Covered
Marta Lodola
Anno 2023
Presentato a Wasted, a cura di IoDeposito, Ex Bunker antiaereo Piazza I Maggio, Udine
Documentazione fotografica Antonella Fuentes
Il corpo femminile è al centro del paradosso: lo sguardo maschile lo vuole aderente ai parametri del
“corpo ideale” (un modello imposto da ciò che dovrebbe essere l’attrattiva sessuale, stimolata con vigore, tra le altre cose, dalla società dei consumi 1), parametri che però non corrispondono a ciò che il corpo è effettivamente in natura. Sovvertendo il canone del nudo femminile pittorico, che verte pressoché da sempre sulla svestizione della donna (da Prassitele, agli affreschi romani, fino alle veneri tizianesche, attraverso l’impressionismo e lungo tutto il ’9002), l’artista opera una riappropriazione della propria autonomia attraverso la vestizione.
Consapevole del propagarsi del potere iconografico attraverso le epoche, Lodola ci offre la versione
contemporanea di quella Susanna tante volte svestita e vessata dai vecchioni3.
Nella sua performance l’artista avvolge progressivamente il suo corpo con un gomitolo di lana rossa,
caricandolo di energia e significato mistico: il filo diventa come una seconda pelle, uno strumento di elevazione verso l’auto-conferimento del potere personale e un mezzo di de-colonizzazione dallo sguardo maschile.Lodola recupera il colore come simbolo del paradosso4: il rosso equivale a sensualità e pericolo. La lana rossa è un materiale che ha un forte legame con l’abilità femminile: il movimento lento e implacabile di vestizione richiede cura, pazienza, determinazione.
1 Sul legame tra oggettualizzazione della donna e consumismo, si vedano il mito della bellezza, di Naomi Wolf, Tlon, 2022; e Il corpo delle donne, documentario del 2009 di Lorella Zanardo.
2 L’eccezione che conferma la regola è rappresentata da uno dei rari esempi di “vestizione” nella storia dell’arte: il misterioso caso della Maya Desnuda (dipinta da Goya tra il 1790 e il 1800) e la Maya Vestida (che il pittore ha eseguito tra il 1800 e il 1808).
3 Susanna e i vecchioni è un tema iconografico ispirato all’omonimo episodio biblico narrato nel capitolo 13 del libro di Daniele, frequentemente visitato in pittura dalla seconda metà del ‘400 alla fine del ‘700. Tra gli altri, noti sono i dipinti a tema di Pinturicchio, Lotto, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rubens, Reni, Rembrandt, Artemisia Gentileschi. Le interpretazioni visuali del tema biblico divergono molto nella rappresentazione pittorico-emotiva del fatto, facendo del topos un argomento dibattuto e un laboratorio di discussione sia a livello storico-artistico che a livello psicologico-psicanalitico.
4 L’artista sembra voler citare la duplice natura della vergine nell’iconografia dell’arte antica e moderna: i pittori che intendessero sottolinearne la natura umana la vestivano di rosso sotto al manto tradizionalmente di colore blu oltremare (colore usato invece per simbolizzarne la natura celeste).
PbPHI
Marta Lodola e Valerio Ambiveri
Anno 2023
Presentato a Performedia – Acrobat 2023, Spazio Thetis, Arsenale Nuovissimo, Venezia
A cura di Franca ed Emilio Morandi
Il numero dell’armonia coniuga il cerchio e la linea.
Il doppio I.O. traccia il segno sulla terra.
Un solco scavato dal ripetuto passaggio dei quattro piedi trascinati lungo il segmento sezionante e la circonferenza.
Creazione del sigillo universale aureo mediante lo scambio, ripetizione all’unisono ed eguaglianza.
Procedere con i piedi di piombo: come un aratro i piedi-zampe di piombo feriscono la terra.
Il piombo ha l’aspetto morbido e rugoso della pelle dei pachidermi che pesano e si muovono lentamente.
Il piombo protegge dalle radiazioni atomiche ma rilascia scorie tossiche.
Il piombo ha avvelenato gli antichi romani ed i pittori.
“Andar coi piedi di piombo” denota accortezza, prudenza e lentezza meditativa.
“Andar coi piedi di piombo” rende pesante ed impossibile il passo dell’uomo che soltanto trascinando i piedi può disegnare cerchio e linea.
“Andar coi piedi di piombo” fa rendere pesante la presenza degli umani sulla Terra.
“Andar coi piedi di piombo” lascia una traccia benefica sul pianeta.
1.62 è la corda d’oro del modulo che raddoppiato costituisce il diametro e triplicato la misura del segmento, unisce due individui al progetto divino di creazione e di armonia, dell’eterno ritorno e della non fine e non inizio.
Conduce alla dimensione animica dell’umanità generando pace e dedizione al continuum della vita.
DISSOLVENZE
final part of the long term project 2020-2022
Concept Marta Lodola, duration 30 min. Year 2022.
Presented B#Side the River, video Antonella Fuentes, curators IoDeposito
La ricerca condotta da Marta Lodola in collaborazione con IoDeposito e con l’Associazione Amideria Chiozza di Ruda in due fasi (dal 2020 al 2022) è volta a creare un punto di contatto tra il luogo ex industriale e le persone della comunità che l’ha ereditato, diventando veicolo di un’esperienza storica condivisa: un’esperienza di lavoro, di fioritura e successivo disinvestimento industriale, che si concentra nel sito dell’ex Amideria, vortice centripeto dei ricordi collettivi della popolazione locale.
