VALERIA PATRIZI E GIULIA SPERNAZZA: Tra il Visibile e l’Interiore

Redazione 9 December 20229 December 2022

*Featured photo: Giulia Spernazza, Bacheca affettiva. detail. Ph Manuela Giusto

curated by Marta Bandini and Elettra Bottazzi

DIOCESAN MUSEUM OF CALTAGIRONE
On display from 16 December 2022 to 4 June 2023
Inauguration 15 December 2022 at 18.00

Home, relationships, the spaces we live in, and nature are all part of what surrounds us daily. In recent years, this has become more prominent in our lives as we have become more aware of our intimacy and the value of time and its ever-changing and fleeting nature. Everything is subject to change and the passing of time. To find ourselves is to experience our connections as unique, individual and intimate moments. That is precisely why we evolve throughout our lives through connections that grow and strengthen, disappear or crumble, leading us, as a consequence, to make new ones. We bind ourselves to something or someone, unite and separate, nurture and create new relationships: an inﬁnite weave.

“Two women artists who, despite their diversity in style and use of materials, engage in a network of communicative relationships resulting from the interweaving of professional and human experiences, connecting project and artefact, spirit and matter. Thus, through the art channel, the narrative gives the observer an opportunity to reﬂect the importance of personal relationships.” (F. Raimondi)

In “Tra il Visibile e l’Interiore”, an exhibition by Valeria Patrizi and Giulia Spernazza, curated by Marta Bandini and Elettra Bottazzi, the artists investigate the concept of bonding, both with their own artistic language and interpretation. They create works through a multiplicity of raw and sensorial materials to evoke the coming together of material ties to recall and rediscover memories and emotions.

Giulia Spernazza entrusts her research to the use of materials from the domestic world: white cement, symbolically chosen by the artist as the building element of the house we inhabit and, therefore, synonymous with solidity and stability; felt, cotton wool and scraps of clothing or embroidered cloths that, worn, crystalise the time and the history of the relationships that have passed through them. These elements merged in a single bond, in a single work, take us back to the most intimate and familiar chords of our living. Spernazza’s works transport the viewer into the sphere of affection and home reality, entering into a close dialogue with memory and our recollections.

Valeria Patrizi, working on the opposite condition, addresses the mending of the lost, wounded bond that arises in the encounter between two parts: the self and the other, we and nature. The artist reﬂects the theme by stitching together pieces of cotton canvas with threads and glue, using a pencil to mark the thin line between the works as a conjunction between the parts. As memories emerge and are linked to each other, they evoke a precious space of encounter between them and nature. Through the gesture of stitching, Patrizi recalls the ancient tradition of sewing, a cherished element of domestic life in the past and an essential interaction between generations.

A continuous process of healing and mending unites the work of the two artists to heal and create new links and interweavings between individuals, objects and nature, to set the beginning for new stories to be told.

dett- La cura,Ph Manuela Giusto — Giulia Spernazza, La Cura. dettaglio. Ph Manuela Giusto

Valeria Patrizi (Rome,1979), training is closely linked to the restoration world. In 2016, she qualified as a collaborator in the restoration of Cultural Heritage and in 2009, she completed a three-year course in painting and fresco restoration at the ‘San Giacomo’ School of Ornamental Arts in Rome. Following an initial academic approach to painting, the result of in-depth studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Capital, Valeria Patrizi researched an innovative and personal pictorial dimension: a combination of the essentiality of forms combined with the materiality of large canvases that are worked without a frame and with the use of coffee, tea and bitumen. What emerges is a constant focus on the human figure, particularly the female figure, bearer of a profound truth, capable of constantly shifting between desire and concreteness. In addition to numerous participations in group exhibitions and fairs, personal exhibitions include: in 2016 Souvenir at the Amaneï gallery in Salina; in 2017 Una stanza tutta per sé at the Galleria Nardi in Rome; in 2018 Plenitudo at the Museo Diocesano in Caltagirone, Amor mi mosse at the Palazzo del Pegaso headquarters of the Region of Tuscany in Florence and Se fioriscono i melograni at the Fondazione Marco Besso in Rome; in 2020 M’è dolce naufragar at the Faro di punta Lingua in Salina and Demetra in fiore at the Palazzo Ferretti in Cortona. In 2022 she realised her solo exhibition Baja California at the Amaneï Gallery in Salina and Donne di Mare at VivereArteGallery in Wiesloch (Germany).

Giulia Spernazza (Rome, 1979) graduated in Decoration from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in 2008. She collaborates and exhibits permanently at several galleries, including Faber Art Gallery (Rome), Art Gallery (Forlì), AM Studio Art Gallery (Naples), Lazzaro Gallery (Genoa) and SCD Textile & Art (Perugia). She has taken part in numerous awards and collective exhibitions, the most important of which in 2012 included the Adrenalina 2.0 Award at the Macro Testaccio la Pelanda in Rome and the Collective Exhibition L’Intimo mistico dell’Opera at the Museo Centrale Montemartini, also in Rome. In 2013 she was invited to the 64th Michetti Prize La bellezza necessaria, Michetti Museum (Francavilla al Mare), and in 2014, she participated in another edition of the Adrenalina 3.0 Prize at the Macro Testaccio la Pelanda (Rome). Also noteworthy are his participations in 2019 in the group exhibition Ex Voto per arte ricevuta at the Museo Marino Marini (Florence), in the Arteam Cup Prize, Villa Nobel (Sanremo) and in the IV Biennale del libro d’Artista at the Fondazione Monti uniti in Foggia. He has held several duo exhibitions, such as Il coraggio dell’abbandono at the Faber Art Gallery (2015) and Cosimo at the RvB Arts Gallery in Rome (2018). Solo exhibitions include Natura pura (2018) at the Faber Art Gallery; Strati d’animo (2020), curated by Anna Lisa Ghirardi, at MuSa (Museo di Salò) and Memories to preserve, curated by Barbara Pavan and Susanna Cati, at the SCD Textile & Art Gallery (Perugia); Vulnerabile (2021), curated by Cristian Porretta, at the Faber Art Gallery. In 2021 he realised a site-specific installation for the exhibition Terrapromessa, curated by Barbara Pavan, as part of the IlluminAmatrice Festival. In 2022 he participated in the exhibition “The Soft Revolution”, 25WTA World Textile Art, curated by Barbara Pavan, at the Museo del Tessile in Busto Arsizio and exhibited at the solo show “MUTEVOLE”, curated by Barbara Pavan, at F’Art spazio arte contemporanea in L’Aquila. His works have been acquired by the Michetti Museum (Francavilla al Mare) and the Civica Raccolta del Disegno di Salò (MuSa).