presenting the works produced for
The Powder Room and The Terminal Outpost
The Venice Biennale, Venice
Now that they are displayed again, dislocated from the unique place where they were previously contained... do these objects of defence become more real and concrete?
They became more visible for sure, but this increase in visibility does not make it clearer where or how they have originated.
The colourful, complex and heavy structures have been cared for. They have been refined and show themselves on the same standardized units. Once again, these elements similar to the shelves of a warehouse are made of common materials and they all share the same dimensions.
Each structure accommodates a different object of defence:
Rationalization or rationalism, scission or segregation, anxiety or congestions, denial or obliteration, underplay or minimization - all vary in such a way that said standardized modules are under the imperative to adjust and deform their structure. Otherwise any containment would be nearly impossible.
Presenting the sculptures Objects of defence in the context of the gallery means being able to see them in a different light. Something similar to a discovery happened and I have become more aware of them. Becoming aware of something does not necessarily come all of a sudden. I spent a certain amount of time taking care of them, cleaning, modelling and sharpening their colours.
Is it possible to say that everyone somehow takes care of their personal defence mechanisms? It is an action that happens unconsciously, of course. It is likely that before realizing what they actually defend, one keeps building them to increase their volume or even their beauty. They have to be attractive in order to remain relevant and hence useful.
For instance, the objectSevere DD 01 presents an accumulation of layers trying to cover a small, yet heavy stone. The layers grow gradually and become thicker with time.
Each single layer has different colours, different ways of covering, hiding or deny the same little element. With time the layers might have lost a bit of saturation. The different colours and thickness were transforming into one huge concealment, almost ready to reveal itself as a hoax. In order to remain complicated and to continue working as a defence it needed a fresh layer of colour. In other words, the layers of the past required a fresh new narrative in order to function again.
Severe UD 01 fell down. For a long time, it had been balanced on small stakes, but its stature was underplayed and for a while it did not work any longer as a defence.
It was there on the ground, in all of its weight and complexity obeying to gravity.
It needed to be modelled and reshaped to fit again on only two tiny supports.
Moderate AD 01 apparently heavy and budding... erupted revealing to a keen eye to being made of a surface
Moderate SD 01 is sometimes triggered by ... Moderate RD 01...
Ludovica Carbotta
Ludovica Carbotta (Torino, 1982) lives and works in Barcelona (SP).
In order to survive, a body, as well as a city, employs a number of different strategies. Some of said strategies are put into action to defend the organism. They can manifest in reflexive gestures, acts of disobedience, conscious activities, or maybe even considered plans. But some of them are also completely unconscious, they are, what a psychologist would usually call: defence- mechanisms. For some time now, they might have grown, and apparently, they are still on someone's mind. They dwell in remote places, usually very well hidden, but in case they appear they can take on complex and misleading shapes: shapes designed to hide their true intentions. What these entities reveal of themselves is beautiful and also equally ugly. They might distract or even deceive the same organism that was responsible for shaping them slowly.
Objects of Defence constitutes a complete change of context for a body of work by Ludovica Carbotta entitled Monowe: The Powder Room. This set of sculptural works was conceived earlier this year as a commission for May You Live in Interesting Times, curated by Ralph Rugoff for the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale. The presentation resulted in a site-specific installation adapted to the architecture of the former gunpowder storage of Forte Marghera, a 19th-century fortress built across the lagoon from Venice. Connecting with the metaphorical resonance of the site, a building designed to protect the outside environment from its explosive internal content, the display explored the ways in which the human imagination might trigger powerful emotions that could hurt the body, even without any imminent actual danger. The current exhibition at Marta Cervera reveals how a change of scenery affects perception and discloses different meanings in a project's narrative. Her practice focuses on the physical exploration of the urban space and how individuals establish connections with the environment they inhabit. In recent works, by combining installations, texts and performances, she is researching on fictional site specificity, a form of site-oriented practice that considers imaginary places or embodies real places with fictional contexts, recovering the role of imagination as a value to construct our knowledge. Carbotta has completed an MFA at Goldsmiths University in London (2015).
Her work was presented at the 58th International Art Exhibition, May You Live in Interesting Times, Venice Biennale (2019), curated by Ralph Rugoff. Recent solo exhibitions: Monowe, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino (2019); smART, Roma (2019); Artissima Present Future, Torino (2018); Marselleria, New York (2018); Marta Cervera Gallery, Madrid (2017); ON Public - Monowe, Bologna (2016); A motorway is a very strong wind, Care Of, Milan (2014); Vitrine 270° - Without Walls, Galleria Arte Moderna, Turin (2013); Greater Torino, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Turin (2011). Among her recent group shows: Drawing Center (New York, US), EACC (Castelló de la Plana, E), La Casa Encendida (Madrid, E), Mambo (Bologna, IT), Palazzo Fortuny (Venice, IT) Kunstlerhaus Museum (Graz, AU), MAXXI Museum (Rome, IT), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin, IT), Hangar Bicocca (Milan, IT), Dublin Contemporary (Dublin, IRL), Matadero (Madrid, E), Swiss Institute (Rome, IT), Les Instants Chavirés (Paris, FR).
She is the co-founder of Progetto Diogene, an International Residency Program in the public space and The Institute of Things to Come, a research centre on futurological scenarios. She was awarded the Ariane de Rothschild Prize, Milan (2011), the Premio Gallarate (2016), International Fellowship Gasworks, London (2016), and the Special Mention at Premio ITALIA, MAXXI Museum, Rome (2016). In 2017 she is fellow researcher at Jan Van Eyck Academie, in Maastricht, in 2018 recipient of New York Prize, ISCP/Columbia University.