Se la prima parte del progetto ha dato vita a un’opera di videoarte, nella quale vengono simbolizzati i gesti replicativi e la fisicità delle lavoratrici dell’amideria, la seconda parte, performativa e relazionale, si è concentrata invece sul tema dell’acqua, unendo il ricordo del passato con il desiderio.
L’acqua è ciò che ha permesso all’Amideria di poter nascere, proprio sul vicino torrente “La Fredda”.
Elemento vitale per la vita umana, materia plasmabile e senza forma, l’acqua è stata la protagonista di un’esperienza simbolica che ha coinvolto i visitatori: il corpo della performer, da principio quasi mimetizzato nella facciata dell’edificio, tramite l’azione del travaso da brocca a brocca, ha coinvolto i partecipanti in un gesto archetipico di restituzione, sullo sfondo dell’archeologia industriale illuminata di luci capaci di “femminizzare” l’atmosfera, immersa nei suoni e negli odori della natura circostante.
Testo IoDeposito
FREIHEIT HALTEN
Performance by Marta Lodola, duration 30 min. Year 2021.
Presented at Open Occupy 2021, photography by Alfonso Moral and Pascal Stodieck
HOMES DEVOURER
Video performance, Color HD, Stereo, 5.55 min. Year 2019 / 2021.
Project and performance Marta Lodola, Camera Pablo Hermann
Part of the performance series Urban Relationships (2015-ongoing)
The video will be presented at OPEN / OCCUPY 2021 – 10th and 11th December 2021
My act takes place in the Cuvrystraße Spree front. The background reveals one of the two facades in construction. With this performance I want to criticize the way urban speculation has been literally “chewing into” Berlin for the past years. Because of the gentrification, most of the city’s spaces have become exclusively accessible only to people who hold a high social status or to business-oriented groups. Gradually, most of the collective and self-organized spaces are subject to eviction and, furthermore, the city is losing many of its art studios, which were formerly considered one of Berlin’s significant highlights. Instead of renting those spaces for cultural purposes, it seems much easier and profitable to sell them for 5000 euro per square meters. It is precisely in this place, which tells us the story of how the “chewing machine” overpowered the will of citizens, I protested with my performance.
DISSOLVENZE
Video performance, Color HD, Stereo, 18 min. Year 2020 / 2021.
Project and performance Marta Lodola, Camera Alfonso Moral
Project “Peripheral Memories” artist residency organised by IoDeposito, supported by Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia, Current, Associazione Amideria Chiozza di Ruda, Municipality of Ruda, Ccm
“Dissolvenze” is a research based video performance project, dedicated to the industrial archeological site of Amideria Chiozza (Ruda, Udine IT), which was active from 1865 to 1986. The memory of this place is metaphorically evocated through the voices of ex-workers and their family members, in relation to performative experiences connecting a contemporary human body to the materials that were used in the production. Furthermore during World War I Amideria was used as Aid Station. This historical place was a safe working environment for women and helped the local society to empower itself from the mere agriculture society. It completely transformed the rural territory in a more progressive one creating new railways and enhancing the literacy rate in the region.
The incredible interconnected experiences within this place are still existing in relation to the ancient scientific research that allowed Amideria to became one of the most important and well known natural starch producer all over the world.
The choice to mantain the traditional process was the reason of its closing. Despite the fact that the extracted starch was one of the highest quality, the long time needed for the entire process could’t be competitive as the new fast and chemical ones introduced in the market. That’s why the memory of Amideria is now celebrated, to remember how both ethical and echological choices are necessary nowadays, where capitalism destroys all the natural methods used to transform natural materials.
Upcoming exhibitions
Peripheral Memories from 13th 28th November 2021, sala U. Veruda di Palazzo Costanzi in Piazza Piccola 2 a, Trieste Italy
Performance is Alive, Miami Satellite Art Show at Miami Art Week from 30th November to 4th December 2021, 1655 Meridian Avenue, Miami (South Beach), FL 33139
ROOTS
Video performance, Color HD, Stereo, 17 min 23 sec
Year 2021
A
Self release photo performance seires by Marta Lodola, 2021
Kunstfabrik Flutgraben, Berlin DE
YELLOW
Self release photo performance seires by Marta Lodola, 2021
Kunstfabrik Flutgraben, Berlin DE
MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE
Site-specific photo performance seires by Marta Lodola, 2021
Camera assistant Donatella Magna
Görlitzer Park, Berlin DE
NINE CHAPTERS ON ISOLATION
Color / Sound HD min. 22:23, 2020, Marta Lodola
Presented at RECONSTRUCT – Pride Art Expo
Concepts of intimacy and home have a strong relation because they are sharing that “private”world which is normally revealed to the people who are closest to us in our life. But what does actually happen when everyone is forced to cut out all the social contacts and your house is the only place where you can go? How you do I react to fear, psychological stress and isolation?
During the first weeks of the Covid-19 Pandemic I performed one action per day for 9 days in my house in Berlin. For the first time, I perceived this intimate place as a territory of my inner transformation. Hence I’ve decided to portrait my journey within this sacred space.
NON-HUMAN DISTANCE
Video – Performance by Marta Lodola and Valerio Ambiveri
Private live videoprojection, videoHD, color, sound, 7’29’’, 2020
Music from “Orpheus and Eurydice” of 1762 Christoph Willibald Gluck performed by Monica Guerini (bassoon)
Presented at GOLEM – To be generative in solidarity rather than creative in solitude
The intermediate point between Berlin and Bergamo is Berching, the place set for the meeting between Marta Lodola and Valerio Ambiveri, on May 6, 2020, at 18.00.
