Emma Ciceri • Madre Di Monumenti
The project Madre Di Monumenti stems from Emma Ciceri’s interest in the behavioral aspects of crowds. The relationship between the individual and the mass has been the focal point of several videos filmed by the artist amid various types of demonstrations—youth, sports, political.
Developed alongside some of these works, Madre Di Monumenti consists of thirty images of a single public demonstration, found online and “erased” by hand. Eight of these images are presented in the exhibition, printed in large format (Madre Di Monumenti, 2013). By removing parts of the image, Emma Ciceri aimed to highlight the physicality of the crowd gathering around a focal point: the North Star is a monument that disappears beneath the embrace of the crowd, which itself becomes a monument.
The erasures applied to the images serve precisely to mark this urban dynamic. The context is removed so that it is no longer recognizable, allowing the behavior of the crowd’s body to emerge, shaped into a statue. The Cartesian coordinates of space are dismantled and reshaped by this body, which fluidly configures itself according to certain temporary social relations.
In the light box (On, 2013), the embrace is that of the individual who, in a fleeting moment of affection, lights up what is right before the eyes but no longer seen. Unlike Charlie Chaplin, who adopted a statue to nap in its lap, the new climber of urban memorials seems not only to give it a new function but to reaffirm the values of subjectivity and transience.
Madre Di Monumenti originated within the framework of the project and workshop Mandato a memoria, led by the artist Rossella Biscotti in 2011/2012 in Bergamo, conceived and curated by Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti (Bergamo) and ISREC – Istituto bergamasco per la storia della Resistenza e dell’età contemporanea.
Now, exhibited at Careof, Madre Di Monumenti is presented here organically for the first time; it will subsequently be shown at Università Bocconi in Milan.
With the contribution of Comune di Milano and Fondazione Cariplo.
Thanks to nctm e l’arte and Galleria Riccardo Crespi.
Bio
Emma Ciceri (Bergamo, 1983) lives and works in Bergamo. After graduating from Accademia di Belle Arti di Bergamo, she specialized at Accademia di Brera. In 2005 she won first prize at Dalle Accademie a Volpedo. Since 2012 she has been assistant to Adrian Paci at NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti di Milano, and was his assistant in 2007 and 2008 at Università IUAV di Venezia.
Selection of solo exhibitions: 2013: Anatomia - Folle, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano. 2012: Zone, CHAN, Genova. 2010: Diamoci da fare, Galleria Placentia Arte, Piacenza. 2006: In ordinario moto, ARS, Bergamo; Feel, Accademia Carrara-Museo, Bergamo.
Selection of group exhibitions: 2013: Ogni cosa a suo tempo, Palazzo della Misericordia, Bergamo. 2012: Multimeridijan ’12, Time stood still, Pula, Cagliari; Mapping, Centro per la creatività di Tito, Potenza. 2011: Giorni felici, Casa Testori, Novate Milanese; Again and Again, Galleria La Veronica, Modica. 2010: Il raccolto d’autunno continua ad essere abbondante, Careof e Viafarini, Milano.
Alessandra Pioselli, art critic and curator, has been director of Accademia Carrara di belle arti di Bergamo since 2010, where she teaches Contemporary Art History. She also teaches at the Master in Management for Cultural Heritage of Sole24Ore. She collaborates with Artforum. In 2011 she co-curated the exhibition Fuori! Arte e spazio urbano 1968/1976 at Museo del Novecento, Milano.
