, which was then placed inside the placenta compound so that it took the person’s energy. In waiting, they thought of a gift to give me when I returned.
After about 15 min. I came out from my secret place to delivery to the person his/her personal placenta and as an exchange he/she offered to me an object, a drawing, a poem, a hug or dedicated a song, whatever they felt right.
title: Placenta
typology: Installation and Performance
location: Pialassa Baiona Lagoon, Delta del Po Park - Marina Romea (RA) Italy
year: 2018
The second event took place on the weekend of Saint Lawrence in 2018 inside the Lagoon of the Delta del Po Park, Marina Romea - Ravenna (IT). I was in the lagoon, inside a little hut, accessible only by boat. The actress Chiara Li Vecchi invited people aboard a “batana” (typical boat used in this lagoon), and pulled them towards her side, with a rope tied to the boat.
The actress “started” people, with various “cleanings” and “rehearsals” to prepare them for my meeting. Then the person walked toward my place, sitted in a red circled and surrounded fron the magical nature of the lagoon. After a bit I came out from the hut and I delivered to her/his placenta, inside a cake box and I gave to the he/she a special and personal message.