In addition to being the third city starting with the letter ‘B’, Berching is the birthplace of Christoph Willibald Gluck, a coincidence feeling like predestination: the meeting between the two artists took place in Gluck’s place and the setting to the music of the meeting between Orpheus and Eurydice of 1762.
The 6th of May 2020 is the culmination of the ‘lockdown’ period imposed by the pandemic emergency of covid-19, in which social distancing begins to be perceived as a necessary inhumanity.
“Non-human distance” is the performance of the non-human encounter between the two artists, broadcasted on the net right after the reopening of the borders, when the possibility of bridging the distance with new human encounters is re-established, to sanction that only bodies have this power.
+5 -3
2020
Video – Performance Marta Lodola and Valerio Ambiveri
Disponibile on line / Available on line
ITA
Considerazioni
Il 20.02.2020 abbiamo presentato “+5 -3”, per la prima volta in forma virtuale, il suo messaggio principale era l’eliminazione della distanza interpersonale, ma anche la distanza sociale ed umana.
La video-performance è stata il risultato di due incontri tra Marta Lodola e Valerio Ambiveri avvenuti nella metà di gennaio in territorio italiano. Il duo performativo vive da anni la distanza come realtà quotidiana, abitando in due differenti città, Berlino (Germania) e Bergamo (Italia).
Pochi giorni dopo, all’incirca la settimana seguente, in Italia ed in particolare in Lombardia è stata dichiarata l’emergenza pandemica da Covid-19, con l’adozione di un regime di limitazione della vita del cittadino per confinarlo in una situazione di isolamento cautelativo.
In Germania l’emergenza è stata dichiarata intorno alla metà di Marzo, cambiando definitivamente il rapporto con la socialità e con l’altro; benchè in Germania si sia lasciata la possibilità di poter uscire di casa per godersi momenti solitari di svago, vige la stessa imposizione della riduzione al minimo dei contatti interpersonali.
La distanza di sicurezza da mantenere tra individui è di almeno 1.5 m, mentre i confini territoriali di ogni paese sono temporaneamente chiusi, impermeabili, invalicabili.
Col senno di poi, sono nate delle considerazioni postume alla presentazione di “+5 -3”.
È emerso il vero significato di quel gesto, di quell’intenzione, come se la nostra sensibilità avesse intuito la necessità di stare uniti e compreso la pericolosità della distanza da colmare, ancor prima di poterla esperire realmente.
In questo momento la “social distance”, “distanza sociale”, è un metodo di protezione e salvaguardia della specie umana, ma nello stesso tempo rischia di poter essere qualcosa che crea una profonda solitudine ed isolamento dell’individuo, per questo motivo il messaggio che comunicammo in precedenza è ancora più forte e sentito, ora ci sarebbe impossibile vivere quell’avvicinamento e quella possibilità di varcare la soglia della distanza che divide i corpi.
Vogliamo rimarcare il valore di quel gesto per poterlo mantenere vivo, per poter superare nuovamente la distanza lo spazio che ci divide non può creare separazione, ma sarà lo spunto per creare nuove unità.
ENG
Considerations
On thursday 20.02.2020 we have presented the project “5 -3”, for the first time in virtual form. The main message of the project has been the removal of interpersonal distance, but also social and human distance.
The video-performance has been the result of two meetings between Marta Lodola and Valerio Ambiveri in mid-January in Italy. The performative duo has been living for years the distance as a daily reality, living in two different cities, Berlin in Germany and Bergamo in Italy.
A few days later, about the following week, in Lombardy and consequently throughout Italy the Covid-19 pandemic emergency has been declared, adopting a regime of precautionary isolation for every single citizen living on the Italian territory.
In Germany the emergency has been declared around the middle of March, definitely changing completely our daily social relations; although the german government has granted the possibility to leave the house to enjoy solitary moments of leisure. Furthermore the same requirement applies as regards the minimum reduction of people-to-people contacts.
The safety distance to be maintained between individuals is at least 1.5 m, while the territorial borders of each country are temporarily closed.
In hindsight, posthumous considerations were contemplated during the presentation of “+5 -3”. It emerged the true meaning of that gesture, of that intention, as if our sensibility has sensed the need to stay united and understood the danger of the social and human distance, even before we could really experience it.
At the moment “social distance’, is a method of protecting and safeguarding the human species, but at the same time it risks to lead to deep loneliness and isolation of the individual. For this reason the message we communicated earlier is even stronger and felt. Now it would be impossible to live that approach and that possibility to cross the threshold of distance that divides the bodies.
We want to emphasize the value of that gesture in order to keep it alive, to be able to overcome again the distance, the space that divides us cannot create separation, but it will be the starting point to create new singularities.
+5 -3
2020
Video – Performance Marta Lodola and Valerio Ambiveri
// ITA //
Il 2020 è l’anno della nuova decade, è l’anno del doppio, della celebrazione della simbiosi Lodola-Ambiveri che si manifesta proprio quest’anno da una decade. E’ l’anno del ricongiungimento dei corpi distanti, che trovano il veicolo della comunicazione nello spazio vuoto tra di loro, indagando proprio la natura e il senso della separazione. Cosa significa percepire la distanza? C’è contatto nella distanza? Il nostro corpo davvero limita la nostra presenza?
Il primo lavoro della decade Lodola-Ambiveri risponde a queste domande, la logica umana cede all’enorme sapere dell’epidermide e trova una dimensione viva della corporeità che supera la distanza perché il corpo diventa malleabile, fino ad oltrepassare il vuoto, lo spazio, la divisione.
