THE FIELD: ARTE CONTEMPORANEA TRA LA TERRA E L’UOMO
Artists Susanna Cati and Ilana Efrati
Curated by Barbara Pavan
Aug. 17, 2023, 5-9 p.m.
Tenuta Biologica Casarciccia, Todi (PG)
ilanaefrati@gmail.com
Ingresso gratuito su prenotazione
With The Field, Thursday, August 17, 2023 (5-9 p.m.), Susanna Cati and Ilana Efrati bring artistic discussion directly into dialogue with the themes of their research. This is a hybrid project that allows both artists to immerse themselves in the natural environment that inspired and at the same time nourished the reflection that the viewer finds returned here in the two different installations that share the space of the field and that cannot be separated from it except by depriving themselves of an external element that is integral to the meaning of the work and its reading. Although, in fact, Cati’s work starts from the human dimension in the analysis and reworking of new cultural, productive, and economic relational dynamics with the land and Efrati’s, on the contrary, closer to Land Art, originates precisely from the land in order to develop a different gaze in the identification of those same alternative modes of approach, both lead the visitor through an experience that is made of nature and time, before art.
In fact, the enjoyment of this intervention is contingent on the dialogue we are able to establish with the place, on our ability to listen to the elements-the wind, the cicadas, the sound of the earth-and to feel part of the landscape around us-the warmth of the sun, the resilience of tall grass, the rustic fragility of a wildflower-and only then to rely on our gaze.
“The Guardians of the Field,” Susanna Cati’s installation, evokes the scarecrows that have long inhabited the fields. Over the centuries, farmers have made extensive use of them as good omens against evil spirits as well as deterrents for ravenous birds. Monoculture, intensive cultivation and the industrialization of the countryside led to their slow disappearance. The artist reinserts them into the rural landscape, reiterating the need to build a more harmonious relationship between man and the land. For her installation, “Fragile,” Ilana Efrati instead used beekeeping frames, creating a movable and delicate work in which each frame is balanced by the other in an interdependence that makes them mutually necessary to achieve and maintain a stable balance. Set up in the field, the work creates a mosaic of frames in which delicate textures of plants and flowers that grow wild here are embedded and guarded. The artist highlights how living beings – plants, animals, human beings – are in deep and inescapable connection with the earth emphasizing the urgency of finding new relational systems with nature.
Susanna Cati (Rieti 1961) graduated from the Academy of Costume and Fashion in Rome and was a preparator of scenic objects for the Teatro Argentina in Rome and later a stylistic assistant for important Italian and French companies. After delving into all textile techniques, she devoted herself for a long time to the design and creation of carpets and tapestries, one-of-a-kind pieces and design collections in collaboration with studios and companies in the sector. For the past few years her research has also been oriented in the field of Fiber Art, a path that has led her to exhibit in group and solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad (Switzerland, Austria, Russia, United Kingdom, Ukraine), in private galleries and institutional spaces. An experimentation always in fieri has led her to measure herself also with the dimension of textile jewelry and with educational and social projects.
Ilana Efrati (Tel Aviv, 1957) is a multi-media artist and designer. In 1981 she founded her independent fashion atelier, a sustainable ‘slow fashion’ project. Through women’s fashion design she explored aspects of personal and local identity inspired by the architecture of Bauhaus’ ‘white city’ in Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast. She founded an organic farm where she also engages in artistic and experimental research. She has exhibited her works in international galleries and museums including Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Islam Museum Jerusalem, Hertzelyia Museum of Contemporary Art, Periscope Gallery Tel Aviv, EXPO Milan, Corciano Festival, SCD Studio Perugia.
The Field is a site-specific project curated by Barbara Pavan, visitable August 17, 2023 at the Casarciccia Organic Estate in Todi (PG). Free admission. Guided tour with artists and curator at 7 p.m. Participation subject to reservation to e-mail ilanaefrati@gmail.com
