Biography
Fatima Messana is an Italian artist of Russian origin, born in Severodvinsk (Arkhangelsk Oblast - Russia). She
trained as a sculptor and painter at the ancient Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Tuscany. In 2013, she won
the prestigious National Arts Award - Sculpture section. In 2015, she was invited to participate in the 56th
International Art Exhibition - Venice Biennial. Her works have been exhibited in Italy and abroad, and are
included in such permanent collections as the MacS - Museum of Contemporary Art in Sicily - Catania. She
currently lives and works in Florence, Tuscany.
“FATIMA MESSANA : ORACLE OF THE ABYSS.”
by Maria Rita Montagnani
“When bitter Hecate
descends
You cannot flee
her loathsome wing
Like a caress
she strikes a
mortal blow.
You hide in a world
that does not yet exist.
All that is most obscure
is akin to you”.
Milo Rossi
The sculptures of Fatima Messana bring into play two opposing and contrasting forces – thought and emotion – which, within their dialectic and creative contrast, become complementary and necessary to one another. In fact, thought builds conjecture that is often demolished by emotion, just as feelings create new ways and worlds that reason then investigates, making them intelligible, developing the dimension of awareness.
Fatima Messana seems to be burdened with the weight and mass of an archaic heritage, centuries old, that the young artist manages to combine with her expert knowledge of modern materials and techniques to forge work that is contemporary and immediate. But today, the present is and remains a territory that is more uncertain and arduous than ever, a no-man’s land, a hazardous terrain swept by thousand-year old gales and storms but that could still emerge as a fertile land for new visions and unconventional existential perspectives.
In these works there is something that is not openly expressed, but only hinted and barely palpable; something sibylline, almost prescient,… there is a sensation of danger, an imminent or future threat, that casts a long shadow of strange foreboding before and within us like a sense of uneasy presentiment or vague premonition. And this presentiment is the place of our conscious inconsistency, the root of fearful unknown territories teeming with shadows, doubts, queries and terrifying bottomless voids that open up among rock-hard human certainties. In this state of suspension, everything is on the brink of toppling from its solid immobility, as if an invisible mind or hand places each thing in precarious equilibrium on the sense of its own enigma.
If, for the artist, sculpture signifies giving a familiar face to what is most foreign to us, for Fatima Messana it represents tearing away the customary face of the things that seem recognisable to return them to their obscure origins… finally flinging them magnificently into the abyss of the void and the unknown”.
by Maria Rita Montagnani
Art critic/ independent curator
"FATIMA MESSANA - X PNA"
by Alfonso Panzetta
“Messana’s works often have a violent impact on the observer and provoke deep thought about respect and the
tragic immorality of our day and age.
Fatima Messana is young but she has already shown in national collective exhibitions in cities such as Florence,
Milan, Venice, Trieste, Turin, Reggio Emilia, Catania. Her works has also been shown internationally in London,
Istanbul, Cordoba, Madrid, Helsinki, Zurich, Seville…
She has been greatly praised for strongly conceptual expressive ability and her skilful sculting, which creates a
powerful visual impact. She used different types of materials ranging from synthetic materials to fabric and from
wood to organic materials of human origin. […]
Fatima’s works are only apparently similar to the provocative works of Maurizio Cattelan. The direct contrast of
her works with the permanent of 19th – 20th Century sculptures on show at the museum, rivitalizes what has
been one of Art’s most important functions since the last two decades of the 19th Century – the protest fiercely
against a society which seems to have lost its foundations of respect and harmony.”
by Alfonso Panzetta
(Director of Museum “Il Cassero for the Italian sculpture of 19th and 20th Centuries”, Montevarchi – IT)