Il valicare la distanza è una presa di posizione degli artisti Lodola-Ambiveri che, in questo particolare momento storico e politico, concepiscono se stessi come inadatti alle separazioni sociali, sessuali, razziali e difendono il senso di umanità in quanto diritto basilare necessario.
Il contatto sensoriale, emozionale ed empatico supera le distanze che limitano l’unione, ed invita il prossimo a non avere timore di mettersi al centro delle proprie scelte. L’essere umano è risultato della totalità delle sue azioni, delle relazioni che instaura con il proprio sé e con gli altri.
L’idea di condividere la presentazione di un lavoro performativo non in live, bensì utilizzando la divulgazione on line, avviene per aprire il discorso a livello globale, invitando il pubblico ad essere presente da qualsiasi luogo si trovi. Ognuno può accedere, ed essere parte di qualcosa.
On line Premiere 20.02.2020
http://www.valerioambiveri.org/8462/piucinquemenotre.html
// ENG //
2020 is the year of duality and sets the beginning of a new decade. 2020 is also the year in which the symbiotic artistic duo Lodola-Ambiveri celebrates its first decade. 2020 is dedicated to the reunification of distant bodies that communicate by means of an empty space which separates them from one another, investigating within their real nature and sense of separation. What does it mean being able to perceive the distance? Is there any contact in distance? Is our presence bound by our physical body?
The first work of the decade Lodola-Ambiveri tries to answer these questions. The logical thinking of the human being collapses under the huge epidermal knowledge, where it finds its true malleable body-related dimension that overcomes distance, space, vacuum and division.
Overcoming distance is a standpoint in Lodola-Ambiveri’s performative work, who, in this particular historical and political era, declare themselves against social, sexual and racial separation and defend the sense of humanity as essential and basic right.
A sensorial, emotional and empathic contact overcomes all distances which restrain cohesion, inviting people not to be scared of acting as lead characters within their own personal choices. A human being is the result of all actions and relationships established with the personal self and the others.
The decision to share a performance online – without a live action, has been taken in order to launch a global debate and, at the same time, to invite people from all over the world to participate. Everyone will be able to watch this performance, becoming active part of it.
On line Premiere 20.02.2020
http://www.valerioambiveri.org/8462/piucinquemenotre.html
ACTIONS AGAINST BORDERS # 1 BREAKING POINT
2019
Installation / Performance
Project selected for 22Cubic artistic residency at MATERIC.ORG
L’Hospitalet de Llobregat – Barcelona
Curators Marina Barsy Janer and Isil Sol Vil
Photography Paco Justicia Cazorla
For the first time this project was developed between two different cities. It works as a bridge to cross the border that divides this two neighboring communities. The border is present, but could be unconsciously crossed on the street. At the same time this border is absolutely evident in terms of jurisdiction. The practice of walking and interviewing people on the street, collectives and individuals working closely about borders dynamics was during 7 days. The starting point for the research was L’Hospitalet de Llobregat from Collblanc to Torrassa and Santa Eulàlia, place where Materic.org is based. Then the investigation proceeded in Barcelona, in Raval, Barceloneta, Born, Gracia and Nou Barris. The last visited place is the center of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
The recorded conversations with collectives and individuals gave the project a wide vision of the particular and unique social structures within these two cities, which are facing up with a government that does not respond to their vital needs and regulations that are forcing foreigners to live as racialized people in different aspects of their life. Housing, jobs, documents, social rights are just a part of the difficulties that most of the people are finding here. Thanks to organizations and individuals the support for crossing these invisible borders is concrete and real. Thanks to Natalia, Mercè – Tanquem els CIE, Mujeres Pa’lante, Musta and Sofiane – Can Migra, Guerra a la guerra – Casal Popular Tres Voltes Revel, Ingrid Léon #ingridsequeda, Mariló – LaFundició, and Florencia Brizuela González.
Official project website
https://www.1breaking-point.org/l%e2%80%99hospitalet-de-llobregat-%e2%80%93-barcelona.html
Video
BLIND DATE
Collaboration Marta Lodola and Anneleen Käferstein
2019
Duration | 20 min
OPEN HOUSE FLUTGRABEN 2019
Photography | Alfonso Moral
Exhibition Opening / Book Launch / Open Studios
Open/Occupy is a direct response to the ongoing process of gentrification in Berlin. The struggle and worry of losing one’s living and working space is enhanced on a daily base. Open/Occupy believes that the city needs artists because art generates critical knowledge and creates community; art offers alternative visions of the future through experiential forms of discourse; art promotes open-mindedness towards the unknown and the potential of becoming. Together we work towards strategies of civic empowerment, motoring social change, sustaining Freiräume/open spaces and creating a new solidarity-based politics of space.
PUBLICATION: OPEN/OCCUPY
On gentrification, artists and possible futures
With: KOA, AbBA, Kunstblock & many more
EXHIBITION: BLIND DATE
Annelen Käferstein & Marta Lodola
Sharon Paz & Mikala Hyldig Dal
Stefan Klein & Alfonso Moral
André Uerba & Clement Layes
Our curatorial algorithm has paired artists that have not yet collaborated to create a joint artistic intervention
//–//
Previous dispatches:
OPEN CALL :: Artists Of All Media Welcome
Open/Occupy II: Blind Date
Duration: 1-29 September, 2019
Exhibition Concept
For the second edition of Open/Occupy, Flutgraben e.V. will provide an exhibition space for Flutgraben-based artists and artists from outside of the community to collaborate.
