Francesca Romana Pinzari from Rome
Your new daily ritual.
For work, for pleasure and for a form of my restlessness I was often away from home, in transit, travelling, in a state of perennial stateless nomadism.
Having to organize myself psychologically to stay still at home was not easy but I immediately tried to find the positive side of my situation, I was in the countryside when the lock down and here I can take long walks in the garden, I observe the numerous species of birds that have breakfast on my lawn, I collect material for some work, every now and then I cook for myself dishes that I usually only prepared when I had guests, I tidy up my house and with it my thoughts and face my monsters who come to visit me every night since I no longer try to sow them, constantly moving from one place to another.
We are dealing with a new time and space. What are you discovering or rediscovering about yourself?
The first two weeks I got so many video calls, messages and chats that my social life seemed to have even doubled despite total isolation.
The truth is that, like all, I initially clung to a virtual form of placebo, in a sort of hysterical and collective euphoria dictated by social networks, but it did not last long, and now I am more comfortable with the silence that surrounds me and I have entered a more meditative and selective dimension, I only feel who I really want to hear in my daily life.
I have new priorities, new routines and making new discoveries day in and day out, we are almost at the end of phase one (a meeting space where the two artists will find themselves talking and collaborating after more than twenty years) and, during nearly two months of isolation, I went through all the possible emotional stages often dictated by the anxiety of an uncertain future in the shadow of the economic crisis that this pandemic has cast, mostly, on categories like ours.
Now I am looking for a balance and I have learned, now more than ever, the importance of living in the present, I try not to worry about the job I lost, for the limitation of freedom, for the distance of my loved ones and I try to enjoy the privileges that I have been granted here and now like a beautiful sunny day in the garden, have lunch outdoors and listen to my heart.
What you're missing? Your personal experience of "absence" and "lack".
Being completely alone and isolated is sometimes tough and I miss physically interacting with people, a handshake, a pat on the back, a hug, a kiss, they are all small gestures whose importance I underestimated. Technology helps us a lot luckily and to be able to look into each other's eyes and smile at each other, through a video call, it greatly shortens the distances in this period even though it cannot replace real experience.
It will be wonderful to find our affections after this long privation.
To date, what have been the immediate consequences of the spread of Covid-19 on your work for you and what do you think the long-term consequences may be?
With Francesco Paolo del Re and Sabino de Nichilo we have recently inaugurated my personal exhibition House Spina at their Empty House space, with a crowd bath ritual and numerous appointments in the following days, something so apparently normal that it will no longer be possible in the future.
The lock down it fell between our head and neck, having to cancel all future visits and suspending the exhibition indefinitely. Luckily my exhibition will reopen its doors as soon as possible but we will have to limit the appointments to a limited number of people..
In addition to the problem of the visibility and usability of works of art, if not in virtual form, we will have to understand how the whole art market will be reorganized.
How your way of working has changed?
My way of working hasn't changed much, I often pass from periods of overproduction to more silent ones.
My works are all felt, no one is born unless strictly necessary e, when this state of emergency overwhelmed us, ho avuto una fase di spaesamento e di immobilismo. Non volevo realizzare lavori inutili o futili esercizi di stile sull’unico argomento sulla bocca di tutti, i siti e i social erano già pieni di immagini di opere più o meno artistiche e più o meno valide dettate dall’ondata del momento, ho passato quindi molte settimane in ascolto prima che il lavoro tornasse a trovarmi.
Ho realizzato degli autoscatti con il solo aiuto del cellulare e dei bozzetti di sculture con i materiali raccolti in giardino. Non potendo raggiungere il mio studio L29 in centro a Roma, dove ho la maggior parte degli strumenti con cui lavorare, improvviso con quello che ho a disposizione.
Francesca Romana Pinzari nata a Perth (Australia) in 1976. Vive e lavora a Roma.
Lavora con video, installation, performance, scultura e pittura. He has a performative approach to work, his research starts from the body to talk about physical identity, cultural, political and religious.
She takes herself and her own experiences as a starting point, his works are intimate portraits that tell universally known concepts in which viewers can identify with. In his installations, made of horsehair and his own braided hair, the relationship with the body and the workforce becomes immediate.
He often uses the hair of people who decide to be part of his works so that the work of art is a bodily extension of the subject itself. His latest cycle of works focuses on the concepts of nature and alchemy; thorny branches and opalescent crystals merge to give shape to sculptural installations that show themselves to the viewer's eyes, as precious ex voto, they conceal mysterious alchemical rituals. It gives the thorns of weeds and common objects a mystical preciousness.
From 1999 exhibits his works in Italy and abroad, among the main exhibitions are mentioned: in 2017 SuperNatural da Gilda Contemporary Art, Milan, in 2016 Transition of Energy nei Musei di Kajaani, Kokkola and Kotka in Finlandia e alla Kunsthalle di Bratislava, in 2015 Performance Night al Museo City Gallery BWA Bydgoszcz, Poland, all’Hubei Region Art Festival in China, in 2013 in the exhibition In spite of everything, Galleria Oltredimore Galleria + from Bologna, in 2012 Reflectors curated by Achille Bonito Oliva and Luiss Master of Art at Pelanda, MACRO Testaccio Rome, at the Bethanien Museum in Berlin with a 24-hour project room during the exhibition Arty Party, at the traveling exhibition Sing Sweet Songs of Conviction who made a stop in Berlin, Rome, London, New York and Mexico City, in 2011 at the Short Video Show review of Italian video art in Kathmandù in Nepal, in 2010 at the show Expectations all’Invisible Dog gallery New York, at the international performance session at the Yes Foundation in the Netherlands, all’ADD Video art festival of the Province of Rome. He has won numerous awards including: the Special Prize Riccardo Costantini Gallery at Arteam Cup 2016, in 2011 the Young Talents Award of the Municipality of Rome and a residency at the SVA in New York, in 2010 is a finalist for the Celeste Prize and selected for the Expectations Exhibition in New York.
His reference gallery is Gilda Contemporary Art, Milan. www.francescaromanapinzari.com