Lisa Batacchi: Sand Storms in Medio Mundi - Imaginatio Vera

Name: Lisa Batacchi: Sand Storms in Medio Mundi - Imaginatio Vera
Start: 2024-09-26T17:00:00+02:00
Location: Via dei Pucci, 4, 50122 Florence, Italy

Schedule

Thu Sep 26 2024 at 05:00 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

Via dei Pucci, 4, 50122 Florence, Italy | Florence, TO

Lisa Batacchi
Sand Storms in Medio Mundi - Imaginatio Vera
Curated by Špela Zidar
LdM Gallery, Via de’Pucci 4 - Firenze
Opening September 26th, 5pm-8pm
Duration September 26th to October 17th
Opening hours Mon, Tue, Fri 4-7pm, Wed, Thu 10am-2pm
In today’s fragile existence threatened by humanitarian, ecological and health crises , we often hear the word “solution”: we have to find a solution, to everything, to all of our problems, a solution that will rescue us and adjust once for all the other factors, magically and forever…
The balanced relationship between man and nature, which in the past was protected by ancient cults that considered every living creature a spiritual entity, has been missing since the first time that men began to consider themselves intellectual entities. The development of civilizations is causing humans to increasingly isolate themselves and lose their connection with the tapestry of the cosmic narrative.
So, how do we reconnect with its loosened threads?"
Lisa Batacchi's three tapestries contemplate this possibility of reconnection with a spiritual and primordial dimension. The intersections of raw silk, raffia and ramie threads hand-woven by the artist speak of patience, growth, learning and meditation between one weaving and another.
The artist, who is a self-taught self-thought tapestry weaver, started to learn this technique during her residency in Azerbaijan where she was invited by the Goethe Institut Baku to discover local culture. On that occasion the first two tapestries from the series Sand Storms in Medio Mundi, Meditating on Earth and The World is so far Reversed were projected to be then exposed in Venice in the exhibition SILK. This exhibition, curated by Alfons Hug, celebrating the silk road was presented at GAD Giudecca Art District during the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. The production of a tapestry requires a skilled artisan, and Batacchi had help from local women and art conservators to help her in her initial steps.
The time and patience the work requires have brought the artist to meditate over time, change, symbolism and creation. The waves of a sand storm that liberate the spirit. It was the desert landscape with its sand storms, and the writings of Khalil Gibran, that were the inspiration for the tapestries. To evoke desert landscapes, Batacchi began to work with natural earth and sand colors, trying to create forms that, like waves of the sand storm, cover and uncover and create space for new views and creativity.
Furthermore, in Azerbaijan Batacchi witnessed the rite at Atashgah Fire Temple and got in touch with the pre-islamic tradition of Zoroastrianism, a cult based on dualism between good and evil, positive and negative, masculine and feminine, that saw spirit in every living thing. And therefore the artist follows the spirit as file rouge, as the connection that will lead her from natural to supernatural.
Her works resemble the medallions in the centre of Persian prayer carpets, a decoration made of concentric forms that served as a portal to reach Medio Mundi, a world higher than ours but not yet divine, as divine is something we as mortals cannot reach. Human beings are allowed into this middle world to be closer to the creator.
Therefore, the tapestries created after a long process of travel, study and research represent three phases of the development of the spirit.
The first piece created, Meditating on Earth, is woven in beige colors and introduces the concept of earth. Mother Earth, a feminine energy that governs nature. The artist created brocaded triangles, the vortices, or waves of a sand storm. One facing up to the North and one down South, they represent the eternal dance between good and evil, positive and negative, typical dichotomy for Zoroastrian religion, as if the opposite poles were ready to create movement that allows the energy to flow, but needed a final push.
The World Is so far Reversed draws our gaze to the centre, representing firm, masculine energy referring to the state of the world today, being on the edge of big changes.
The final work in the series, The Spirit Will Return to Us, which the artist executed herself in a time span of almost a year, has a centre, a northern star, the first tool of orientation for human beings., From the star in the middle, four tentacles extend, dividing the surface into four sections: two darker, representing terrain, and two lighter, representing the celestial. The four tentacles are forming an ancient symbol that represents the vital energy of the sun. The tentacles trigger the circular movement of vital energy.
Meditating on Earth and The World Is so far Reversed were presented as a site specific installation entitled Shamal Sand Stone Stars during the Dubai Design Week – Design With Impactand curated by Federica Forti. The installation was inspired by the ancient ruins of Caucasian architecture through which the warm, arid wind Shamal blows. The watercolor drawing, the color photograph and a textile sample in the exhibition remind us of this installation and of the ability of our work and creativity to create spaces of protection and meditation.
Creation is a divine power Being able to create beautiful things has brought men to challenge gods.
The tapestries manually executed by Batacchi on a vertical loom show us the creation of color shades, shapes that represent the earth, the sky, ancient symbols such as the sun, the stars, the vortices of sand storms that are intertwined in the narration made up of thousands of yarns. The artist begins to create on one part of the tapestry and then resumes work on the other side, always keeping in mind the overall picture, the preparatory drawing, whose appearance she wants to reproduce. To create we need space and to have space sometimes we need to destroy, overturn, discover or reveal like the waves of the sandstorms do. And when the storm calms down, when the work is done we can see the harmony that arises from the chaos – we have arrived at the Imaginatio Vera, interworld between the sensible and the intelligible, a place that existed in ancient Persia and which disappearance led to the catastrophe of the spirit. Perhaps being able to enter the Imaginatio Vera again means discovering the possible space from which to begin to change the destiny of the world?