The framing term of Open/Occupy II is Blind Date. Instead of having a conventionally curated exhibition, artists that have so far not worked together will collaborate in teams of two on a joint artistic intervention. A jury will pair four artists from Flutgraben with four artists from outside based on artistic intersection points. In the spirit of self-organization and communal empowerment participating artists will also be co-writing the curatorial statement. Artists fees are provided.
Think of this as a playground, an adventure, a lab, a test site, a place to be radical, acute, poignant, sensitive, striking, vulnerable, experimental, and fully in charge!
The selected artists will collaborate towards an exhibition, opening on September 15th, during the open studio event at Flutgraben and an Open/Occupy book launch.
Send your application to collaborate to: open-flutgraben@gmx.de until the 18th of August.
Additionally a screening program curated by Jos Diegel will function as an open platform for a larger body of artists. Finished video works responding to the general context of Open/Occupy can be submitted to josdiegel@gmx.de. In case of multi-channel or special presentations, the artist must prepare for one channel-presentation. Send your video artworks for the digital screening in format mpg4 with any transfer site (wetransfer, airbridge, dropbox or else, much appreciated are online links such as vimeo) additional to your mail with work details (name, duration, media/technique/ format, year, production country, short description, 3-5 sentences free for artist vita).
Flutgraben Open House team:
Mikala Hyldig Dal, Marta Lodola, Xiaowen Zhu, Dirk Lebahn, Pascal Stodieck, Wolfgang Schlegel
Background
In 2018, artist Mikala Hyldig Dal and the Flutgraben e.V. initiated the first edition of Open/Occupy (aka Occupy Flutgraben). It was a week-long open studio and exhibition that provided spaceless artists with the main hall situated in Flutgraben, the largest remaining self-organized artist studio complex in central Berlin. Through an open call, Open/Occupy’s call for action and solidarity between residents and artists received thousands of responses. The result was an open platform that brought together almost a hundred artists working collectively towards expressions and reflections that remain critically engaged with the current politics of space.
(See www.monopol-magazin.de/die-verdraengung-macht-eine-mini-pause).
A publication with essays and artworks from central artists groups actively countering gentrification processes in Berlin (Kunstblock, AbBA, Koalition der Freien Szene and others), edited by Mikala Hyldig Dal and Xiaowen Zhu, will be released in September this year.
Open/Occupy is a direct response to the ongoing process of gentrification in Berlin. There is no other topic more frequently debated amongst residents and artists these days. The struggle and worry of losing one’s living and working space is rapidly enhanced on a daily base. Open/Occupy believes that the city needs artists because art generates critical knowledge and creates community; art promotes independent thinking and preserves cultural memories; art offers alternative visions of the future through experimental forms of experiencing; art promotes open-mindedness towards the unknown and the potential of things. Artists are a driving force in empowering the city, motoring social change, creating Freiräume/open spaces and sustaining flexible modes of identity.
ART IS SPACE, ART IS IN OUR HEART
Site-specific
2018
Duration | 1 hour
Performance and concept | Marta Lodola
Event | Occupy Flutgraben
Curator |Mikala Hyldig Dal
Place | Flutgraben e.V.
Photo documentation | Jo Narcissa, Livi Meltaus, Dadaware
ARISE
2017
Duration | 6 hours
Performance and concept | Marta Lodola
Event | 20.ZINNOBER Hannover
Curator | Ilka Theurich
Place | Studio Ilka Theurich,
Photo documentation | Ilka Theurich
Traces_After performance
“Thank you”
I know it wasn’t my fault
if you grabbed me by the neck,
I know it wasn’t my fault
if you slapped my right cheek,
I know it wasn’t my fault
if you pushed me to the floor
I know it wasn’t my fault
if my collar bone was nearly broken.
Even when you locked me in our house I was sure that this was not the end.
In those moment I learned how huge my fears are,
and how they are sometimes strongly connected to love.
It’s strange, don’t you think?
After that I was not able to love anymore.
But that was not my nature,
because I’m made of love, light and darkness.
Now, more than four years and a half later
I want to say thank you for what you’ve done,
because leaving you gave me the power to be stronger.
Marta Lodola, part of ARISE, 2017
Highlights are present along our path in a way or another, and the resulting seizure of power on our being can shape in a positive or negative way our life. Often we found ourselves subject to be influenced by relationships, education, cultural dynamics but also by all the experiences we interface with during our existence. Specific external factors reflect within our inner reality, and for this reason we might get the chance to overcome our fear and discover a new reality free from obligations.
The act of sewing traditionally belongs to my life as my mother and my grandmother taught me how to sew buttons when i was a child. I used to fill up a piece of fabric then remove everything and start over again, choosing every day different and funny buttons. I’ve sewn the same piece of fabric over and over, a pocket made of red velvet. Growing up i’ve learned different sewing techniques, finding connections and similarities with painting and artistic creations in general. I keep with me this gesture as a unique sign of my persona and my femininity.
At some point, the joy and the naivety of being a child has been interrupted by a tragic event: a former partner has forced himself on me pushing me to find the strenght and the lucidity to understand what was happenig and finally leave him. In that moment I think I’ve lost, at least in part, the innocence in me that I might have never found again.
Luckily it was not as i thought, and after time I’ve understood the enormous pain i was carrying inside and I’ve decided to look for that child again and keep her with me. My artistic research has provided the lucidity to see things for what they are, detaching me and giving a wider vision.
