Rossella Biscotti
For six months Italian artist Rossella Biscotti (1978) led a workshop in which participants shared and recorded their dreams. The participants were not any participants, they were the inhabitants of the women’s prison on the island of Giudecca in Venice. This workshop resulted in a collection of intimate stories titled I dreamt that you changed into a cat, gatto…ha ha ha(2013). Presented as a sound installation at the Venice Biennale in 2013, the project constitutes the starting point for Biscotti’s 2014 exhibition at Wiels, Brussels.
Biscotti’s work is composed of different media, ranging from films to installations and sculpture. In her practice she explores and reconstructs hidden experiences of the recent past, which are often set against the backdrop of state institutions. She uses the method of montage in order to reveal individual histories and their relation to society. When processing and transforming the personal encounters and stories into new sculptures, installations and narratives, the place of research often takes part in the work. Biscotti traveled to Tsjernobyl, the nuclear power station of Ignalina in Lithuania, the former heavily guarded courthouse in Foro Italico in Rome, and the prison island Santo Stefano. In the work Il Processo (The Trial)(2010-2012) for example, Biscotti used concrete sculptures made from casts of the architectural features of the courthouse in Rome, taken before their demolition (the former courthouse has been transformed into a sports museum).
Elaborating on the installation in Venice, the exhibition at Wiels tried to reflect on the flexibility of history and spaces, and the ability to transform and translate a work into another, by moving from a specific context to a more collective voice. What will change? Is it possible to transform an existing work into a new one when the context is completely different? Are the issues that were addressed the same in the new installation? There is only one way to find out.
Rossella Biscotti
Wiels, Brussels
28 May-17 August 2014