Sissi
Bologna,
Italy
I was born in 1977 in Bologna. I live and work between Bologna and New York. I graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti and have taken part in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Italy and Europe (Neuegalerie of Graz, W139 of Amsterdam, Smak of Gent). In 2001 I made a performance at the MoCA in Miami. In 2002 I won the Querini Stampalia Award—“Furla per l’Arte” in Venice. In 2004 the MACRO of Rome presented my solo exhibition: Nidi. My work starts from the body. The body is the soul of my work. All the sculptural elements, fundamental in the performances, are a house the artist builds up for herself; environments for her body, like a butterfly’s cocoon. Manual ability is central to my work: I intertwine different materials like wool, rattan, plastic thread and many others to make a new skin. I use it to make my sculpture and to represent an extension between my work and my body in the space.
Feminist Artist Statement
Sentire, sentirsi è quello che sono.
Mi sento dentro al mio corpo e mi esprimo con la gioa di essere donna.
To feel and to feel as myself is what I am.
I am feeling inside my body and I express myself with the joy of being a woman.
Second mezzanine floor
In this work, I lifted the floor of one of the museum’s rooms. The space was only accessible through a small window. In the room, I laid very still, covered by section of the sculpture that I created with intertwined red plastic thread. The audience was able to watch through the window only after having walked up the staircase I installed right in front of the only door in the room.
Photo: E.Bialkowska 2003, Rovereto, MART Museum, Italy
Second mezzanine floor
In this work, I lifted the floor of one of the museum’s rooms. The space was only accessible through a small window. In the room, I laid very still, covered by section of the sculpture that I created with intertwined red plastic thread. The audience was able to watch through the window only after having walked up the staircase I installed right in front of the only door in the room.
Photo: E.Bialkowska 2003, Rovereto, MART Museum, Italy
Nature
The installation was presented during my solo show at Chelsea Art Museum in New York . It was a large bush created with over 3000 sponges. This work felt as if nature found in me an ideal place to cling to. During the opening, I stood inside the work and the only visible part being my feet.
Photo: M.Jones, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, 2006
Suspended
This was the piece presented for my show at the Italian Academy at Columbia University where I participated in an artist residency program. For the day, I substituted a couple of knitted cocoons for the American and Italian flags that normally hung there. I manipulated the cocoons from the inside of the building.
New York, Italian Academy of Columbia University, 2005
Vetroninfea
This performance was presented for a show curated by Pier Luigi Tazzi and Ann Demeester in a public area in the town of Watou, Belgium. The location I chose for the work was a small pond and in it, I laid on a floating leaf made with embroided fishing wire for one entire day.
Belgium, Gent, SMAK, 2001
Nidi
Nidi is the italian word for nests. This work was made for my solo exhibition at Macro Museum in Rome. I presented an installation that invaded the entire room. It consisted of 28 different pieces constructed from hand-painted indonesian bamboo and paper towel. “Nidi” is a landscape of abandoned homes suggesting the need for continous movement.
Italy, Roma, MACRO Museum, 2004
The walk
This installation, made as site specific project for my two-person show (with Ian Kiaer) at W139 in Amsterdam, consisted of a large structure created with hundreds of wooden sheets. During the opening I walked on the top of this white mountain for several hours. The audience could enter the space through a tunnel made inside the wooden structure and see the performance from the center of the installation (valley).
Amsterdam, W139, 2003
The wings have no home
Global Feminisms exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, 2007
Photo: Ela Bilakowska
Contact
Collegio Venturoli V.Centotrecento 4
Bologna, 40138
Italy
CV
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