I’ve found love for myself and for others only by leaving behind my old self made of forced social dynamics and conjectures as a woman. I’ve discovered gratitude for a life of complete faith. The negative experience turned into an unmistakable sign of my true self.
I’ve found myself after recognising and accepting my entirety, appreciating every moment that I’ve lived. Going through this abyss within me I’ve found again my real self.
The performace evokes those moments, positive and negative, whereby I confronted myself with diverse power dynamics in referral to my persona by means of the performative practice.
My true self emerges to experience the present moment, letting go what lies within myself. The rebirth is neverending, new consciousness arises overcoming fear.
During the action I gradually compose the sentence “Through my fears I’ve found myself”, where the writing process consists of two different faces, rationality and instinct. The balance between these two aspects of every individual is the subtle limit where I place the nature of my action. My aim to create meaning gets mixed with a more meditative and chatartic aspect.
Different levels of experience reflect upon the research of our true identity mixing at once the body language and the verbal one. Nothing is separate, everything is connected.
BEING IN THIS WORLD
2017
Duration | 4 h in 2 days
Performance and concept | Marta Lodola and Valerio Ambiveri
Event | Dear Home, Project space exhibition
Curators | Dear Home Collective
Gallery | GlogauAIR, Glogauerstr. Berlin
Location | Inside and outside
Photo documentation | Karsten Hein
“Being-in-this-world has always dispersed or even split itself up into definitive ways of Being-in. The multiplicity of these is indicated by the following examples: having to do with something, producing something, attending to do something and looking after it, making use of something, giving something up and letting go, undertaking, accomplishing, evincing, interrogating, considering, discussing, determining… All these kind ways of Being-in have concern as their kind of Being”
M.Heidegger, Sein und Zeit, 1929
Being-in-this-world is to live the world. As a simple fact, we exist, we live in space where we are present. The body is our home and our being creates our existence.
We live our home, we take care of it, we develop relationships within our space defining our whole existence. At the same time we can live also places which are not specifically described as home. These places can become the perfect example of “feeling at home”. They become a clear manifestation of spaces that belong to us and are still “ours”.
During the performance we would like to explore the duplicity of living yourself and the world: we live places that are our by necessity or relationships. We investigate the state of living inside and outside.
We live because we are, we relate to ourselves within space and time and we live any places considered “ours”. We inhabit ourselves and we relate to the places life put on our path. We inhabit temporarily physical places coming to life thanks to our actions and our presence.
Duality lies within each one of us, it shapes the action of two individuals connected and separated at the same time. Each one of us will find its path in the world. The confrontation with the “Other” and the role exchange will situate inversely two parts of the Self.
EQUILIBRIUM | DESTROYING THE BORDER
2017
Duration | 1 hour
Performance and concept | Marta Lodola and Valerio Ambiveri
Event | 4th International Performance Art Week-end
Curators | Luisa Catucci and Dagmar Glausnitzer Smith
Gallery | Luisa Catucci Gallery, Allerstr. 38, Berlin
Wood structures | Barbara Papa
Photo by Karsten Hein
Photo by Mathieu Leger
Photo by Hector Canonge
Photo by Karsten Hein
Photo by Karsten Hein
Photo by Karsten Hein
Photo by Karsten Hein
Photo by Karsten Hein
Photo by Karsten Hein
The balance among our bodies becomes a tool of power and knowledge.
It is the perfect deal among individuals who are similar and different at the same time, observing each other from the inside to eradicate the discrepancy that separates them. Forming one body we become a new figure, we become an individual who is different from the single human being. The cohesion is unearth, the cohesion is a gaze toward the inner part of someone different, who seemed at first extraneous in our eyes.
The dividing line between us is made precarious by our stability. In frontal, and unbalanced position in comparison to the single centers, we unite ourselves through the support of the third eye on our forehead. We become one body, our togetherness make possible a new balance.
The formed body is unique, single and double at the same time. The hands sideways support a precarious structure acting as parameter for our stability. The necessary resistance, to maintain this form, works as mechanism destroying the limit that separates us. The fusion happens through the gaze, creating a sutle game among the eyes, so close to each other and capable to see beyond our perception.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
INNER TRANSITION
2016
Performance and concept | Marta Lodola and Anna Kosarewska
Duration | 3 hours
Gallery | Cell63 Art Platform, Berlin
Photography | Swen-Gabriel Schwalke
“Confession of a digital Mind: A Live-Stream-Performance”
2017
A live-stream-performance by Marta Lodola & Gal Meyerson
Who are we, when we subject ourself to a digital matrix of rules and restrictions?
What remains of us once we are forced to eliminate our deviations, absurdities, and obscenities, to censor all the uneven corners of our being? We reveal, verbalize, and display. Taking a new standardized identity, we confess strictly along the guidelines.
In the last 10 years a new public sphere has emerged, and it’s a privately owned one. Those who wish to participate, must follow and respect its restrictions. Most of us accept this sacrifice so gracefully, so willingly; as if it’s the natural price we must pay for obtaining connectedness in an evermore immaterial reality.
Under the promise “to build a more open and connected world” lies the death of individuality and the creation of a single absolute truth.
We invite you for a shared reflection on the issues of power, identity, confession, and truth in the age of the digital social network.
Our performance will take place inside the environment we wish to examine, and will be subjected to the same restrictions and guidelines we wish to challenge.
TRUST
2016
Duration 1 hour
WIPAW Warsaw International Performance Art Weekend
IN THE NAME OF
2016
Duration | 40 minutes
Gallery | Cell63, Berlin
Event | Ophelia-The Exhibition (opening)
Gallery Director, Curator| Luisa Catucci
Photography | Luisa Catucci
Two days later
Gender-based violence is something inherent in our social sphere. The government provisions seem not able to embank the problem and offer an effective aid.
