Herbario Imaginario
"Herbario Imaginario" is an installation in which the sculptural and graphical vocabulary of the artist blends completely. This installation was produced for the exhibition Sous nos yeux (Before Our Eyes) at Macba (Barcelona) as part of the main research site specific project "La Flora Soñadora" for which the attention of Gabriella Ciancimino focuses on Landscape conceived as a combination of men and plants. If in the most recent projects the artist has researched the parallels between the biological resistance of the plant and the historical man, in this project Ciancimino investigates the relationship of creating spontaneously new communities that evolve later in society; so she explores the forms of association and spontaneous cooperation that have showcased the Catalan women at the beginning of the last century and during the Civil War.
Ciancimino reconstructs the past by studying the landscape, with the help of experts in the Botanical Garden of Barcelona, Catalonia's native plants, especially those growing up in the streets and in the port of Barcelona in the same historical period.
In her drawings, the artist connects the botanical iconography of these plants to images captured and processed by the magazine La Dona Catalana - manifesto of the Catholic-nationalist group of women - which extrapolates embroidery patterns with floral motifs, patterns clothes, decorations framing sections of the kitchen, in the same way as regular as Umbral, Tierra y Libertad and the magazine Mujeres Libres, takes portraits and photographs of anarchist women involved in the fight for their inclusion in the political life of the country. Two different ideologies that are similar both in the need of self-organizing in groups, both in the choice of the means adopted for the diffusion of the message.
To this, the artist adds decorations of the Art Nouveau (using vintage tiles) whose forms are inspired by nature and whose name “Liberty” takes a strong political connotation. The analysis of the role of art in social change and the art space as a place for experimentation of freedom continues with this project in which, in order to break the hierarchy between artist and visitor Ciancimino creates the Herbario Imaginario like books that the public can browse through. Reflecting on yesterday's landscape, the artist observes the current one and invites the public to become actively involved in the exhibition space.
Ciancimino reconstructs the past by studying the landscape, with the help of experts in the Botanical Garden of Barcelona, Catalonia's native plants, especially those growing up in the streets and in the port of Barcelona in the same historical period.
In her drawings, the artist connects the botanical iconography of these plants to images captured and processed by the magazine La Dona Catalana - manifesto of the Catholic-nationalist group of women - which extrapolates embroidery patterns with floral motifs, patterns clothes, decorations framing sections of the kitchen, in the same way as regular as Umbral, Tierra y Libertad and the magazine Mujeres Libres, takes portraits and photographs of anarchist women involved in the fight for their inclusion in the political life of the country. Two different ideologies that are similar both in the need of self-organizing in groups, both in the choice of the means adopted for the diffusion of the message.
To this, the artist adds decorations of the Art Nouveau (using vintage tiles) whose forms are inspired by nature and whose name “Liberty” takes a strong political connotation. The analysis of the role of art in social change and the art space as a place for experimentation of freedom continues with this project in which, in order to break the hierarchy between artist and visitor Ciancimino creates the Herbario Imaginario like books that the public can browse through. Reflecting on yesterday's landscape, the artist observes the current one and invites the public to become actively involved in the exhibition space.
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