In What if all is from 2018, through tapestry you recreated the atmosphere of a cave in Patagonia, and although I could only view it through photographs, it was a masterpiece. What sort of research and preparation went into putting together this piece?I went to the cave first, I physically visited the cave, travelled with my partner and my son to Santa Cruz and documented it, and experienced arriving at this faraway place in Patagonia, where the tribes used to gather for some reason that has not yet been resolved. To clarify, the cave is called La cueva de las Manos, the cave of the hands, and its rock paintings date from over 10,000 years B.C.
Then I went into the cave with my mind. My dad was also going through his first stages of ALS, and I was pregnant with my daughter, and all of this felt like a huge cave within me that had to be revealed in some way. That is how What if all is was born. I was lucky to have been proposed by the exhibition curator Danilo Eccher to make this challenging work, at the beginning we thought it was impossible, but we still embarked on this yes indeed really challenging project.
This work is very large and complicated since it’s a cave we constructed within Bramante’s steps at the Chiostro in Rome, it has different landscapes, different textures, colours, and it tells a story about memory, rock paintings, and disappearing tribes from Patagonia. In many ways this work challenged my own limits from my work before, and I did visit it again months after the opening, and it felt strong.
Could you tell us about additional challenges you plan for yourself, and things you would like to work on in the future?I am very triggered by injustice, by the way I see how we relate with nature. I have this secret aim to change the world, or a reality. I make art in response to a calling, the natural world, the elements that share messages. I always want to shed light on a situation.
Today, I am embarking into a new project which also fascinates me. I am now in Crete where I came to learn how to weave using the traditional Greek weaving techniques.
Here in Crete, I stayed at the Agia Irini convent in Rethymnon, where the nuns welcomed me to work together with them and learn how to use a traditional loom. This new voyage is truly fascinating in so many ways, since it means a lot for my family history, for the karma carried by my grandparents having to leave Isparta in 1922 during the war, and now me coming back to follow my grandmother Elpiniki’s beloved craft.
She carried the loom in the boat to go from Greece to Argentina. I am now coming from Argentina into Greece, 100 years later, to embrace the tradition that got lost in that journey. This new exploration is for me my whole future.
Also I would like to visit and know Japan. I have never been, and I was working on a superb project to present there in 2020, that unfortunately was cancelled by the commissioner due to COVID-19, and I would still love to come and see Japan and its unique nature and flowers. I don’t know why but Japan kept appearing on the radar for some years but it never has finished consolidating, it is truly mysterious like this visit is always there but never happens.