15/9/2004
Donatella Spaziani
AP4-ART, Geneve
The body of Donatella occupies a space in a residence or a hotel room. Her face remains unnoticed in line with the anonymity of the room. This self portrait scenario hinders the reading of the artist's physiological or psychological state. Although suggesting an act, the photographs are deprived of any narrative power, being the outcome of an exercise in production within the limits of a given space and a fragment in time.
The body of Donatella Spaziani occupies a space in a residence or a hotel room. Her face remains unnoticed in line with the anonymity of the room. This self portrait scenario hinders the reading of the artist's physiological or psychological state. Although suggesting an act, the photographs are deprived of any narrative power, being the outcome of an exercise in production within the limits of a given space and a fragment in time. This space lies between the room walls and the few seconds allowed to the artist to adjust before the camera clicks. As with Bruce Naumann constraining himself to an artificial walk in his studio, and Vito Acconci, testing the limits of his own organs in the presence of a continuous action, Donatella imposes on her body a conditional constraint. Sometimes appearing as an actress, sometimes as a victim, she opens an organic dialogue with the space she is surrounded by. Her body bends down, twists and accommodates itself in order to interact with the elements taking over the space chosen for their essential beauty: the mattress, the sheets, some drawings or a heap of fruits.
Once she has determined meticulously the framing according to her esthetical sensitivity, the artist goes across the lens to install herself within the visual field. A tension is triggered between the formal rigor of the composition and the organic posture of the body, between the parameters of the mechanical machine and the freedom of the biological body. This tension seems to be released when the lens opens itself to the city of San Paolo, against the setting of the day and the night, piercing the walls of the room and disclosing a skyline of electric lights. Then the anatomical body of the artist creates a space for her moving profile and specific positions, which are in line with the country's culture, its dances and fighting forms.
Donatella Spaziani is a contemporary artist who likes to exploit all the artistic techniques, from photography to drawing, from installation to embroidery. Her work however is built around situations of confinement and containment, which favor conditions that are persistently difficult for creation: since several years, she pursues her work in hotel rooms that she inhabits during the time of her stay or journey, finding herself in a foreign but always similar place. Admirably, artistic freedom articulates itself within these bounds.
(Boris Magrini, translated by A. Piotti)
Immagine: Donatella Spaziani, foto, San Polo, Brasile, 2004
Opening 16th september 2004 h 18 - 21
AP4-ART Rue du Tir 1 CH-1204 Geneva
me-ve 14h-19h - sa 11h-17h