A search for roots is a poignant metaphor for Maiolino’s work, which over sixty years has engaged a multitude of media, from painting and drawing, to woodblock printing, photo and video, performance and clay sculpture. In the Nucleo Contemporaneo, the site- specific installation Indo e Vindo (2024) is part of the series Terra Modelada (1993–2024). Her focus on the notion of “modelled earth” connects the construction of form to manual labour and it highlights the natural cycle of the clay – it dehydrates, it becomes petrified, and it returns to being dust. The installation includes video works and soundscapes produced in recent decades in collaboration with photographers and musicians.
This is the first time the work of Anna Maria Maiolino is presented at Biennale Arte, and she is recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
—Sofia Gotti and Amanda Carneiro
