LA PAROLA LIBERA

Relational Art Intervention/Project by LAURA MEGA
Curated by Barbara Pavan
In collaboration with Seconda Chance ETS Association
inside the women’s section of Rebibbia prison

The word makes us free and the possibility that it overcomes the boundaries of space and time further amplifies this characteristic. From this simple consideration the Relational Art project entitled “LA PAROLA LIBERA” (WORDS SET FREE) comes to life.

Conceived by Laura Mega and inspired by a large physical barrier such as prison, to be precise the women’s section of Rebibbia Prison among the High Security inmates. Created in collaboration with Seconda Chance ETS Association and curated by Barbara Pavan, the project began with a first presentation meeting with the inmates on March 19th.

Each of the participants was given a notebook donated by the Moleskine Foundation to keep a daily diary, for one month, transforming it into a frank space where you can jot down thoughts, desires, aspirations, and considerations. At the end of this phase, each inmate will be able to freely choose some sentences that she considers particularly significant for herself, especially with a view to a future life and daily life project outside of prison, which will be reported and entrusted to a further collective notebook which it will subsequently become part of the Moleskine Foundation collection.

Laura Mega, an artist active on the international contemporary art scene, and Barbara Pavan, a curator specializing in fiber art and textile art, will select a phrase for each of the participants, to be embroidered on white pillowcases supplied by the textile company Confezioni Lara based in San Giuseppe Vesuviano (NA), transforming it into a personal motto, a mantra that will ideally accompany future daily life.

Mega uses the textile medium – and in particular embroidery – redeeming the negative declination of the feminine which for centuries has decreed its definition as a minor art, attributing to it the dignity of the language of visual art at the same level as other more consolidated, and recognized ones such as painting or sculpture. Her poetic vision of existence supports research and artistic practice that focuses on the emancipation and evolution of the human being in her individual and collective uniqueness, with a view to the development of more just and equitable human societies, and respectful of individuals and the environment.

In LA PAROLA LIBERA (WORDS SET FREE) the pillowcase becomes the symbol of the dreams that accompany us in life, the same dreams that sometimes, along our journey, we lose, forget, or betray. The words embroidered on each of the pillowcases maintain the attention and memory of a life project by fixing it clearly in the mind and remembering it every day.
The pillowcases will be true works of art which will remain the property of the inmates after the official return which seals the completion of the project and will be available to them compatibly with the regulations and provisions of the Penitentiary Institute.

“It is an extraordinary idea, a work of art that will be created day after day and will remain absolutely unique and unrepeatable. – explains Alessandra Ventimiglia Pieri, Vice President of Seconda Chance – Thanks to the approval of the Director of Rebibbia women’s section Nadia Fontana, we carry forward La Parola Libera, with a lot of enthusiasm in a very complex section such as that of women’s High Security. Furthermore, the project is created by a woman and designed for women, a feminine alliance between those who are outside and those who are inside which, thanks to the word, makes us all equal and free”.

When everything seems lost and time has no meaning, the artistic gesture restores visual concreteness to the words that the artist invests through her art in the life project of other women.
The embroidery thread penetrates the prison walls, becomes the thread of thought, of story, of art and of life that cancels out all distance and difference.
An exchange from the inside to the outside and vice versa, an opening onto the future to mean that everything is never lost and that nothing like Art can give shape and plurality of declinations to the word hope.

THE ARTIST
LAURA MEGA is a contemporary artist with an international curriculum. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and at the University of the Image in Milan (a school for the five senses created by the well-known photographer Fabrizio Ferri).

Her practice alternates drawing, text, embroidery, printing, together with the use of unconventional techniques such as pink hair removal wax, with which she intervenes on textile materials.

Through a simple and contemporary language, she transforms the symbols of a portrayed and predefined femininity into works capable of transmitting and investigating emotional, social and political issues, where sometimes a subtle irony leaves the observer responsible for a different interpretation and interpretation.

Laura Mega’s work has been exhibited in international spaces and events including: Resobox Gallery (NYC), M55 Art Gallery (NYC), Endless Biennial (NYC), Ivy Brown Gallery (NYC), Sejong Museum of Art (Seoul), The Others Art Fair (Turin), MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art (Rome), MADXI (Latina), Every Woman Biennial (London), Clio Art Fair (NYC), KOU Gallery (Rome), WTA – World Textile Art, Biennale Textiles, Textile Museum (Busto Arsizio), Larnaca Biennale 2023 (Cyprus), TRYST – International Art Fair, Torrance Art Museum (Los Angeles).

Her works are part of the collections of Moleskine Foundation (Milan), Glo’Art (Lanaken, Belgium), KOU Gallery (Rome) and private collections.

Furthermore, she has had several international collaborations including Moleskine S.p.A., PULSE Art Fair – Art Basel Miami, SOME SERIOUS BUSINESS (Los Angeles), Culture Monks (India), SENSE LAB (Milan), Task Force for Music and Arts – TaFMA (Nagaland , India), Spazio Giallo Interiors (Rome).

She is the creator and curator of the international artistic project “DREAMERS” @dreamers_art_project and co-founder of the project “LAZZARO_art doesn’t sleep” @lazzaro_artdoesntsleep. She has created, with the Pulcinoeditore publishing house (Milan), two limited edition artist books, one of which with Alda Merini.

In 2021 she wrote and illustrated two artist books: “Amazoniano. The new HERO” (Italian language), the result of his performative research on Amazon warehouse workers, and “ThePinkSide of WTF” (English language) in a double version, one of which can be coloured, on sale on Amazon.

THE CURATOR

BARBARA PAVAN has curated exhibitions, reviews, catalogs and publications, specializing over the years in textile languages in the artistic field. She has collaborated with private galleries, institutions and public administrations in the organization, creation and curation of contemporary fiber art, textile art and embroidery art projects in Italy and abroad. She has collaborated with ArteMorbida Textile Arts, an international thematic magazine, published in Italian and English, and she has founded a specialized blog. She deals with the promotion and dissemination of the work and research of artists who use the textile medium – techniques and/or materials – as an expressive language. She is a member of the jury for the VIII International Triennial of Textile Arts Szombathely – Hungary.

THE ASSOCIATION

Seconda Chance is a non-profit association of the Third Sector established in Rome on July 7th 2022, from an idea of the La7 news journalist Flavia Filippi together with Alessandra Ventimiglia Pieri, author and documentary maker, and Beatrice Busi Deriu, owner of Ethicatering. Regional representatives and volunteers actively collaborate in the project. The group has so far provided 250 job opportunities for prisoners, ex-prisoners and family members of prisoners. The number of those hired is constantly increasing.

THE SPONSORS

In support of this project and the artist:

• the MOLESKINE FOUNDATION which enthusiastically donated the notebooks https://moleskinefoundation.org/
• the textile company CONFEZIONI LARA srl based in San Giuseppe Vesuviano (NA) which generously donated the pillowcases