Since the beginning of the year 80 women died in Italy because of feminicide. A woman dies every two days and, many women suffer constantly from violence without knowing how to ask for help, or to whom.
There are no effective punishments for the aggressors and the murderes remaining un-imprisoned even after the reports, being a constant threat for every woman asking for help.
The laws don’t guarantee a real protection, and in situations of home violence there are often dynamic for which is difficult to find a way out from this condition. The report would be only another way to jeopardize your own life.
I remember their lives, their light and their vitality, interrupted by murderous hands. My body is a simple medium, annulled by their presence.
TRUST
2016
Duration 2 hours
Event | 48 Stunden Neukölln , Cell63 artplatform, Allerstr. 38, Berlin
Curator | Luisa Catucci
Photography | Karsten Hein
The female body is connected to its standard representation of mere tool proving its own presence and its own identity. The female body has always been persecuted and identified as sexual body connected to aesthetic pleasure. Historically the female role has been subjected to the highest violence discriminations precisely because it is the body of sin, evil and perdition. The broken and shadowed body.
How can the enslaved body identify its own identity and value? What is the process in which we judge the body? In which way our judgement is responsible for the woman condition through history?
The judged female body becomes the starting point to recreate an interaction within reality, although the body as symbol of rejection and power over the individual is actually the opposite. It creates a bridge between the worlds and establish mutual trust among identities communicating through this body.
WORK IS EVERYTHING / WORK IS NOTHING
2016
Duration 3 hours
CIPAF 4th Cyprus International Performance Art Festival, Kokkinogia Mine, Mitsero
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
THE EARTH WILL TAKE YOU BACK
2016
Duration 3 hours
CIPAF 4th Cyprus International Performance Art Festival, Kokkinopezoula Mine, Mitsero
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
Photo by Skevi Laou
TIME TO READ
2016
Duration 2 hours
3° Weekend of Performance Art- Cell63 meets APAB, Cell63 artplatform, Allerstr.38, Berlin
Photo by Luisa Catucci
Photo by Luisa Catucci
Photo by Luisa Catucci
Photo by Luisa Catucci
It is time to read, understand, and take a stand.
Let’s focus on the sense of the words and compare it with the reality.
A careful reading of Italian Constitution articles, especially in this historical and political moment, reveals a complete incongruity observing what is actually happening. The events of the Italian chronicles are the perfect example as this text, that should be the clear model of Italian citizens rights and duties, is in reality a realized paradox.
On paper individual freedom is inviolable. Citizens rights are equal in front of the law, and there are no distinctions of sex, race, religion and political views. We know that these distinctions and inequalities are real and they become visible more and more. I see my country in extreme danger, a marvelous place, crib of the art strongly defaced by the affairs and by the political business. I look at my beloved earth and I am sad.
In my left hand I will hold a candle and using my right hand I will take, one after another, the articles printed on every single sheet. Every article gets burnt before its reading so the fire sets the time and dangerously challenge to read more and more.
Reading every article implicates two factors: the risk to suffer a physical damage and at the same time the risk of a limited comprehension of the words during theirs reading.
Risking to be misunderstood or risking to suffer a physical pain due to knowledge, is a compromise that leads to take a stand.
It is an invitation to Reaction.
Time to read is now!
LOST IN THE CIRCLE
2016
Duration 1 hour
performance by Marta Lodola and Ruth Biene
APAB Performance Series #1 GlogauAir, Glogauer Str. 16, Berlin
COVERED
2016
Durational
Cell63 Art Gallery, opening of the exhibition “Svelata | Unveiled”, Berlin
photo by Ruth Biene
photo by Ruth Biene
photo by Giacomo Merkic
photo by Ruth Biene
photo by Ruth Biene
photo by Giacomo Merkic
photo by Ruth Biene
photo by Ruth Biene
photo by Ruth Biene
The feminine body has always been the biggest proponent and inspiration for beauty and sin, finding itself in the middle of the paradox generated by our intrinsic imperfection: the general parameters of the ideal body – imposed model of what sexual attractive should be – doesn’t correspond of what actually is in nature. A woman naked body is animalistic, sensual, powerful and it comes in all shapes and sizes.
In her performance Marta Lodola progressively wraps her own body with red wool and daily use objects, transforming it from its original identity and loading it with energetic power and mystical meaning. The color symbol of the paradox: red – sensuality and danger.
In geo chromotherapy the red color is known for its gynecological and sexual functions, and more generally it is known for its energetic and initiating virtues, stimulation of blood circulation, in religious rituals and functions it keeps bad energies away and of course it is the color symbolizing eros and passion. The red wool is a material that has strong connection with magic and the feminine reproductive system. With this action the red wool becomes like a second skin, an elevating bridge to a whole new level of presence and conscience.
