Margherita Manzelli Obe

dimensione ambiente/dimensions variable

Since the start of her career in the 1990s, Margherita Manzelli has devoted herself to actions/performances, which often accompany the opening of her painting exhibitions. At the center of her work is the body as an artistic medium; explored both through performance and in figurative painting, it is peopled by female archetypes. The title "Obe" alludes in fact to the various phenomena which came to be known, at the beginning of the 1970s, as OBE (Out-of-Body Experience). In the exhibition space, a walled environment observable through a wide aperture, the artist takes on the appearance of an ant and moves in its typical habitat. A slide and some sculptural objects are also arranged in the space. With the sculpture-costume, made by skilled craftspeople at the Cinecittà film studios, the identification with and the verisimilitude of the ant gestures seem to suggest the idea of a Kafkian metamorphosis. The action/performance was preceded by a set of seven preparatory drawings, which are also in the MAXXI collection.

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C. D’Orazio (ed.), Benvenuti!, text by L. Cherubini, Rome 2000, p. 20; S. Pinto, A. Mattirolo (eds.), Il Premio per la giovane arte italiana del Centro nazionale per le arti contemporane, 2000. Migrazioni e Multiculturalità, exhibition catalogue (Rome, Centro nazionale per le arti contemporanee), Turin 2001, pp. 32-33; 55; P. Colombo (ed.), Margherita Manzelli: XXV Bienal de São Paulo, exhibition leaflet (São Paulo, 25th São Paulo Biennial), Rome 2002; P. Colombo, R. Thomas (eds.), Margherita Manzelli, exhibition catalogue (Rome, MAXXI-Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo; Dublin, IMMA-Irish Museum of Modern Art), Milan 2004.

Foto Patrizia Tocci

Purchased from Studio Guenzani, Milan

Installation