Impermanence and Fragility
My name is Rosanna Rotondi, born in Torre del Greco (NA), and I live and work in La Spezia. After obtaining my Artistic Maturity and a Diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, I continued my studies with specializations in Physiopathology for differentiated teaching and later completed a three-year Music Therapy course in Genoa. I taught for many years in middle school and later at the "V. Cardarelli" State Art High School in La Spezia.
The creative aspect has manifested as an expression of the deep soul and self, permeated by the multiplicity of artistic and educational paths I have undertaken. In addition to the polymaterial plastic component, there is also a theatrical and musical aspect, combined with the exploratory component of self and inner journey.
This year's theme, HERE AND NOW, proposed by LUBICA, particularly struck me in relation to my artistic choice "Impermanence and Fragility," which sees paper as both substance and idea. Using paper, an element belonging to the everyday and ephemeral realm, places one in an anti-monumental dimension, not challenging time but accepting its passage and the inevitable destiny of things. It abandons any expectation of "long duration" and considers "Impermanence" as a point of view and a way of life. Fragility is the substance of the work (the body), which is fragile (paper) but encapsulates the strength of an idea. Like the fragility of crystal, it is not a weakness but a refinement.
My cycle of creations, Visita Interiora Terrae, stems from an alchemical suggestion reinterpreted through a Jungian perceptivity. The V.I.T.R.I.O.L. (Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem) corresponds to an inner journey of recognition and regeneration, surprising and necessary. As emblems of this journey, I have crafted Garments-Entities, each bearing and revealing archetypal and mythopoetic peculiarities: The Traveler/Hermit’s Cloak, a sort of garment-pass to cross thresholds, followed by Artemis, The Siren, The Pythia, The Animus/Anima, which respectively represent inner freedom, knowledge through the senses, one's oracular voice, and the tension toward integrating dual elements: male/female, sacred/profane, yin/yang. Three other Garments/Entities include The Dark Side of Aphrodite, Lilith, and The Soul of the Rose.
With some of these Garments/Entities, I have created performances in a forest on the hills of Montigiano (Massarosa) "Le Linfe Arcane," at the Pacini Theater in Viareggio "Canti e Vesti per le Oltresoglie," and in the Monumental Cemetery of Pietrasanta "Tra Memoria e Immaginario" within the festival "I Musei del Sorriso 2023." These Garments/Entities manifest as "artistic creations" but go beyond their appearance, playing the role of interpreters of the most enigmatic, inscrutable, and obscure signals we detect in our journey to imagine and discover new worlds, starting from the Here and Now. They are aesthetic figures of meditation and, to use a term from Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale, Magical Helpers, all bearing archetypal peculiarities.
In this historical moment, I assert the importance and necessity of restoring and constantly exercising divergent thinking, which is the foundation of creative thinking. Every creative act gives rise to multiple possible options, surpassing the limitation of a single predefined response. Creative capacity is akin to an alchemical goddess, capable of producing changes, leading one to generate and create something new, or conversely, to destroy. In some instances, it becomes dangerous and vengeful, especially when it is not honored or recognized. Therefore, its duality shows how we must constantly be vigilant and choose, or perhaps better, integrate the multiple facets of our self to create something meaningful, precious, original, and thus evolving, especially within ourselves, which inevitably reverberates to others.
The answers to our questions should not be sought outside in the pre-packaged, reassuring, and homogenized offerings of society but will always be within us, in our uniqueness and soul, if we dare to embark on the journey. These hopes are necessarily addressed to young people approaching the art world, so they remain "High" in their exposure through Authenticity. Only in this way can they keep their soul's thread taut with the external world, create strong connections that surpass digital tempests, and allow their works, even if made of pixels, to be identified as Human.
Future projects include current collaboration with Danish artist Nes Lerpa for an artistic event-performance with the CRATAEGI Project (with musicians Ejnar Kanding and David Hildebrandt, video by Kim Dang Trong in May 2024) and a future exhibition-event of my works and those of Nes Lerpa at Dansk Marble Carrara (2024).
I am also collaborating with art historian and director Riccardo Mazzoni for a future exhibition-performance at Hotel Palace Viareggio, linking the hotel culturally and artistically to Eleonora Duse's stay there in the summer of 1915 (August 2024). Additionally, I will be creating stage costumes and choreography for the project D.E.M. (Desuetudini Evanescenze Medianità) Animistic Theater with songs, dances, weavings, and music directed by Riccardo Mazzoni (spring 2025). I regularly collaborate for the annual artistic event "Studi Aperti" (June 2024) and the "Convivere" Festival in Carrara (September 2024) and with the online magazine “The Spezziner.”
INSTAGRAM : rotondirosannarte
MAIL rotross@hotmail.com
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