English text by Luisa Catucci
RE_CONNECTION
2015
Duration 2 hours
DIY12: Zierle & Carter and Christina Georgiou “Eyes wide open: Unearthing Fragments on the future”
North of England, Location : Unknown
photo by Christina Georgiou
photo by Christina Georgiou
photo by Christina Georgiou
photo by Christina Georgiou
WHISPERING FROM THE ROOTS
DIY12: Zierle & Carter and Christina Georgiou “Eyes wide open: Unearthing Fragments on the future”
2015
North of England, Location : Unknown
photo by Christina Georgiou
photo by Christina Georgiou
photo by Ruth Biene (adapted from the original)
photo by Ruth Biene
TAKE CARE OF ME
2015
Durational performance, 5 hours
International Performance Summer 2015
‘PUSHING THE INSIDE OUT – DRAWING THE INSIDE IN’
With Dagmar I. Glausnitzer-Smith and Zierle & Carter
Cell63 Art Platform, Berlin, Germany
photo by Dagmar Glausnitzer Smith
photo by Dagmar Glausnitzer Smith
photo by Heekyung Ryu
photo by Dagmar Glausnitzer Smith
VISCERE
International Performance Summer 2015
‘PUSHING THE INSIDE OUT – DRAWING THE INSIDE IN’
With Dagmar I. Glausnitzer-Smith and Zierle & Carter
photo by David Frankovich
photo by David Frankovich
photo by Paul Carter
ABOUT A WOMAN
2014
Project_Marta Lodola
Performance_Marta Lodola and Marco De Meo (Contamina)
Event_”About a woman” by Contamina in collaboration with Auser Cologno Monzese and the Municipality of Cologno Monzese for the Auser’s campaign against gender violence
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
SENZA TITOLO_THE GIFT
2014
Project_Marta Lodola
Videoperformance_Marta Lodola and Valerio Ambiveri
Video_Valerio Ambiveri
A MIA IMMAGINE
2013
Project_Marta Lodola
Performance_Marta Lodola
“Labirinti Festival” by Cooperativa Letteraria, Open011, Torino
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
I’M DYING TO BUILD MY HOUSE
2013
Project_Marta Lodola
Installation and performance_Marta Lodola
Project selected for P.A.C. II, Villa Nappi, Polverigi, Ancona
CAN YOU HELP ME?…TO DESTROY MYSELF
2013
Project_Marta Lodola
Art action to protest against the eviction of the art gallery XLAB Corrosive Art Farm
XLAB Corrosive Art Farm, Skalitzer Straße 67, Kreuzberg, Berlin
Photographer_Paola Verde
DOUBLE TRUTH
2012
in collaboration with Valerio Ambiveri.
Video footage from_Collateral Murders, wikileaks.org
“Something New” by Marcello Gungui and RevoltArt in collaboration with Spazio Concept Art Location, Milan
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
photo by Francesco Gabriele Insalaco
SENZA TITOLO
2012
Project_Marta Lodola
Performance_Marta Lodola and Silvia Somaschini
Event_”Con i tuoi occhi Colonne di San Lorenzo, in collaboration with Comune di Milano and Chan. By Francesca Guerisoli.
photo by Daniele Pellizzoni
photo by Daniele Pellizzoni
photo by Daniele Pellizzoni
photo by Carlo Mariani
photo by Carlo Mariani
FAK – Actions Urbaines
2012
Guerilla group: Marta Lodola, Chantal Malambri, Sveva Scognamiglio
Batiment B, Université Paris8, Saint Denis, Paris
photo by Abdel
photo by Abdel
photo by Abdel
Fak c’est une action, pas seulement une performance.
Intention, volonté, plutôt qu’un spectacle.
Les armes de la culture ou bien la culture des armes ?
Aussi la liberté est un ordre, et l’espace son champ d’expérimentation et entrainement.
Le paysage n’est plus objet de contemplation, de pure fusion, voire d’extase. Non, il est objet des
discussions, des stratégies, d’actions.
C’est à partir de ces questionnements liberté, guerrilla, sécurité, contrôle, surveillance et pouvoir
qu’on à structuré un mouvement.
Le bâtiment B qui s’offre aux étudiants avec son architecture genre panopticon est devenu
l’extension de notre subjectivité, la centralité à travailler, à repousser pour se déplacer sous une autre
optique. Comment peut on se retrouver après? Qu’est ce que nous a changé ?
Notre défi, le temps pour pratiquer cette intersection, le cadre de la semaine des arts, et les limites
des objets trouvé sur place et la structure architectonique.
Seul le rapport entre le lieu, sa population et nos corps a pu garantir quelque chose, une
compatibilité divergente, entre l’hostilité d’une occupation et la médiation d’une ouverture, un
écrasement calculé, une résurrection volontaire et le risque à tout instant de s’inscrire dans
l’imposition du « je ».
Subvertir, Reformer, hypothèses pour toucher une immatérialité d’un goût plus lointaine de la joie,
verbes avec des modalités en regardant vers l’infinitif, on a tué la seule rationalité qui nous restait,
personne est absente, nouvelles formes de vie se constituent comme des plateformes.
Chantal Malambri
ITALIAN GIRLS MUST BE BEAUTIFUL
2011
Project_Marta Lodola
Performance_Marta Lodola
Camera_Valerio Ambiveri
In Italy women’s image has undergone a dramatic change over the past twenty years, which has partly been induced by television, media and sexual scandals involving political leaders. As a result, Italian women have soon been exposed to the risk of a generalisation that alienates them.
I talk about resistance as it entails an actual limitation of women’s involvement in this country. This also generates a number of problems regarding women’s social dimension and their ongoing struggle to achieve those unrealistic images so appealing to the contemporary taste.
MY BODY IS YOUR BODY
2011
Videoperformance_Marta Lodola
Video footage from_Bombardamenti Usa
Camera_Valerio Ambiveri
My body is your body, it’s everyone’s. Let ourselves become more than witnesses for once. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of those people being targeted or in the shoes of that soldier that’s dropping bombs. What will you be? A victim or a murderer?
MARTA LODOLA 