ART CITIES:Rome-Sabrina Mezzaqui
Repetitiveness is not a quality normally sought in art, but for Sabrina Mezzaqui, it is part of the challenge posed both by form and by content. With deliberate obsessiveness, she isolates “humble” gestures and executes them over and over again, almost to the point of automatism. In the subtle and ambiguous no-man’s-land between the image she has in mind and the seeming infinity of signs necessary to convey that image, her hand moves of its own accord, allowing unexpected ideas to emerge.
By Dimitis Lempesis
Photo: Galleria Continua Archive
“c’è qui nell’aria la parola-ramo” us a new exhibition project that develops around the dialogue between the artist Sabrina Mezzaqui and the poet Elisa Biagini. Images and words arise from the meeting between the two authors in an exhibition where visual art and poetry intertwine, offering the visitor different perspectives. In the contamination between these two arts, the word takes on a central role. The poetic, authentic, and resilient word becomes a branch to cling to so as not to slip away. The verses that give the exhibition its title are those that captured Sabrina Mezzaqui during a public reading of Elisa Biagini’s poetry. Both artists attach particular weight to the meaning of the word and to the ethical function performed by poetry and art, and the deep bond that comes from this encounter materializes in the works that inhabit the spaces of the Gallery. The verses on display by Biagini are part of a collection of imaginary dialogues by two great authors, belonging to different eras and countries: Emily Dickinson and Paul Celan. The poet’s voice welcomes the visitor at the beginning of the exhibition, before allowing a full immersion in a tangle of different kinds of branches. Branches made of paper, made as is customary by the artist by many different hands during a residence in Lo Scompiglio – Lucca in 2019 based on the theme of death and dying, populate the wall that becomes a place of growth in both the decorative and conceptual sense. The bronze branches are a contrast to their paper counterparts and seem to emerge from the wall, hosting various representations of birds, the chirping of which we can only imagine before perhaps hearing it from the branches of the real trees on the other side of the windows of the gallery. The works by Sabrina Mezzaqui thus go beyond the perimeter of the room and transgress to the outside, taking on a life of their own. Beside the works, the predominant empty space is assigned a precise value by the artist, which isolates and enhances the effectiveness of the word, augmenting its thaumaturgical role. Mezzaqui’s works are the materialization of the passage of time, represented by the understanding of manual work, performed through repeating slow simple and gestures for hours. By observing the works on display, those who know the production process can easily find recognizable elements, characteristics common to other works by the artist, attributable to an artistic method that is at the same time a lifestyle choice. In fact, from the very beginning of her artistic career, Sabrina Mezzaqui has alternated between different techniques, from drawing to installations, from video to photography, which is often used simultaneously within the same work. In all her experiments with language, she has always employed the practice of patiently observing reality. Commonly used materials that recur in our lives, postcards, business cards, chocolate papers, are used by the artist as “main words” in her artistic dictionary. Using artisan manual practices has come almost naturally to her, requiring precise, slow and repeated gestures with an attitude towards self-discipline that very much resembles meditation.Like meditation, the artist also seems to evoke in these works a sense of time slowed-down; the executive techniques that Mezzaqui embraces involve the recovery of artisanal materials such as paper and bronze. Paper is certainly one of her favorite materials. Cut, folded, drawn and manipulated by different hands, this simple and common element manages to give shape to a reading that is also a practice of contemplation on the hidden mystery of the word.
Photo: Sabrina Mezzaqui, Niente si perde, tutto affiora, 2021, paper scraps, fabric, glass-brass frames variable dimensions, © Sabrina Mezzaqui, Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA, Photo by: lostandfoundstudio
Info: Galleria Continua, The St. Regis Rome, Via Vittorio E. Orlando 3, Rome, Italy, Duration: 1/10-11/12/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00 by appointment only (book at roma@galleriacontinua.com), www.galleriacontinua.com
