BOLOGNA ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS – LAURA GUERINONI

Notwithstanding the everlasting feeling of absence which characterises the works of Laura Guerinoni, this sensation is mitigated by memory. An individual and collective memory which overcomes the emptiness conveyed by Guerinoni’s work, overwhelming the mere shape while giving it a body.
The reference to a natural world - undoubtedly familiar - is clear in the artist’s recent works: cocoons, chalky marine sediments, protective exoskeleton frames and layers of abandoned sheaths. The artist displays inanimate, motionless and unmanned images. However, these are strongly bound to the idea of nourishment and birth, hence relating to life once again.
The installation created for the island of San Servolo, the most recent one, witnesses the artist’s insight and interest in nature and its processes, eventually analysed and internalized in her artistic work. Observation is combined with a careful consideration regarding the different and evocative raw materials used by the artist. Following her creative instinct, Laura Guerinoni chooses fabrics, ropes but also plaster, wood and paper. In order to grasp its use in relation to the project, every different material is touched, smelled, analysed and interpreted. The flowing of time and manual art characterize Laura Guerinoni’s work: her manipulation of materials , through continuous and patient hand labour, recalls the way nature itself operates. In the installation for San Servolo, raw rope is the main material, patiently crafted and crocheted to tame its poor elasticity.
This patient work forges an unfinished piece of art whose limits and borders can be further expanded by the artist, thus endlessly multiplying the original unit. 

Text by Stefania Marconi, Marta Papini